The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-11-07

| interest. Kruger mas nad
| history, and ii bears the stamp of th
| truculcnt genius and temperament o
| the man. The autobiography of an l:N
| lie naturally partnkes of the resent
| ment. the disappointment the humlia
| tion, the longing. he depression. ant
| the peSsimiSm. transfused with NOR
| bid optimsul. which is characteristic o
| those forcihle characters whom war u,
| rate has robbed of the political pre-.
emiNencc which they once held. Napo-
leon in St Helena played the emperor
tn tn" last Kruger. in his modest re-
treat at the Hague. falls below Napo-
leon as much in romantic dignity as ht
does in intellectual stature. Yet there
is n striking similarity in their hatred
OF England. Nor little as we may
sympathiZe with it can we call it un-
reasonable TO each perfidions Albion
has been the rock upon which the bark
of the" designing dreams has been
shipwrerked. The mendacity of Napo-
Icons "reminiscences is magnificent. If
his was the only record left of the
scenes and incidents which he con-
troled and directed he could not be
more surercilously regardless of truth.
None knew better than he that the
world prefers for it's superficial pur-
poses plausible falsehoOds to obscure
or recondite facts. Kruger is Il re-
ligious man. Out of the tribulations of
II scared heart and Il disillusioned old
ha l.ii licl
We can at 9east credit him With abso-
lutte sincerity.
The extracts from kruger's bioS-
raphy which have been cabled to this
country have all reference to events
leading up TO the Boer war. He ac-
cuses the late Cecil Rhodes of being the
Guy Faux of the conspiracy which led
to the overthrow of the two republics.
In doing so. he is perfectly justified.
But political conspiracies by individu-
ais can only succeed where the force Of
preparatory circumstances provides
them with the soil in which they can
easily germinate. 1t was kruger's re-
dictionary. obstinate policy which gave
Rhodes his opportunity. The abor;ive
and criminal jameson raid would have
ruined irrelriavably the conspiracy and
the conSpirators alike had President
Kruger realized the peril in which the
seeth!ng and revolutionary discomfort
OF the OutlanderS placed the independ-
ence of his republic. BY granting to
Johannesburg Il conciliatory measure Of
municipal f-government he could
easily have anticipated Rhodes machi-
nations and foiled them. But. then, il
requires 4 statesman of prescence to
take advantage of the discomfort that
eliminates in threatened or active
revolution to concede the measure of
constitutional freedom which takes the
ground from under the feet of the con-
sprators. President Kruger followed
only too faithfully the example set for
him by English ministers from the
days of Charles the First to our own
His treatment of the Outlanders was
hardly less coAlemptible or more en-
lghtened than the policy pursued for
centuries in Ireland by the British gov
crnment
Mr.. Kruger believes in Chamberlain 2
completely In the Jameson raid. Cham
berlain certainly had nothing to do with
the raid. although his attitude toward
the leaders of the Johannesburg con-
splrucy was, it is not disputed, equl-
vocally sympathetic when he found, as
Rhodes found, that nothing could be
done With old Kruger" To insist that
4 IA, l1il t,ia l,,
hind the backs of his colleagues in
planning iilibusterlng incursion ON "A
friendly territory is to pre-supposc that
Lord Salisbury, Mr.. Balfour, Sir Mich
ael Hicks Beach and their allies,
in ussoclating with such man in the
devoid of all moral responsibility as
Kruger would have us to believe
that Chamberlain was. 1t is GER
tain that neither the queen nor Lord
Salisbury believed in these accusations,
ana they had the means of discover
ing their truth absolutely, if they We're
true.
Nh. Kruger says that the Outlanders
who clamored for NATURALIZATION con-
cessons were not sincere. and il is in
deed hard to believe in their sincerity.
That nearly hundred thousand Eng
lishmen should wish To become subject
to II mediaeval Dutch oligarchy is as
prep0sterous as Mr.. Kruger himself
can we'll conceive it to be, but that the
majority of them had an ulterior pur-
pose TO overthrow the republic is not
consistent With the colonizing genius
OF the Anglo-SaXon race. They We're
endeavoring To supersede AN effete and
pnchbeck autocracy by living and pro-
gressive republican institutions. All
the legislative concessions they de-
manded We're a means to that end. If
Mr. Kruger had had more faith in po-
litcal justice in its inevitableness, in
its reasonableness, in its supremacy, in
its grandeur, than i'm concealed Mauser
rifles and Cresote guns. he would today
be rejoicing In the prosperity of "A great
state, even according to the modern
idea OF nationhood, and not roaming
about Europe, q pltiable old man, ex-