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

they were paid to do. Land, which had been
! sold to the Uitlanders for mining purposes was
| not recorded by the BOer Government as pri-
! va te property. This being the case the Polish
! Jews, who handled most OF the LIQUOR sold on
the Rand, were able TO place their canteens
where they pleased. ct the very mouth of a
| SHAFT, II they wished TO do so, with the result
( that the Kathr boys were constantly drinking,
and in consequence constantly falling into
open shafts, lighting among themselves and
suffering from the most serious attacks.
Another monopoly under the protection of
the Government was the sale of dynamite,
which gave one man the exclusive right to
manufacture that most essen tial part of q
miners supplies on condition that he would
manufacture it in the Transvaal. He did not
manufacture itin the Transvaal, but bought q
low quality OF dynamite in Germany, changed
the wrappers in his sO-called mandatory and
sold the stuff at any price he pleased. 1t is
said that the accidental explosions which
have occurred in the Rand are largely due to
the low quality of this dynamite, which was
the only brand the miners were allowed to use.
The Governments method of protecting the
Netherlands Railroad is also interesting. The
coal deposits run parallel with the gold mines,
but at a distance of ten to thirty miles. Coal
could be bought at the mouth OF the shaft by
any one for rs Cd, but the Netherlands Rail-
road charged from Sd to Is ton per mile for
! carrying it over the few miles intervening
between the coalfelds and the gold mines. So
! that the coal which originally sold for rs Cd
cost, when delivered at the mines. from lis
! to sos.
The average charge for freight per mile in
] e
In England it is three-fourths Of cent which
! throws lurid light on what the earnings must
| have been for the Netherlands Railroad wnen
| II charged from to 20 cents per mile. There
was so little profit in this for the gold miners,
| That the different companies purchased strips
OF land, and giving each other permission to
\ use the land already owned, they mapped out
railroad over which they proposed 10 carry
what coal they needed. When the burghers
! heard OF this, they passed a law torbidding
! them to build this railroad, and later, when
] the miners attended to the COat
! carts with traction engines, they were forbid
! Gen TO do that also. Freight can be sent from
the cape in almost direct line by an English
railway which stopped at the border OF the
| Iransvaal, the rest of the haul being made
! over the system OF the Netherlands Company.
! InlS point OF the border is only forty miles
from johannesburg. Or it can be taken in a
more roundabout way from q point much fur
| ther east. II it comes from this direction, it
! travels 500 instead OF forty miles
In order 10 make the Uitlanders use the
! longer distance and so bring more money into
Sne coners OF the Government railroad the
/ netherlands Company allowed the freight to
congest at the point forty miles from Johannes
! burg and kept it there for three or four weeks
ana SUBJECTED 1t to such delay and to such
treatment on the way up as they hoped would
! finally drive the Uitlanders into abandoning
the use OF the more direct route from the Cape.
sooner than do this the Uitlanders organ
] lZeu system OF oX-carts and started to carry
thelr freight overland in that slow and cum
brous fashion. To prevent their doing this the
government closed the drifts" as the fords
]
/ crossing. 1t required an uitimatum from
Great Britain to open them again
1hese are lew instances OF the laws and
! customs OF a Government which has been seek
! ing sympathy as free and enlightened re-
PUBIC, and compares. and not unfayorablv
! with the free and enlightened republics of
Central America. The spirit of discomfort
caused by these grievances grew slowly and
showed itself when IL first found expression in
the form OF perfectly constitutional agitations.
In May, 1894, $1,000 Uitlanders petitioned the
Voiksraad Tor the rights OF franchise, and il is
on record IN the minutes OF that legislative
body that this petition WAS received with ieers
and laughter. Two months later another ne
tiiion, signed this time by 30 500 inha bitarts
was received by the Volksraad IN the same
manner, one OF its members, indeed, going so
TAR as to rise and say: 'If you want the iran.
CHS why don't you fight for it?' His invita-
ton was accepted later, when the inhabitants
OF Johannesburg, finding there was no helm 10
be obtained through the "sacred right of petit
tion," organized the reform committee and
prepared themselves to take what they wanted
by revolution and the use of arms.
One difficulty in dealing with the history of
this revolution lies in the fact that while the