Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-04-09
THE ADDRESS.

Inc Beers or South Africa, said
MIR. Davis, "are among the pioneers of
freedom-heroes of civil and religious
liberty. They were the torch bearers
who blazed the pathway of civilization
through the primeval forests of the
southern part Of that great dark con-
tinent' which has been the marvel of
the ages. No country in all the world
contains nobler race of men and wo-
men; the descendants, too, of the he
role Netherlands, who under William
the Silent, wrested the independence of
Holland from the hand of the Span
ish tyrant. No people in all the world s
history have made more valiant eff
fort to secure liberty for future peoples
than they. And no people have en-
dured more hardships in the cause of
liberty and equality of rights than
they. Indeed, it was and is their I'M
conquerable love for liberty that has
caused all their troubles.
"Years ago." Mr.. Davis continued,
''the Beers planted the seed of liber-
ty in the fertile valleys Of the Cape
of Good Hope, where a strong national
spirit developed as early as 1906, when
the colony passed into the hands of
England Soon thereafter, i'll feeling
arose between Briton and Beers" Mr..
Davis entered upon an exhaustive re-
view of the relations between the Beers
and the British government from that
time to the present. He described the
great trek" northward after the
emancipation of their slaves, the foun-
dalton of the republic of Natal and
and it's absorption by England and
the rise of the South African republic.
Englands acquisition of the diamond
fields at Kimberley, Mr. Davis charact-
erized as a transaction
without a Parallel
'for stupidity, dishonor and injustice"
OF the material growth Of the Dutch
republics Mr.. Davis said:
"Cities with all the modern improve
ments sprang up on the veldt and IN
tie valleys as if by magic, and every
where the church and school house
told the story of the peoples progress.
1t IS no wonder the Beers became in
tensely proud of their homes in the
Orange Free State and the Transvaal,
and we'll may they feel that pride, for
they have their homes in one of the
grandest belts of valley, mountain and
plain that the world has in it.
''In the light of the past history Of
the rise and fall of empires, of the sad
wrecks of proud and naughty nations,
who hated justice and honor and
right, but loved tyranny, oppression
and wrong, that are strewn along the
pathway of the centuries, can not but
believe that God has intended that in
the two South African republics lib
erty and equality of rights shall pre-
vail, and the rugged, brave-hearted,
God-fearing Beers shall be forever
free.
But finally this
Period of Pence and Rest
was broken by the discovery of gold
in the Transvaal. Then it was that
the British government determined to
seek a pretext for obtaining control of
the richest gold fields in the world as
it had before secured the richest dia-
mond fields. That this is the real
cause for the present war no one can
doubt who will but listen to the fire.
uuent remark made by Englishmen
in South Africa, as we'll as in England,
that the gold mines in the Transvaal
are worth fighting for, and we are go
ing to keep on fighting until we get
them The British love for gold is
proverbial. Wherever gold has been
discovered, there the British have
turned a wistful and longing eye.
When gold was discovered in Alaska,
only a few years ago, it will be re-
membered how quickly an effort was
made to extend the Canadian line far
enough westward to take in the gold
fields. And no doubt had the British
government not been anticipating the
present troubles over the gold fields
In the Transvaal there would have been
trouble on the part of the United States