The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-09-06

men in it had the same end in view, they were
working toward that end with different mo-
tiYes. There were a great many men in our
rebellion who fought for the dollars they re-
ceived for fghtingt as they. to-day fight for
pensions, and there were a great many con-
tractors who made money out of the war, but
no one would argue from all that that ali the
other men in it held low motives, or that the
cause for which they fought was not a good
one. There is an element in the affair of the
Transvaal which cen only be described as the
unknown quantity, and that element is, of
course, Cecil Rhodes. He would have been
benefited by reform in the laws of the Trans
vaal as is well understood, but so would
everybody else who was interested in the
mines there, and who was hampered by the
restrictions, taxes and monopolies, which
added burden OF expense to every ton of ore
that was taken GU TOT the ground.
Cecil Rhodes as one OF those most largely
interested, was proper tionately interested in
seeing labor made cheaper, transportation
made easier and those men in Office who were
interested in the mines instead of the Beers,
who were not. AS matter of fact Cecil
Rhodes interest in Consolidated Gold Fields
was but one-ffteenth of its profits, so 1t was
not money but the development of his cher
ished plan for a com binaion OF all the South
African republics that moved him. What he
hoped from the revolution we can imagine.
That he would have looked at change OF
government in the Transvaal as an other step
toward the unlfication OF all the republics in
South Africa is most probable, and he knew
that to such union the Beers of themselves
would never consent. But that the whole
revolution was plot to seize the Transvaal
for the sake of its gold mines and for the az
grandizement of Great Britain and that the
men of the reform committee who risked their
| lives in the cause of the revolution were the
| puppets OF Rhodes, moving at his bidding, is
absurd.
There were other big men in the revolution
business besides Cecil Rhodes, and it was well
agreed among these men that no flag but that
OF the republic was TO be raised when the revo-
luton began, ana whatever the Englishmen
may have wished, the Germans the Afrikan-
ders and those of the Beers who were in SYM
patny win the revolution, and the Ame-l-
cans, which latter composed one-sixth of the
reform committee, formed a majority which
certainly had no intention of turning the
country over 10 the Queen, and as a matter OF
history the Transvaal flag hoated over the
Goldhelds building, which was the headquar-
tiers OF the revolutionists, from first to last.
personally, l am convinced, after having
talked with the men who were at the head OF
this revolution, that the greater part of them
as honestly believed that they were acting for
the best good OF the country in trying TO over
throw the Boer Government as did the revolu-
tionIsts of 1776 in our country, or as DO the
rebels in Cuba at the present day.
Six weeks before the jameson raid the reform
committee had mapped out their plan of
action. They had spent $40, 900 ($350,000) in
provisions, which they expected would out asst
a two months siege; they had arranged that
the water supply OF johannesburg could not be
cut on from the outside and they had ordered
rifles and Maxim guns and were smuggling
them across the border. This was the most
difficult part of the work for guns are as
strictly prohibited to Uitlanders in Johannes
burg are public meetings, and every one
who owned a rife was marked man in con-
sequence. 1t is well to remember this, for it is
not as though johannesburg in that respect
resembied some OF our own mining towns,
where weapons are sometimes as plentiful as
pickaXes and where a cal 10 arms would
merely mean the reading of the payrolls at the
shafts of the different mines.
II was while these guns for defense were
slowly coming in that Dr.. Jameson, the adj
ministrator of the Chartered Company's af-
fairs, was told of the movement of tue reYo-
lutionists and asked by them If he would, in
case they needed his assistance, come across
the border TO the aid of his fellow countrymen,
bringing with him his mounted police and
1900 extra guns, which they would send him
to Matching. The gentlemen Of the reform
committee were DR.. Jamesoll'S personal friends.
They had trekked with him all over the sur
rounding country, hunting, prospecting and
exploring; they knew he was man ready for
adventure, and that in the easy spirit of the
unsettled country about them it y 3uld not
be difficult for him to gather around him a
body OF men ready to go wherever he led.
Jameson gave his consent readily and agreed
to the conditions under which he was to enter
the Transvaal. These conditions were exceed
ingly important and exec edingly explicit. He
was TO move only when the reformers gave the
signal for him to do SO, and they, as the CHIEF
movers in the plot and the men having most
at stake, were TO be allowed to Judge when
that time had come, or if ii should come g ell
that when he came he must bring 1900 men
with him and the extra 1900 guns on which
J0ey COuuleu his ne pTOullSeu 10 40 q no
asked in return that they should write him a
letter inviting him to cross the border which
he could show later as his justification for his
action.
Davis then reviews the stirring incident
OF the raid and it's failure, the voluntary
return of John Hays Hammond to jail
after being released by reason of i'll health
and concludes in these words:
| And when people accuse the reform commit
| tee of cowardice and OF being men who failed
| TO keep their word they should put before
| them these two pictures, the one OF the Eng
lishmsn Jameson), surrounded by his SOC
| troopers, saying, Those men at Johannes
burg are tunking it. I am going TO stir them
| up and three days later raising the white
flag, and the other of the American Ham
| mond), when still shaking with fever returned
| to serve out his sentence and standing alone a
midnight knocking for admittance at the gate
of the Pretoria jail.
| Tn n6QQH NIT TIE WTTT