Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1900-08-30
THE SOUTH AFRIcAN RrprrnITra

the struggle for liberty being mada
by the patriots of the South 4fric.u
republics. It is a matter Of nrosorra
regret that during oil the m~onthsthaf
the British empire has been marshal.
ing its armies to ovcrwheim these Zee.
BILE republics, there should have beer
no friendly expression by any offcia.
at Washington. These heroic men in
South Africa are slowly but snllenly
retiring before the conquering armies
of Great Britain. If the contest were
somewhat equally matched, the occa,
sion for sympathy might not be 50 exs
igent. 1t is not so, however. England
has in men, at least 100 ia
1, and yet these burghers, who sprung
from the great Teutonic race, have
held England in check for months,
and made a fight for liberty that
should challenge the admiration OF
the world.
These people have demonstrated
their capacity for self-government by
the establishment of republics, but
because they are few in numbers, En-,
gland wages a cruel war, which must
be practically one of. determination
before the Beers will surrender theii
homes and fresides. 1t would seem
that every American, familiar with
the story of Concord and Lexington,
and Bunker Hill and Valley Forge
and Yorktown, would sympathizs
with this liberty-loving people. I be-
lieve the hearts of tho great masses
of the people do beat in unison with
them, but the administration at Wash
ington is so entangled with under.
standings and alliances with Great
Britain, which exist, if not in words,
yet in spirit, that the republican par.
ty is powerless to. voice the over
whelming sentiment of our people.
Abraham Lincoln uttered an axio
matte truth in 1861 in Independence
hall when he said: "What constitutes
the bulwark of own liberty and
independence? It is not our frowning
battlements, our bristling seacoasts,
our army or our navy. These are not
our reliances against danger. All of
these may be turned against us with.
out making us weaker for the strug-
gle. Our reliance is in the love OF
liberty which God has planted in us.
Our defense is in the spirit which
prizes liberty as the heritage of all
men in all lands, everywhere. Destroy
this spirit, and you have planted the
seed of despotism at your own doors.
Familiarize yourself with the chains
of bondage, and you prepare your
own limbs to wear them. Accustomed
to trample on the rights of others,
you have lost the strength of your
own independence, and become the
fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant
who rises among YOU" / have quoted
the mightiest statesman of the repub-
lican party, because the ~utterance ap.
plies with equal force to the South
African situation, and to the policy
of the republican party in respect to
Porto Rico and the Philippine is
lands. Mr.. Lincoln also said :"No man
is good enough to govern another
man without that others consent.
When the white man governs himself
that is self-government; put when he
governs himself and also governs an
other man, that is more than self-gov'
ernment-that is despotism. Our re-
lance is in the love of liberty which
God has planted in us; our defense
is in the spirit which prizes liberty rs
the heritage of all men, in all lands
everywhere"
1t seems that these opinions of the
great captain of the republican party
should inspire that organization, and
yet on the occasion of the recent Hi
nois state republican convention a .rosI
olution of sympathyl The Boers
was greeted with derisive boots and
jeers. And Illinois is the state which
gave Lincoln to the Union, and be-
meath whose soil rests his illustrioua
ashes! Is it any wonder that Harrison.
Hoar, Schurz, Sherman, Henderson,
Wellington, Edmunds, Boutwell,, Hale,
Reed and others who have been great
leaders of the republican party, should
endeavor to call a halt in the mad
race of the present leadership of that
party for worldwide empire?
The armies of the English empire
are slowly but surely crushing the *.
piring South African republics. ldber-
ty there will soon exist as a memory
only. The war seems~to<bUnasuFfng
it's close, and the tattered remnants
of that heroic band of patriots must
soon seek homes elsewhere. Let this
republic extend a cordial handgrasp
and welcome them to this old-time
asylum of liberty. The democratic
party bids them welcome, but If they
ny Nnuonnhnr will dafoFspafTVa
whether their lot shall be cast in a
free republic or in q colonial empire,
patterned after the mighty empire
which has just deprived them of homo
and liberty.
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL EXTRAv-
AGANCE.
Mr.. Chairman and fellow-citizens.
there is another issue raised by the
national democratic platform of COM
handing interest to the people. The
denunciation of continued war taxes,
after the war has closed, and the Law
ish appropriations of the republican
congress r. exceedingly timely.
We have already reached an enor-
Gus total of federal appropriations
amounting practically to the confisca-
ton of a large part of the earnings of
the people. Year after year the re-
publican party has been warned, even
by some of it's own conserva-
tive leaders, that a halt must be
called upon the ever increasing scale
of national expenditures. The war;
ing has thus far fallen upon deaf ears.
Appropriation follows appropriation
with ever acc~elerating speed, until
now the liabilities imposed by a single
congress are 81 stupendous as to be
almost beyond the power of computa-
ton. The appropriations of the arss
session of the last republican con-
gress, excluding all the estimated
amounts necessary for the army ami
navy growing out of the war With
Spain, reached the mighty Aggregate
of S57s, 9o3, 7o7.56. Contract liabilities
amounting to $5s,44O,374 were also aa-
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