Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1902-06-05

The war in South Africa was
of the Transvaal government to al
low the foreign element of the popula-
ton to have a voice in public affairs,
and like refusal to continue in force
certain railway and other public util-
ity franchises, controlled mostly by
British subjects. But the indirect
cause was elimination of unsatis-
factory conditions extending over q
period of almost a century.
From the first the Beers, Dutch
farmers of the Cape, were always in
trouble. Their incorporating spirit
led them still farther afield and into
strife with the natives. The relations
the first friction between the British
administration and the old settlers.
With Kruger in Office the Beers be-
gan, in defiance of treaty obligations,
a series of movements that necessitat-
ed British expedition to drive them
out of Bechuanaland, Goshen and
Stellaland, at cost of million or so
to the British taxpayer. Naturally the
British hold up these Boer raids, in
defiance of treaty obligations. as an
Offset to the jameson raid.
From this time the new "Transvaal
Republic" set out on the path of in
dependence that ultimately led to the
war. Gold was discovered in the
Transvaal in 1885, 1t was a field for
elaborate machinery and for immense
apital. These were furnished by the
fiitlanders, drawn from every race I'M
der the sun. but with the Anglo-C Celtic
vastly predominant. The mining CEN
tiers like johannesburg became full of
varied life and afforded a strong con-
trast to the Dutch headquarters. These
uitlanders largely outnumbered the
original inhabitants of the Transvaal
They were heavily taxed and badly
used and they deafened Great Britain
with their cries. There was not a
wrong which had driven the Boer
from Cape Colony that he did not
now practice on others. A wrong in
1885 might have been excusable; in
1895 it was monstrous.
In short, the Beers could not stand
the lust for gold, Their primitive vir-
tue vanished. The farmers were still
untouched by the new greed, but the
corrupt oligarchy at Pretoria, with its
nepotism, its accepting of brides for
valuable franchises. its dynamite mon
opoly, its crowd of greedy Hollanders
who handled the stream of gold ex-
torted by way of taxation from the
miners, gave an exhibition of venality
and corruption in the last degree alb
horrent to all right-minded and i'm
partial observers.
The uitlander was compelled to pay
nine-tenths of the taxation; was
1eeced at every turn and laughed at
to the bargain. II he wanted a vote
he had to reside in the country four
teen years and then he might make
application, which had to be signed
by three-fourths of the inhabitants Of
his district and receive the assent of
the Rad. Even then he was not ad-
mitted to first-class citizen privileges.
mention were ranking the uitlander
bosom.
In 1895 the Jameson raid" occurred
"a foolish undertaking to help the
johannesburg uitlanders in their
struggle. The uitlanders did not rise;
jameson and his handful of follow
ers were captured by the Beers and
after much parley released
The Free State had been established
as republic by Great Britain much
against the will of its burghers, who
had even sought and obtained COM
pensation for the withdrawal OF the
protecting power of the British. They
were not threatened in any way Even
their alliance with the Transvaal