Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-10-21
The War in The IransvaaI.

its ultimate outcome there can be no
doubt. 1t may take time, but sooner
or later England will be in absolute
control in South Africa-and the result
will be a great victory for civilization
and progress. Let US suppose for a
moment that the first settlers in this
country had constituted themselves
into an oligarchy with three articles of
faith; viz:
1. This land which we are pioneering
is and of a right ought to be ours.
9. The natives have no rights.
g. Immigrants may come and de-
velop the natural resources. They and
their children may produce wealth and
pay taxes here; but the control of the
government and the expenditure of the
public moneys shall forever vest in us
and our descendants.
How long do any of our readers sup
pose that the strong, resolute progress
sive people who subsequently came to
this country to subdue its forests, cult
vate it's soil, develop it's mineral re-
sources, construct its cities, build up
its manufactures. extend its commerce,
and pay for the support of its public
Institutions, would have tolerated a
rule like this? Not long we venture to say.
A few years would have sufficed to have
permanently overturned such arrogant
assumption of power and government
of the people, by the people, for the
people"-would have come with little
delay in a new world whose very at
mosphere carried the s. init OF fec'1m
and whose conditions bred a broader
conception of the rights of man.
The articles of faith we have sug-
gested as among the things that would
never have been tolerated in this free
land of ours are precisely the ones
which have been adopted by the Beers
in the Transvaal. 1t is true that their
ancestors pushed into the present
country they occupy when it was
wilderness. 1t is true that they sub
developed to a considerable degree its
agricultural resources. In this they
did not differ materially from the early
settlers on this continent, save that in
reaching their new world they lad
merely to cross a river instead of the
Au2l.t.c otc..:. lie discovery OF gold
in their part of South Africa il 1854.
brought a large accession of popula-
ton. The new Corners We're a far more
Intelligent and progressive race than
the Beers. They came to stay, and the
Dutch inhabitants Of the country with
an eye to their own financial welfare,
did not oppose their coming. AS a re-
suit of their enterprise. and progress
sve spirit the country prospered as it
never had before. cities We're built.
which will Compare favorably with
those of similar size in other parts of
the civilized world schools We're es-
tablished, churches constructed. mines
developed, the natives finally subdued,
lines of railroad put into operation,
and a standard of civilization main
tanned which was far above any that
had been conceived by the slows going
Beers. Today the 1919 square
miles that make up the Transvaal. or
as it is called, the South African Re
public, has a population of about 1000
900. OF this number by far the greater
part are natives, there being only
100000 white people. OF this white
population 100000 are British subjects,
about $1,000 are Beers, or people Of
Dutch descent. 10000 are Germans, and
10000 Americans. Under such a condi-
ton of affairs the Beers still retain
the government in their own hands,
through laws enacted by themselves
for the perpetuation of their own
power. They still term the inhabitants
of other races "outlanders-" and are
determined to limit their privileges to
the payment of taxes for Boer expen-
diture. 1t is a significant thing that
these people-many of them our own
called "outlanders'' by the Beers, have
paid during the past year 50 per cent.
OF the taxes of the South African Re
public. The state which they found in
a demoralized and almost bankrupt
condition, had, at the opening of the re-
scent hostilties with Great Britain,
X surplus of 100000 as a direct result
of the magnificent revenues derived
y from them. This result was achieved
in spite of more or less extensive ap-
preparations by the Boer government
: which has been far more lavish in the
expenditure of the money derived from
the "outlanders'' than it ever was of
the revenues secured from the Dutch
inhabitants.
Here we have, in its most offensive
form, the old tyrannical doctrine OF
taxation without representation. Here
Is a small population of phlegmatic
temperament and narrow views a pop
uiation Tor the most part uneducated.
whose very name has been for years a