The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-11-17

1
we need. We will make them conform
to our language, our system OF educa-
tion, our political institutions, and we
Will be masters In all things"
The faster the Uitlanders came, the
more rapidly the constitution OF the
land, never any too definite, was mold
ed over to concentrate the power where
| the Beers wanted II to stay. A sys-
tenn OF two classes of burghers or citi-
zens was worked out. At present its
| form is as follows: The first-class
| burghers, who alone can sit In the
| higher house of the volksraad, COM
| prise all male whites resident in the
| Transvaal before 1876, or who have
fought in the principal wars of the
| country since then. The children of
| such persons receive citizenship at the
| age of sixteen. All other persons, after
| they become naturalized, which is pos
| slble with two years residence, are sec
ond-class burghers, unless by special
| resolutions of the higher raad ad-
mitted TO full citizenship. The second
| class burghers can vote for minor
officers of the republic, but not for
| president or vice. president. They can
| vote for members of the lower raad,
but not Of the higher, and they can sit
as members of the lower raad, but not
in the higher.
PRIVILEGE OF LITTLE VALUE.
AS it is the higher raad which has
the full power in the making of laws,
it can be seen how little the privileges
of the second class burghers amount
to. Little as they are, they must avail
TO immigrants, no matter how wealthy
or capable, until, as has been said,
a special resolution gives them the
| higher grade Of citizenship. Even be-
/ fore this Is secured there are many
hindrances in the way, as, for in
stance, a qualification Of fourteen
years residence and favorable peti-
/ tion from the full burghers OF the ward
in which the applicant resides.
The qualifications for attaining a full
citizenship have varied from time to
time. At first they included only two
years residence, then this was raised
! to Eve years. More recently it has
been made fourteen wears, and there 1t
still remains pending the settlement Of
the present troubles. 1t must be no.
ticed, however, that the law gives the
( applicant not a right, but a carefully
guarded opportunity Of being elected
to full citizenship il the higher raad
! approves OF him.
! AS to the character of the Transvaal
I government, 1t should be noted that the
power is even more concentrated than
the foregoing description would indi-
cate. for tho small upper raad has
great power, and the still smaller
/ council Of the president has still great
! er power intrusted to it, while the
! president himself manages to concen-
trate through these bodies almost alb
solute control of the land.
With this machinery for keeping the
| Uitlanders out of government it may
| we'll be imagined that the present con-
dition of the laws in the Transvaal
! makes plenty for the Boer and much
hardship for the Uitlander. The Uit-
landers, who number, as has been said,
two-thrds of the white population,
pay % per cent. of the taxation, accord
ing to the best estimates that can be
made. 1t was easy for the Beers,
! who are nearly all farmers, to arrange
/ the tax laws so that they would have
such results.
But their grievances are more than
| economic ones. A list of them was
| given above, and it is only necessary
! here to point out how all of them
| have arisen from the Beers belief that
he is owner of the land and that he
has right to make the Uitlander SER
yiceable to him.
MONOPOLY ON DYNAMITE.
The dynamite monopoly is an in
stance. In the mining industries the
Transvaal needs an immense amount
nf lxyYNn n,NntN
secure home manufacture of it mon
opoly was granted. The firm, instead
of manufacturing, imports most of its
dynamite, supplies a very poor and
dangerous article and has double the
price.
Another monopoly is the Netherlands
railroad, which is so fostered by the
government that it change charge from
twelve to fifty times as much for haul
ing freight as is charged in the United
| States.
The insistence on the Duth language,
or rather the Transvaal dialect of it,
being used in all the schools is a great
cause of trouble to English residents,
for they can find no means of giving
their children such education at home
as they would wish. The later move
ments on the part of President Kru-
gers government, the gagging Of the
expression of public opinion and the
disarming of the Uitlanders, are only
minor steps in making secure the fruits
of what his system of laws and ad-
ministration has accomplished.
Most of the Uitlanders are, of course,
English, and England conceives 1t has
a right to protect it's emigrants and
citizens from such impositions as these.
Joseph Chamberlain touched on this
point in one of his great speeches on
the Transvaal question, justifylng the
right OF intervention. Chamberlain
justified the right of intervention,
firstly, because 1t was the right of
every civilized power to protect its
own subjects; secondly, because Great
Britain had the right of intervention
under the convention as to the suzer-
ain power, and thirdly, because the
convention had been broken in letter
and in spirit.
In the Transvaal the Uitlapders have
grown more and more dissatisfied with
their position, but tied as they have
been by their being disarmed, and by
their great properties, which lie de-
fenceless at the hands OF the Boor,
they have dared do nothing.
RELIEF PETITIONS SCORNED.
Their monster petitions for relief
have been laughed at by the volksraad
and cast contemptuously aside. An oc-
casional project for reform came UP,
but either Kruger or the members OF
the raad saw to 1t that 1t was early
! killed.
All the time the Transvaal went on