The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-04-09
WEBSTER DAWSON THE WAR

LY ARRAIGNs THE BRITISH.
 Declares tho Latter and Not the Former
 Have Ignored Rules of Civilized War;
 fare--Snys He Witnessed Some of the
 OutraEes by the BrItish-Audience Di-
 vided on Resolutions of Sympathy but
 They Are Declared Passed-Denounce-
 mont of British Government Resented.
 Washington, April S.-An immense audience gathered at the Grand opera house tonight to listen to an address on the war in South Africa by the Hon. Webster Davis, former assistant secre- tary of the interior. who has just re- turned to the United States from that country. Every available bit of stand ing room in the opera house, the larg- est auditorium in Washington, was fill- ed with auditors who paid close atten- tion to every word uttered by the speak CT and manifested their appreciation of his telling points with frequent ap- plause. Simple decorations of the United States and the emblem of the Boers was suspended over the stage. A score or more public men, mainly senators and representatives in con gress occupied seats on the stage, and in the audience, among whom were the following. Senators Clay, Daniel, Tell er Bacon, Allen and Mason. and Rep resentatives Talbert, Jett, Littlefield, Ridgeley, Robinson of Indiana, Burke of Texas, Ball, Gilbert, Latimer, Cox of Tennessee, Cowherd, Clark of Missouri, Bartholdt and Shafroth. MT Davis delivered his remarks in an off-hand easy style, referring to his notes only occasionally. He spoke for about two hours, and at the close was warmly congratulated.
 MT. Davts' Address.
 'The Boers of South Africa" said MT. Davis, "are among the pioneers of free dom-heroes of civil and religious lib- erty. They were the torchbearers who blazed the pathway for civilization through the primeval forests of the southern part of that dark continent which has been the marvel of the ages. No country in all the world contains robler race of men and women the descendants, too, of the heroic Nether- flanders who, under William the Silent, wrested the independence of Holland from the hands of the Spanish tyrant. No peoplet in all the worlds history have made a more valiant effort to se- cureliberty for future peoples than they. And no people have endured more hardships in the cause of liberty and equality of rights than they. Indeed. it was and is their unconouerable love for liberty that has caused all their troubles"
 Boers PInnt Seed of Liberty.
 "Yearsago," MT. Davis continued, "the Boers planted the seed of liberty in the fertile valleys of the Cape Of Good Hope, where strong national spirit developed as early as 1S06 when the colony passed into the hands of Eng land. Soon thereafter i'll feeling arose between Briton and Boer." MT. Davis entered upon an exhaustive review of the relations between the Boers and the British government from that time to the present. He described the great trek' northward after the emancipa- tion of their slaves, the foundation of the republic of Natal. and it's absorp ton by England and the rise of the South African republic. England's ac- uuisition of the diamond fields at Kim berley MT. Davis characterized as a transaction without a parallel flor cu- pidity, dishonor and injustice" Of the material growth of the Dutch republics MT Davis said:
 "Cities with all the modern improve ments sprang up on the veldt and in the valleys as if by magic, and every where the church and school house told the story of the peoples progress. It | is no wonder the Boers became intense ly proud of their homes in the Orange { Free State and the Transvaal, and well 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 i sad Wrecks of proud and naughty na- tions, who hated justice and honor and right but loved tyranny, oppression and wrong, that are strewn along the pathway of centuries, I cannot but be- lieve that God has intended that in the two South African republics liberty and equality of rights shall prevail, and the rugged, brave hearted, Godfearing Boers shall be forever free.
 Peace of the Boers Broken.
 "But finally this period of peace 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 of the present war no one can doubt who will but listen to the frequent re- mark 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 going to keep on fighting until we get them The British love Tor gold in proVerbidl. Wherever gold has been discovered the British have turned a wistful and long ng eye When gold was discovered in Alaska, only few years ago. it will De remembered how quickly an effort was made to extend the Canadian line