The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1899-10-31
WHAT THE BOER WAR IS ABOUT.

Six principal points are involved in
the arbitrament precipitated by the
formal declaration of war by the Boer
government. They are:
l. Taxation without representation.
The British Government demanded for
British subjects that this should be rec
titled. This was what was meant by
the Diplomatic controversy over the
| franchise. The Beers finally made the
concession that five years of residence
and the oath of allegiance to the Boer
republic should entitle an outlander to
vote. But this concession was placed
under limitations which practically null
lifted it. It was not an honest offer.
The Imperial government demanded a
five year limit to political incompetency,
and that the ballot should not be sub
jected to any nullifying conditions.
This the Beers refused, unless the I'm
perial government should renounce suz-
erainty. The latter refused to discuss
that question and the Beers then with
drew the offer.
2. Trial by jury. British subjects are
not allowed trial by a jury Of their
peers, as under the laws of all English
speaking peoples. A British subject
under the Boer oligarchy must be tried
by a jury of Beers.
3. Education. In the public schools
the English language is not allowed.
AS the population of Johannesburg is
twenty English to one Boer, this was
virtual exclusion of English children
from the schools. The Imperial gov
ernment demanded, on behalf of British
subjects, that the two languages should
stand on an equality-English speakers
to have the same benefits as those ex-
clusively given to the Dutch. This was
refused.
4. Municipal government. There are
lonly about ], 900 Beers in Johannesburg
to %, 900 Outlanders. The Boer govern
ment clung to its exclusive right to gov
ern the English city without the consent
of the governed.
Extortionate taxation. Before the
English discovered and developed the
Kimberley and Witwatersrand. mines
the total income of the Boer government
was about six million dollars. It is now
four times that amount, or levy upon
the outlanders of S19, 600, 900 per annum,
in the expenditure of which the tax
payers are allowed no voice.
6. Slavery. Though this does not ap-
pear in the diplomatic discussion, it has
affected the sentiments of British sub
jects toward the Beers. The natives are
practically enslaved by them. They call
it apprenticeship" but native youth
are held to work and labor without COM
lpensation during the most effective pc
lriod of their lives namely, till the age
of twenty-eight. After that age they
are held to service by terrorism in
many, if not most instances. This
is highly repugnant to the British
constitution, whose glory has long been
that no slave can tread on British soil.
The earth emancipates him the instant
he stands upon 1t.
| These are the issues upon which the
Transvaal and the Orange Free State
have thrown down the gauge of battle.
The contention was not over the right
of the Beers to self-government. That
the Imperial government has never
questioned nor made any attempt to cir
cumscribe. The demand of the English
is that Englishmen within the limits of
ljoyment of that right with all others.
If that had been conceded, the Imperial
government would have left the people
of the Transvaal to settle all matters OF
domestic concern to suit themselves.