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Show if PRACTICAL STATESMANSHIP. H We have it by cable that ex-Premier Balfour H I thinks mining in South Africa is dependent upon Hj the importance of coolie labor from China. We Hj had thought that Mr. Balfour was a broader HjJ man, a shrewder man. The South African mines H; are deep mines, and as an underground worker H the Chinaman is practically worthless. But if it H: were not so, the expression from the ex-premier H would smack of a selfishness well nigh incom-H incom-H prehensible. There is a labor congestion in Eng-Hj Eng-Hj land, there are thousands of young men in Ireland H. working for a pittance when able to work at all. H"! England could send 100,000 competent young men Hi from Cornwall and Cork, and they would not be H ; missed from the hosts who are longing for a new Hi field where their energies would find something Hjj to expand their forces at a profit. HI England has a thousand' idle ships that at H ! moderate rates would be glad to carry workers to H; South Africa. Once there, the owners of the H mines would be certain of competent and efficient Hi workers. Once there England would be certain HI that in the event of a black uprising she would Hf have on the ground a force that, with a month's H training, could whip all the negroes in South H Africa. The miners would send letters home tell-H, tell-H, ing of the country, what they were able to save, HI would send money to pay the way out for younger HI brothers, and by the time the great road from Hi .Cairo to the Cape was finished it would become a Hi habit in Great Britain for her young men to seek H ! Africa as a field to make homes in. H Wages would become more generous in Eng. H r land and food cheaper. It seems to us the plain-H plain-H est proposition ever presented to a real statesman H who, if really a statesman, must be thinking much HI more of his fellow countrymen and their wants, HI than of himself. The common laborers of Great H Britain are so plenty and the work so scarce that H '7 there is a demoralization there which threatens H i to sap the very manhood of the counry. H : Cecil Rhoades undersood this. It was because H of this that he planned to inject a new life into H English universities. The change is more needed Hr among the poor than among the scions of the Hh rich. It is a simple problem, too. What is H needed is to kindle hope in hearts out of which H hope has died. We see but one way. Give enough H of them a new field in which to work, so that HI work will be plenty for those who remain at Hf, homey The field is ample. In the mines of South HjFi Africa, in the valleys that skirt the route of the H'i great African railroad, there is plenty of room. H There is a wilderness to subdue, fields to smoothe H; and cultivate, roads, bridges and cities to build H. an empire to create. Every emigrant that Great H , Britain sends there adds to the empire's defense H in the southland without depleting her strength Hf at home. She can afford to lend government help HI- to the movement for two or three years; after that Hp nojhelp would be needed, for the people would Hr catch the spirit and act for themselves. Why, it Hk is so simple a question that a Mormon mission-Hp mission-Hp ary could point out to Mr. Balfour what should Hf be done. |