The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-09-15
MANY MILLIONS.
Estimate OF Kruger's Wealth
Follows Dramatic Retreat.
England Making Up Startling
Estimates of Losses.
EXCEEDS FRENCH WAR
Americans Controlling British
Railways and Mines.

London, Sept 15.-When a clear cut
issue is again discernable in the con-
fusion surrounding the Chinese difficult
ties, there may be re-awal<ening of
real interest, but at present China holds
quite a secondary place in the public
mind in England The parliamentary
campaign is in full swing. but Lord Sal
isbury has not yet taken the country
into his confidence as to ballotting day;
and the consequent uncertainty gives
more stump speaking that is getting on
in every constituency an academic tinge.
So Great Britain, lacking a more in
teresting topic, has returned to the con-
sideration of the war in South Africa;
and the newspapers are eagerly scanned
for signs of the real end of the cam
paign, as Great Britain is tired of car
mage. President Kruger's dramatic re-
treat has led the commentators to re-
announce the close of the war, but the
long lists of casualties and deaths in
hospital, aggregating 200 week, which
continue to fill up the bulletin boards at
the war office, belle their statements.
The claims hitherto made that the Brit
ish losses in South Africa have been
small as compared with those Of other
campaigns appear to need revision, judg-
ing from recent calculations made by a
well known actuary, who finds that of
the officers in South Africa, 72.1 per
thousand have been killed or have died
from wounds, 30.6 per thousand of the
officers have died from disease, while of
the men 10 per thousand have been kill
ed or died from wounds, and 31-S have
died from disease. ThSee startling sta
tistics not only illustrate that while the
officers and men have suffered approx
mately equally from disease, the risks Of
the officers in action have been hugely
disproportionate, and also that the rate
Of FOL ~, A f~fa f- 1Ch
greater than in the Franco-German war
Kruger's millions are the subject of
disreSpectful paragraphs and long mar
ratives of dispraise. The lowest esti-
mate of his wealth is Ell ,000, 900, invested
abroad; while some calculators figure
his wealth at G5,0O0,000. The Transvaal
government is supposed to have two or
three million pounds in continental
banks, which will be boarded by the
managing committee, DR.. Leyds says
for a future rising when England is in
other difficulties.
All kinds of rumors are current re-
garding the coming of American en-
terprise and capital to relieve Londons
congested traffic. That the metropolis
is far behind every provincial center in
many things that go to make up mod
ern city Is 4 ginning to be realized by
Epglishn1en as well as by Americans,
and demand is arising for new blood
American or othe~wise-capableo of solv-
ing transit problems. One had only to
attempt a journey to the city this week
to realize the costly delays and vexa-
lions to which business is subjected I'M
der present conditions. The main
terry, Trafalgar square to the Bank.
is so torn up that it takes cabs and
busses thirty or forty minutes to cover
a journey of less than two miles. Con-
aected with all this congestion is the
great problem of housing the working
classes, at which the closest students
OF London'S social problems are aghast,
though they readily perceive that the
only remedy as in the case of lessening
the congestion of the street. lies in
widespreading network of rapid transit,
which, under the county council rules,
must hereafter be subterranean. Lon
don, therefore, will gladly welcome
American aid; and there is no lack of
indications that Americans are actively
seeking inv estments in this and other
directions. There is scarcely a hotel in
London that does not contain an impor-
tant representative of some American
industry or enterprise which he is ac-
lively engag ed in promoting.
There is much gossip over the state
mentS that Mr.. Charles T. YerkeS of
Chicago and New York, has secured con-
troll of the stock of the Charing Cross,
Euston and Hamstead underground rail-
road, and it is limited that the denial
made in this connection Thursday by
Mr.. Smith, the secretary of the company,
as already cabled to the Associated
Press, is by no means conclusive. 1t is
pointed out that there are some evil
dences of truth in these reports and Mr..
Yerkes' friends openly declare that he
has not only secured this valuable open
ing, but that his coming to London
means that he will control the electrical
traction system of the metropolis Nor |
is London the only place where Ameri- |
can capitalists are engaged in electrical |
enterprises The next few days will pro- |
badly see the completion of place for the |
construction and consolidation Of a sys-
tenn of 120 miles of suburban lines con- |
Meeting Manchester, Liverpool, Bolton |
and score of smaller towns in the most |
This project is in the hands of Messrs> |
Tom" and Albert Johnson, of New |
York.
American coal and railroad magnates |
are also busy here. Mr.. Robert Pitcairn, |
superintendent of the Pittsburg division |
of the Pennsylvania railroad, is still with |
the Carnegies, and President Cassatt is |
watching developments at one LONDON |
have their headquarters at another hos |
telry: Both parties are confident dent that |
place on tn continent, if not in England. |
Every American consul IN Europe; mas
to the possibility of finding market.
nent member of the Baltimore & Ohio |
feet of vesseis sne nee Constructed for
carrying coal such as our iron ore and |
oil fleets, and give through rate from
the United States would have the Euro |
pean coal market at her feet for all time
AS the period to r6 wh Psl1nosf aoTd
service as British ambassador expires in /
a few months there are many conJectures I
as to who will succeed him at WaShlng- |
ton Sir Henry Howard. who has been
British minister at The Hague, and Lux
enbourg since 1896, and who is described +
in this Connection as "a straight forward /
diplomatist, just such character as
Americans like to deal with, is /
rather more often mentioned than others
Sir Henry Howard has served more than
once at the British legation at Washing I
ton and his wife Is a daughter of the late I
George w Eggs. of Washington, ID. g.
He was born in 1S43 and entered the d. /
plomatic service in 1865
cnT nm NO III VER