The Irish standard., 1902-04-26

are oIly 100 READY TO snake OH the
shackles Of monarchy; the Briton gen.
orally retains and glories in his al
legiance to throne.
In the next place, an insidious blow
is aimed by the Rhodesan bequest at
government by the people in designat-
ing ONford-Tory. Conservative OK
ford-as the place where the benefici-
aries of this remarkable testament
shall be bred. This will matter little
to the English or German students.
who already are impregnated with
monarchial and imperialist ideas: but
tuition at Oxford would be baneful to
the American boy.
There he will see slavish yeneration
for church established by state; alb
Ject homage for kingly ruler of both
church and state; reverence for rec
ognfzed nobility of various degrees,
and class and caste barrier as in
surmountable as the virgin Businesses
OF the Himalayas. There may be n
republic Of letters. There is certainly
no republic of any kind at insular Ok
ford, where the lordlings wear tufted
caps to distinguish them from the more
plebeian seekers after knowledge. Is
1t not probable that three years of the
most impressionable part of young
mans life, spent amid such surround
ings would have a tendency to disturb,
If not overthrow, the democratic teach
ings of his childhood? Moreover, it
| would have been an easy matter for
Mr.. Rhodes to have designated that
these young men could be educated in
the schools of their own country, but
it is obvious he preferred that English
teachers should guide their steps on
the highway to knowledge, and that
their expanding views of worldly af
fairs should be procured only through
British spectacles.
AS corollary of this condition, let
us picture the return of these young
men to America, after Oxford has in
dellbly impressed on them it's love for
monarchy and for caste. How are
they to reconcile their imperialist
teachings with their duties as citizens
or officials of government by the peo-
pie? Would it be not likely that a
mere veneer of democracy should con-
ceal their innate loathing for popular
rule? And this brings up the question
of the political future of these Amer
lean students. I shall assume that the
chances Of their political preferment
would be extremely limited. Political
conventions have an eXnsperating habit
of connecting men and things before
making nominations. The politica'
leaders cannot but have noted that Mr..
Rhodes was not popular persona~c
in America. The man whose RUTHLESS
Will and desperate hand dashed aside
equity. right and Justice in his uncon
querable ambitions. is hardly an entity
to conjure with in a popular caucus
Hence beneficiary of Mr.. Rhodes
wealth-evcn though it be only Il eel
lc@e education-would likely be classcd
with his benefactor. And why sh ulH
he be not so Chased?
Grim stories are told of the name,
in which Rhodes amassea his millions
History tells us that when Rocr rr
Zulu. Kafiir or IIottcntOt. impeded his
lmperious way the chstructions wer,
summarily removed. Rayonet and bu'-
let, saber and lydditc have been his fell
and awful adiutants, and two little re-
publics, sanguinarily wiped out, stand,
black and forbidding. on the credit
side of the Rhodesan ledger. With
this lurid record why should any
manly American boy he copartnor
or sharer in the lucrc thus obtained?
There is taint of hypocritical cant
in the assumption that this miscallcd
philanthropic educational project will
make for peace" 1t is carelessly as
serted that the drawing together of the
youth of Germany, America and Brit
ain in the bonds Of scholarship and
learning will so affect the three nations
that eternal friendship shall follow.
and that this armipotent trinity. thus
enmeslled, will preserve the peace of
the world. The schoolmaster is to-day
abroad in Christendom as never before
and does any one remember a period in
which there We're more grim prepara-
tions for war?
The land hunger that is gnawing
Mt the vitals of the nations-the very
lust and greed for territory and of
spheres of influence" that put into
Rhodes tenacious grasp the millions
! that he now desires to spend in "mak-
ing for peacc"-is the formidable in
citer Of international strife. and until
this voracous land hunger is appeased
all the dicta and dogmas of college
dons will be nugatory in preserving
amity and harmony.
Summed up, then, this appears to be
the situation: Are the American boys
who shall be partakers in this astonish-
ing bequest willing to be known for
the rest Of their natural lives rs Cecil
Rhodes Boys?" Shall they submit. in
an alien school, to the danger of con-
tagion from anti-republican foreign
virus? Shall they become part of an
obnoxious tripartite racial alliance?