Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-01-12

been paid out OF taxes for his direct
and exclusive benefit as appears by
public records. How much more has
been spent without public record can
only be guessed. His son-in-law and
private secretary possesses $50 says
Mr.. Hillegas) a single house costing
$3.50, 900, and rolls in wealth besides,
as he must, to support such a house."
The official records in a Transvaal
lawsuit between two Beers show that
every Boer official worth bribing, in
Guiding Kruger's son-in-law. was brib-
ed. and none of them even denied it.
Now read carefully every item of this
Indictment and say how much repub-
licanism there is in any of them:
1.-THE foreign settlers, exclusively,
built johannesburg, a fine town, with
formerly $4,000 inhabitants, They
were not merely denied any right to
govern that city; they were denied any
municipal government whatever. This
is proved, not only by the explicit
statements of Mr.. Hillegas, the Amer
lean representative of the Beers, but
also by a proclamation of Paul Kruger
himself, dated in january, 1896, a copy
of which l have. MIR. Hillegas states
IlldI Aol 90 COa1u Dc 6ADCuuCG Ill re-
pairing a road or a bridge without first
receiving express authority from Pre-
toria.
"The foreign settlers in the Trans
vaaF were denied the right to bear any
arms, while every male Boer, from
sixteen years old upward, is heavily
armed and drilled at the expense of
the foreigners. :
BY a. press law, passed for the
avowed object of crushing the foreign
settlers, all newspapers were placed at
the mercy of President Kruger, who
can suppress them at his pleasure.
by another law, passed for the same
purpose, all meetings of more than
seven persons in the open air are abb
solutely prohibited, while all other
meetings can be dissolved in an in
slant, at the. discretion of any police
man.
Another law was passed, absolutely
prohibiting the presentation by any
foreigner of even so much as a petit
ton for redress.
when Mr.. Kruger invited foreign
ers to settle in the Transvaal full ma
turalization could be obtained within
two years. After foreigners had ac-
cepted his invitation, he repealed all
naturalization laws, absolutely. Then,
under pressure, he restored the laws,
but made the term fourteen years; but
any foreigner desiring naturalization
must all protection, even
from his own government or the Boer
government, for fourteen years, dur
ing which time he would be a citizen
of nc country whatever, and have no
rights which any Boer would be bound
to respect. During these fourteen
years he must be ready to serve in the
Boer army on twelve hours notice,
and he would be frequently called up
on to serve, without pay, clothing, or
even food, which he must provide for
himself. At the end of these fourteen
years of degrading humiliation he
would not be allowed to vote for any
Office worth voting for, unless his
humble petition was approved by two
thirds of his Boer neighbors, by the
military chief of his district, and final
ly, by Mr.. Kruger himself. Neither
would he be allowed to vote, even
then, unless he were forty years OF
age.
while nearly two-thirds of all per-
sons residing in the Transvaal spoke
only the English language, and less
than one-third either spoke or could
understand the barbarous Boer Dutch,
the Beers insisted that all English
speaking children must take their ed
ucation exclusively in Dutch.
President Kruger resisted the intro
duction of railroads for years in order
to compel the miners to hire his pri-
vate OK teams at enormous prices.
When finally he did permit railways
to be built he granted the privilege
exclusively to persons who would
agree to give to his relatives a big
share of the profits. He granted mo-
nopolies of several indispensable ar
ticles of supply to the mines, with the
result of doubling the price at which
they could otherwise have been OBJ
tanned.
"The whole Transvaal government
was corrupt and rotten from top to
bottom. No. business could be done
with them without bribing the Presi-
dents sons-in-law and hangers-on."
If a country of which such things
can be truly said, is a republic, then,
indeed, is Great Britain not a republic,
either in form DR. spirit.
Wheeling, Jan. 18th, 1900.