The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-05-04

and under that rule the Beers have advanced in
intelligence and wealth. There have been manv
intermarriages, and il it had not been for the
organized conspiracy at Pretoria. determined to
check the advance irrespective of race or Ian.
guagc, the Briton and the Boer would have had
no war and together they would have risen and
prospered in all respects We have only to read
a list of the laws now in force in the Transvaal,
as affecting the Outlanders, to understand how
irrepressible the conflict has been ard that sooner
or later there must be a change in these laws
or revolution in some form.
--:o:--
Take the law OF franchise, or rather unfran.
chise. An Ontandcr must be 40 years Of age;
he must own property. majority OF the burghers
in his district must express in writing their dc.
sire that he be made burghcr; he must not 'e
objected to by the state secretary or the presi
dent; and as a climax unparalleled in cilized
government, his son born ir the Transvaal takes
the political status OF his father. These laws
lisiranchise for all time everybody in the Trans.
vasl except the 23.00i voters claimed by the
burghers and their descendants 1t is to be
remembered also that the burghers commence
voting at 16, so that very large percentage Of
the voters who control that country boys
utterly incompetent in intelligence OF experience
to form a Judgment on great issues And it
must be remembered that nne.tcnths of all the
only limited intelligence as to civil government,
but arc dominated by narrow prcjudiced views. 1t
is the 100000 Outanders, the great majority OF
whom have gone to that healthful climate to a
permanent home, whose rights are outraged. 1t
will require from thirty 10 fifty years to dig out
the gold in the immediate vicinity Of johannes
burg, and with a just government there will be
at least 100000 citizens in that section alone in
a few years, to say nothing of other great
ters of wealth which will be opened up. And
to seek to justify the absolute disranchisemcnt
OF this great mass OF enterprsina and intelligent
people from having any voice in the civil gov
ernment of the country is monumental absurdi'y.
-:o:-
The Transvaal sealed its doom as a permanent
government in its present fern in August, 1885,
| when it threw aside, by a vote OF Is TO in the
| upper Raad, petition containing over 5000
names acknowledged to be genuinue. asking for
| some slight modification of the franchise. The
| debate on that petition makes exhibition Of
ignorance TO the first principles of civil justice
| and of narrowness Of vision that is appalling.
| Two or three men stood up inanfully, but led
| by President Kruger the petition was thrown out
| After that, if ever there was spot on earth
| where rebellion was justifable the part of the
| aggreved it was the TransNaal. The Jameson
| raid and other events which finally led to the
| war were only incidents on the surface indicat-
ing the seriousness of the irepressiblc conflict
| incidents may be The occasion, but never are the
| cause Of revolutions Say all that can be sal /
| against mining companies and their methods, or
| on the pathetic side in favor of the Beers, living
as they please on thei! farms, making the Ia.
| tives do their work, put in all possible Condi.
! tions TO the contrary on both sides; there yet
| remains the overwhelming fact that in no civil.
| lied country on earth would so COO grown men.
representing an intelligent and aggressive Anglo
| Saxon population of 2lO0OO people. conductn!
enormous business interests submit to the tyran.
ny Of an oigarchy such as has ruled at Pretoria.
| The responsibility OF this war is upon President
! Kruger and his advisors. England, through Sin
| Alfred Miner, laying aside all other issues
asked that there be FIVE years franchise, thai tho
| first Raad, which is the law.makinE power, should
have thrty-four members instead Of twenry
four, and that ten of those members should be
selected from the Outlandcrs that u.s. he asked
that twothirds of the population should be al
| lowed a representation OF ten in thirty-four il
| making the laws. Had President Kruger al
Boemfontein said ''Yes," there wo I'D have
| been no war and the Dutch would have Vet re
mained supreme in the contIol of legislation II
| the Transvaa for years. The provisional offe
| Of seven years which he made afterward had i'm
possible conditions attached to it, which no self
respecting nation on earth would have consii
| cred; and when it was asked to have a commits
sion to study the practical results Of The fran
chise propositions and negotiations We're goins
forward, the ultimatum was sent. 1t had beer
ready for two years, but the facilities for trans
porting troops were not completed.
| -:o:-
History will condemn this war as having becr
inaugurated by the Beers because in the admin
istration Of civil justice to white men rrespectiv
OF race or language they showed themselves ut
terly incompetent and out of sympathy with tn
demands Of nineteenth century civilization. Eng
land will succeed because she is right bccaus
she stands for liberty and justice as applied T.
man, irrespective of race, black or white or Ian
guage religion, England deserves the goo
wishes and as far as possible the practical syn,
pathy Of the United States. She stands in mat
tiers of government and administration for wha
America stands for, as no other nation on eaIt
does. The sudden crisis which has come upo
her has given an opportunity for all her critic