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Show WHERE IS THE SYMPATHY NOW? "When President Kruger ordered the advance upon Natal and began the conquest of South Africa there was a chorus of approval in the United States all along a certain line. With every Boer victory there were noisy exultations. It was clear from the beginning that mostly all this. came from one of two causes. It was not love for the Boers, but rather with one class it was hatred of England, with the other a desire to make capital cap-ital against the Republican party, for, it being evident from the first that the Government could make no stand against the Boers, all our history being' against such a procedure, it was thought good politics for the opposition to stimulate sorrow sor-row for an oppressed people and pander to the prejudices of the rabble. This was hard upon the Boer people, for it gave them encouragement to continue a hopeless fight. We say hopeless, because, be-cause, it was clear from the first that England must conquer In that fight or lose her prestige among the nations of the earth and become the target of every petty power that chose to assail her. It was clear, moreover, that it was best for the world for Great Britain to win. She possessed pos-sessed northern and southern Africa; she was pushing railroads from either terminus which she intended should meet in midcontinent, her plans held in their scope the redemption of a vast country that was lost in immemorial barbarism and within which, every day, cruelties were be- ing perpetrated that in atrocity can not be described. de-scribed. The long war was fought through. The Boers showed their devotion by exhausting all their substance and by a display of valor, skill and endurance, en-durance, which drew to them the admiration of mankind. When the settlement came the chief officers contracted for a lasting peace and told their people peo-ple that they were now bound to be as earnest in the restoration of their country as they had passed away, that thpnceforth they were citizens of the British empire and that it was their duty to be as good citizens under the new government as they were under the old. But their land had been swept by a cyclone of war and little was left upon which to begin laying lay-ing anew the foundations of a State. So a delegation dele-gation of those distinguished officers sailed first to England, then crossed over to the continent and for several months have been trying to raise means, through which their people can begin to rebuild their shattered homes and to draw around them the necessaries of life. They now report that their mission has failed. It is a shame if it has. The British Parliament should have fixed it. A generous consideration of the terms on which they laid down their arms would make such help imperative. But no matter about that; England is notoriously severe in the handling of people that have dared to war upon her, but what of our sympathises in this country? Where are the men who made all the air ring with sympathetic sympa-thetic appeals for the Boer? Where are the men who abused our Government because it could not interfere in favor of the Boers, even if it in-vol in-vol ed us in war with Great Briatin? Where are the demagogues that through voice and press made the Boer cause their cause and denounced our Government and charged that it was in an alliance with Great Britain in her efforts to subjugate sub-jugate a brave, free people? The Sulsers, tho Lints the Davis's? Are they subscribing to the Boer fund? Are they urging a national loan t the Boers? We believe that could a national subscription be started for the Boers it would meet with a hearty, generous response. We believe, too, that not one dollar would be found submitted by the demagogues and hypocrites hypo-crites who two years ago were making the welkin ring with their appeals for help for a brave people peo-ple whose only crime was that they were strug gling to be free. |