Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-05
7HE IMPENDING CONFLICT.

Transvaal is only a question of hours.
1t is currently reported that the first
gun has been already fired, and perhaps
the war-path is now warm with the
tread of the Boer. Be this as it may,
both sides to the controversy are mass
ing troops and a miracle Of diplomatic
tact will alone prevent bloodshed.
1t is to be regretted that a peaceful
solution Of the difficulties could not nave
been reached, for an earnest effort to
prevent war was apparently made both
by President Kruger and the representa-
tives Of the British government. The
trend Of events, however, is often more
powerful than the diplomacy of nations,
and this seems to be a case wherein cir
cumstances have forced a violent con-
clusion.
The demands Of England, viewed from
the standpoint Of individual rights, were
just and wholesome. The Outlanders are
a majority of the people; they represent
the wealth and intelligence of the coun-
try; they pay taxes and sustain the Boer
republic, vet they are denied a voice in
government, and are heavily oppressed
by the restrictions placed upon them. If
the American colonists were justified in
opposing taxation without representation,
the Outlanders are likewise justified in
demanding the rights Of citizenship, and
freedom from the onerous burdens placed
upon them by the Beers.
On the other hand, it is argued, with
pathetic earnestness, that the Beers left
tlsfrs more southern nome and journeyed
into the Tfansvaal country and hewed out
a new home from their savage surround
ings. AS pioneers, their history is as full
OF romance as that of the sturdy Ameri-
can fathers who breasted the dangers of
the west in the early days Of our own
republic. H.
But when within the fruitful bosom of
the new commonwealth were found the
most productive gold fields in the world,
when the dreams Of Aladdin in the fam
tastie realms of imagery were realized in
the diamond pits of the Transvaal, men
Of energy and determination and capital
rushed upon the scene to wrest mighty
fortunes from the grasp of nature. The
Beers. a quiet, selfish, pastoral people,
resented the inflow of the O%utlanders,
and did all within their power to dis
courage it. They restricted them in their
rights as men, placed heavy burdens upon
them in the shape of excessive and un-
just taxation, and refused them a voice
in the concerns of the republic.
-
On the face of the situation, the merits
OF the controversy lie between the rights
of the individual settler and tax-payer
and the rights of the republic in which
he lives. Sympathizers with the Beers
will insist that the government is su.
preme, and that if the restrictions placed
upon the Outlanders were unbearable il
was their duty to leave the country fol
a more congenial cline. Those who sym.
pathize with the Outlanders will main.
tain that inasmuch as they were per.
mitted to settle down in the Transvaal
to develop its resources and uncover it,
heritage u wealth.. ana were IN turr
taxed heavily for the supper of the gov.
eminent, they ought to have been &C,
credited with the rights Of CITIZENSHIP
on equable terms.
No one who believes in the liberty O.
the individual, within limitations fair t.
all. will deny the merits of the contentio,
on the part Of the O%utlanders. The onl,
question, then, is where the rights of tn,
Boer republic begin and leave off. Whe,
the question of equity is raised, it mus
be remembered that the territory nov
embraced within the Transvaal wa
Wrested from it's original inhabitants b,
the Beers, by force of arms. The Ameri
can indians never made a more yigorou,
defense Of their hunting grounds thai
did the negro natives of the Transyaa
against the Beers. On the theory tina
the aims and purposes of civilization hat
rights superior to savagery, the Boer.
drove the negroes of their lands into tn,
Interior and took possession.
Eat+r on. the discovery of the gold field,
ARA ta* diamond fields brought a hord,