Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-04-16


republican party in 1896. For his SER
wees and in recognition Of his section he
was made assistant secretary of the in
terror. Without any leave of absence he
pulled up stakes and went to South At
RIGA. He passed himself over there as a
member of the cabinet of the president
or the United States, and that gave him
easy recognition everywhere and access
TO all places. He went to Pretoria. He
staid a few days and he has come back
as a lecturer. Before he delivered his
lecture he was interviewed by the Phila-
delphia North American. In the
course of it. he said: II came across
the Atlantic, and the more 1 thought, the
greater it became. Webster Davis
said l to myself. at least in this one
thing it shall not be said hat you
thought of your own interests first My
action today is the result of the decision
reached then. l do not regret the step,
nor do l believe that I ever shall" That
was the day he resigned his office. There
is not a criminal lawer in the country
that would not reach in a the
conclusion that he went away for q pur-
pose and that that purpose was for
his own pecuniary interests.
He could have lectured Just as well
without going to South Africa as he can
now. He could nave told the same story
and it would not hay been thought half
as improbable as it now is. The lecture
he delivered in Washington writes him
down at once for what he is. and the
fact is Sc apparent that we believe pru-
dent democrats will fight shy Of Indoors
ing him. They may quote from his lee
ture in the back settlements. They may
take paragraphs from it to give a point
to a willing editorial, but they will be
01 rafl1 how they 1lCp If among nPODie
who are really posted on both Webster
Davis and the situation in South Africa.
1t needs but a slight review of his lee
ture to show what he is. His opening
sentence that the Beers We're among the
pioneers Of freemen, heroes of civil and
religious liberty; that thew we're torch
bearers who blazed the pathway for
civilization through the primeval forests
of the southern part of hat great Dark
Continent reads beautifully. h first
trouble is that the forests there are
as plentiful as they are in Utah:
and the second is that when they left
the coast they left because an edict of
Great Britain had freed all the slave in
her dominions and set aside a fund to re-
mburse ~lave-Owner for the loss of
their property, and the Beers We're not
satisfied with the amount coming to
them, SO they made their grand trek
northward. and they would have been
overborne by the savage Zulus a
they not called in Great Britain to the
rescue. Next. Mr.. Davis describes the
taking Of the Kimberley diamond mines
as a transaction without any parallel for
dishonor and injustice" The diamond
fields were bought and paid for. The
owners had no conception of their value
and sold them cheap. The purchasers
obtained them Just as an American OBJ
tains a mine in British Columbia If he
goes and takes it up n pays the
II rroc Rv06 hr tho Aoxyo,,, orA r xxyo e.
the same way with the Transvaal gold
mines. They were all paid for at Mr..
Kruger's valuation.
Again, Davis says that the British de-
mand for the five years franchise in the
South African republic twas the finn
siest pretext for robbery and murder
ever emanating from the wickedest cab
met in Europe" The truth is, the Tit
landers o~utnumbered the Beers in the
Transvaal five to one. Dom Paul first
laid an assessment of 5 per cent on the
proceeds of the mines. Then he raised
it to 10. Is and up to 30 per cent. When
foreigners went there in force, there were
laws which compelled a foreigner to re-
main there five years before he could be-
come a citizen. The limit was raised to
fourteen years. There was no demand on
the part of the residents for the fran
chise until Kruger himself had arbi-
l1uIlly SCI dSluc lit uCCISlOIS - liz OWN
supreme court. and in this connection it
must be remembered that the British
were not alone. The Americans there
cried out against the injustice. and the
Jameson raid was led by a American.
Again,h e says on the BOer side there were
not more than 8 10000 men, and these had
"but a few inferior cannon and no bayo-
nets and swords at all; that practically
the only arms they had were Mauser ri
fles." That shows that Mr.. Davis is a
falsifier n gives every indication posi-
BILE hat he was hired to do the work that
he is doing now. 1t looks as though he
came up to his present status n agreed
to deliver this lecture for a moneyed
consideration. 1t revives in thought the
franchise stories current in Kansas City
over the signing of the gas franchise
there. We published only a few days
since a statement by an American of III
number of Frenc and German cannon
that Kruger imported in 1868. More
than one account has made reference
since the war began to the fact that the
Boer uns outreached the British guns
and were far more instructive. From the
same cource we published that Pretoria
is perhaps the best fortified place of any
interior city in the world. AS to swords
and b%ayonets, in all the wars of the last
twenty years. the hances are that not
one hundred men have been killed by Ell
tnef sword or bayOnet.
Going on. Davis pictures the storming
of Spion Kop; how first a stalwart Boer
carried the flag;how he was shot down,
and then an old man with flowing white
hair picked it up and carried it until he
fell and then a STRIPPING lad of Is seized
'leaped like a panther to the old mans
side and snatching h flag from his
grandfather's nerveless hand, raised it
and pushed on" that "a mighty