The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-05-04
heir own schools and preachers and

their own schools and preachers and
churches.
Gould there be a more positive contrast
thar the above laws and administration
Indicate? Add 10 all this the brutality.
especially OF Transvaal officials. toward
natives. One of the many instances Of the
treatment which General Cronte recently
gave TO native chieft3iness and her peo-
pie. On letter written by one of his own
men, which he read TO her, without giving
her any opportunity of reply or reouttal,
ne fined her nearly 500. and gathering to-
gether thirteen Of her advisers logged
them, giving to each twenty-six lashes.
and VIXEN each one refused TO say thank
YOU another lash was added. They had
done nothing wrong themselves, but he
claimed ought to have advised her better
The case was taken to the courts and the
judge decided that the fine should be re-
turned. which has never been done. And
General Cronje became the chief native
commissioner. and the two men who con-
Quoted the fioggings were made special
ENJOYS 10 study the conditions of the ma
tives in that section Every black man in
black man in America and elsewhere
ought to pray for the triumph of Brush
arms in South Africa.
CAUSE OF THE WAR.
1.-The immediate occasion of the war was
the treatment OF the outlanders in the
Transvsal The Transvaal has been a
government administered on the basis of
preference instead of principle. Under
British rule there is absolute equality
OF privilege and protection to all white
men. and under that rule the Beers have
advanced in intelligence and wealth.
There have been many intermarriages:
and il it had not been for the organized
conspiracy at Pretoria, determined to
check the advance of right principles in
government as applied TO all white men.
irrespective OF race or language. the Briton
and the Beers 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 ire
pressible the conflict has been and that
sooner or later there must be change in
these laws or revolution in some form.
Take the law OF franchise. or rather I'M
franchise An outlander must be forty
years OF age; he must own property;
majority Of the burghers in his district
must express In writing their desire that
he be made a burgher; he must not be
objected TO by the state secretary or the
President; and as a climax unparalleled
In civilized government, his son born in the
Transvaal takes the political status of his
father. These laws diSfranchise for all
time everybody in the Transvaal except
the 1900 voters claimed by the burghers
and their descendants. II is to be remem-
bered also that the burghers commenced
per cent. of the voters who control that
country are boys utterly Incompetent in
intelligence or experience to form a judg-
ment on great issues. And Ii must be
remembered that nine-tenths of all the
Boer voters In the Transvaal are men of
not only limited intelligence as TO civil
government. but are dominated by narrow.
ut Is the 10000 outlanders the great ma
Jority OF whom have gone to that healthful
climate to permanent home whose rights
are outraged. 1t will require from thirty
TO fifty years TO dig out the gold in the
Immediate vicinity of johannesburg. and
with just government there will be at
least 100000 citizens in that section alone
in a few years. to say nothing of other
great centers of wealth which will be
opened up. And TO seek TO justify the alb
solute Acknowledgement of this great mass
of enterprising and intelligent people from
having any voice in the civil government
of the country is a monumental absurdity.
SEALED ITS DOOM.
1.-THE Trensvaal sealed its doom as
permanent government in it's present form
in August 1895. when it threw aside. by
vote of IS to in the upper Raad. pc
titicn containing over 5000 names ac-
knowiedged to be genuine. asking for
some slight modification of the franchise
The debate on that petition makes an ex-
hibition OF ignorance as to the first prin-
ciples of civil justice and of narrowness
of vision that IL appalling. Two or three
men stood up manfully. but, led by Presi-
dant Kruger, the petition was thrown out
After that. IL ever there was spot on
earth where rebellion was justifable on
the part OF the aggrieved IL was the Trans
vaaL The Jameson raid and other events
which finally led TO the war. were only in
cfdents on the surface indicating the seri-
,ousness of the irrepressible conflict: in
cidents may be the occasion, but never
are the cause of revolutions.
Say all that can be said against min
ing companies and their methods or on
the pathetic side in favor of the Beers,
living as they please on their farms MAX
ing natives do their work. put in ali posi-
lie conditions TO the contrary on both
sides. there yet remains the overwhelm-
ing tact that no civilized country on earth
With $1,000 grown men, representing an
intelligent and aggressive Anglo-Saxon
population OF 10000 people. conducting
enormous business interests. submit to the
tyranny of an oligarchy such as has ruled
at Pretoria
The responsibility of this war is upon
President Kruger and his advisers Eng
land. through Sir Alfred Miner laying
aside all other issues, asked that there be
fve years franchise, that the first Rad
which is. the lawmaking power should
have thirty-four members instead of TWEEN
ty-four. and that ten Of those members
should be selected from the outlanders
that Is. he asked that two-thirds of the
population should be allowed a representa-
ton OF ten In thirty-four in making the
laws. Had President Kruger at Bloemfon-
TEN said yes there would have been no
war and the Dutch would have yet re-
manned supreme I'm the control of legis,a-
ton In the Transvaal for years The pro-
v1sionai offer or seven years which he made