The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-09-03

tiOnary organization. Other operative
concerns did the same, and, as the hys-
terical fever of liberty or death's
spread, we'll armed revolutionary body
was set on foot.
We have now come to the events oc-
curing during the month of December,
1895 During that same month the
wires had been kept hot between Lon
don and Cape Town. Every message
was in cipher and after inspection at
the Cape it was sent on to Johannes
burg. The cloud darkened. Kruger
woke up and suddenly understood that
a storm had gathered and was about to
break. The members of his cabinet all
but chung about his knees, begging him
to avert what seemed the inevitable.
In Difference to his old companions in
arms, and not through any fear, the
stubborn old Boer at last consented to
receive a delegation from the reform
committee, and even went so far as to
promise specific reforms.
But here Rhodes "apple cart was
kicked over.' And thereby hangs a
tale, and a very sad one to Anglican
ears.
The foot that kicked the cart was
DR.. Jameson's. The i'll fated Jameson
Kruger straightway declared that his
promises to the reform committee were
nullified by that lawless act. But why
did these reformers ask for meeting
with the Transvaal president when
their original plan had been to force
Kruger to make an armed demonstra-
ton against Johannesburg and if posi-
BILE provoke the Beers into firing the
first shot?
Many have stopped to ask the mean
ing of this strange incongruity. The
truth has never been told, and in Off
cial circles the question has always
been evaded. The secret of the whole
business was the duplicity Of Cecil
Rhodes, who failed to disclose his
change of plans to his colleagues. The
reformers of johannesburg wanted a
purely South African amalgamation.
Mr.. Rhodes looked over and beyond
their heads and kept his eye on the
broader imperial horizon, where the
cloud of annexation still f1oated no big
ger than a mans hand. His timidity
was the thing that saved the South At
rcan Republic. 1t was not until the
last few days of 1895 that the truth
leaked out, in some obscure hints made
by certain OF Rhodes English associates
and in remark or two dropped in Cape
Town by Rhodes himself
Just about this time we find DR..
jameson very restless, though not yet
realizing his friends change from
democratic to imperialistic dreams. DR..
Jim sent wire after wire to his chief
at the Cape asking for light. Chatting
under Rhodes antiquities and puzzled
by the seeming uncertainty and paraly-
sis that had come over his director, DR..
Jim kicked over the shafts, cut the
wire between his little army and the
Transvaal capital, and at the same time
cut the last thread from which hung the
hopes of a South African empire in the
nineteenth century.
Then followed his dash across the
border. He was met by the Beers and
harassed and hemmed in until he could
do nothing but run up his white flag OF
surrender. Then it was Rhodes in hrs
hour of terrible disappointment cried
bitterly, my God, Jim has kicked
over my apple Cart" The phrase be-
came historic.
1t was the we'll loaded apple cart Of
brilliant man who was and still is in
the hands of a rapacfous group of Eng
lish capitalists and moneyed adven-
turers whose hunger for dividends is
as great as their hatred for the Boer.
This Boer, on the other hand, has
lordly contempt for gold getting in all
it's sordid phases. He grinds his teeth
to think gold was ever found in his Sc
eluded little homeland
The capitalists know that these gold
mines of the Transvaal are worked by
a number of limited joint stock COM
,f
tween England and the Beers the price
of shares will go down, till stocks can
be secured for a mere song. The next
step would be to consolidate the whole
mining interests under. single man.
moth trust, for at fair capitalization
of the profits mines so operated would
yield many millions each year.
Behind all the present trouble are
some Of the wealthiest and most
influential men in the business world,
and the whole thing, as 1 have
said before, is simply plot on the part
of group of capitalists to secure pos
session of property, known to be huge
ly profitable, from which they have been
tantalizingly turned away time and
time again.
Because Kruger will not give band
Of reckless and selfish adventures
everything for which they have the pre-
sumption to ask, this so called oppres-
sion is twisted into an excuse for
more powerful nation to sweep away
the pastoral home the Boer has made
for himself in order that the august
capitalists Of London may have the
privilege of raking in a few million
pounds sterling more a year from gold
and diamond mining in the land that
lies north of the River Vaal. Such is
the result of the whole Transvaal trou-
BILE.