The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-09-06


found guilty Of infringing the foreign
enlistment act and sent to prison, Mr..
John Hays Hammond, the American
engineer who was a most active mem
Der Of the reform committee of johann
Ileshurg at the time of the raid, was
staying in London at the Savoy hotel.
I happened to hear this. and remember
ing that Mr.. Hammond had been one
of those who invited Jameson to enter
JonhanneSburg and who had then left
him to fight his way there unsupported.
said that if I had to choose, I would
rattle be in Holloway prison with jam
eson than in Savoy with Hammond.
This remark was carried TO Mr.. Ham
nond by a mutual friend. a classmate
Of Hammond's at Yale, who asked me
to keep my opinion in allegiance until
1 had heard Iammonds side Of the
story. The same mutual friend then
3nKited ne To dine with Hammond and
slffself, and for the first time L heard
the story Of the jameson raid, TOLD in
manner which convinced me that the
charges of cowardice laid against the
reform committee were uumerited. The
story has never been made public, but
Il is full of interest, putting many things
in a new light, adjusting the blame
more evenly and, in my mind, at least,
removing the charge of lack of faith,
under which the members Of the
REFORM COMMITTEE
and the people of johannesburg have
been resting in silence. That they have
been silent for so long is because they
did not wish anything to appear in
print while DR.. Jameson was awaiting
trial, which might deprive him OF the
popular sympathy which he enjoyed
during that period and which, they
hoped, might help to lessen the severity
of his sentence. That sentence has now
been passed, without much regard hav-
ms been shown for the point of view
OF the populace and DR.. Jameson is
paying for his adventure ike a man.
And in time having paid for it in full,
he will come out again, as picturesque
a figure, and With great mass OF the
British public as popular a hero as
when he won AIatabeleland and admin
TEfered that troubuiOus territory in the
interests of the Chartered company,
and later made his ill-conceived and ill
starred invasion of the Transvaal-
AS he has had his turn, it seems only
right now that he should give place
in The public eye to those who have
suffered as well as himself, and through
his action whose plans he spoiled and
whose purpose his conduct entirely mis-
represented to the world. For these,
other men Of the reform committee have
laid, owing to hin,
IN A FAR WORSE JAIL
than Holloway prison, and some still
lie there Some have been sentenced
to death, while others have been fined
fortunes, and more than all else besides,
they have had to bear the odium of
having been believed both in the Unit
ed States and England, to have shown
the white feather in deserving q COM
rade and Of failing to keep the prom
Uses Of help they he'd held out to him.
The reform committee of Johannes
burg was organized with The object OF
Attaining certain reforms for abuses.
which had grown so serious that the
position Of the Uitlanders had become
unbearable. There is an objection which
is instantly raised whenever the condi-
tion Of the Uitlanders is described, as
I have just stated it. il is this: IF
the TMlanders did not like the laws of
the Transvaal. why did they not leave
1t and so elsewhere, the world Is large
enough for everybody? Why did they,
instead, plot to upset the government
of the Beers who had sheltered them
and who only asked to be left to breed
their cattle and to farm their ranches
in peace?" The answer to that very
fair question is that the laws TO which
the reform committee objected did not
exist when the majority Of it's mem
bers had entered the Transvaal eight
years before. At that time the revenue
of the country was barely able to sup
port it, and emigrants were warmly
welcomed. The law as it then stood
was that a Uitlander could obtain full
RIGHTS cF. CITIZENSHIP
after a residence OF five years. and with
this understanding. many Americans
and Engiishmen bought land in the
Transvaal. built houses and brought
i4eir families to live in them, invested
their capital in mines and machinery.
and gradually severed the ties that had
bound them TO the rest Of the world
Bur when the gold seekers grew into
a majority, the Boer. who still retained
bis love for pastoral and agricultural
pursuits passed new law, which de-
cIared that the Uitlander could not
obtain the franchise until he had first
renowned his allegiance to any other
country, and then, after lapse of
eight or fifteen years, he could, if il
pleased the government, become
buTghe-, with a, right to vote, but that
If ii did not please the government he
could never hope 10 become citizen
of the Transvaal.
There were many other grievances
and though Mr.. Hammond has refused
on account of his pledge to the Boer
government to discuss them with me-
other members Of the reform commit