The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-01-11
AMERICAN INFLUENCE
How Jealousy OF 1t Besot the
south African War-Remark-
able Explanation by Cecil
Rhodes.
:. T. Stead in 1.-The Amercanization Of the

World
So little is known Of the inner springs Of
political action, that it is possible most Of my
American readers will hear for the first time
in these pages that the present disastrous war
in South Africa is the direct result OF a
jealousy of American influence. It is COM
mon ground that this war dates from the
Jameson raid The raid begat the arma-
ments, the ornaments begat Lord Miner
and that intervention brought
on the war. But what begat the raid? Upon
thiy point 1 can speak with authority, as
have frequently heard the whole story or that
most disastrous blunder from the lips OF the
man who conceived the conspiracy, and rlsked
everything in order to carry it out. NO mis-
take can be greater than the vulgar error OF
imagng that Mr.. Rhodes Matched the Jameson
conspiracy out of any animosity or fear or
the Beers. Mr.. Rhodes has always been very
partial to the Dutch. Man for man, ne
knows that the Boer is a better, physical,
virle creature than the city-bred people OF
Great Britain. Politically, he had always
worked with them. He never would have been
premier except by their aid, and man ever
formulated more emphatically the axiom
that without the support of the Dutch you
cannot govern South Africa.
80 Rhodes Motive.
Why, then, did he enter into a conspiracy
to overthrow President Kruger? Mr.. Rhodes
own answer TO this, which have heard many
times from his own lips, is that his object
was not primarily but only incidentally to
overthrow Kruger. His one supreme aim was
to capture the Uitlanders, to secure their al
legiance to the British empire and to avert
the one thing he dreaded most Of all, the es-
Establishment of what he called an American
republic in the Transvaal which, in his own
vigorous phrase would have been ten tim-s
more a child of the devil for us to deal with
than Paul Kruger had ever been.
Mr.. Rhodes was little too previous in his
calculatiOnS-a fault on virtues SIDE, eSpe-
cially in these days, when our ministers seem
congenitally incapable of an Intelligent anu
cipation of events to come. But to understand
a miscalculation after the event is easy. 1t
is more difficult to foresee. What Mr.. Rhodes
thought he saw was the Rand filling up with
a heterogeneous Conglomerate OF adventurous,
INSCRIPTIONS, unattached mortals, all IN
tent primarily upon making their fortune.
These men outnumbered the adult burghers
Of the Transvaal by four to one. The beers
were practically unarmed, without even ade-
quate supply of cartridges for their rifles.
except for protection against the natives.
Their artillery was worthless. Although some
attempt had been made to construct fort to
overawe Johannesburg, they were utter unpre'
pared for a coup de main. The previous cleo
ton for president had shown the existence
of very strong minority hostile to Paul
Kruger Mr.. Rhodes was led to believe by MS
confidential informants that The Ultland-
ers were not in the mood to tolerate any
longer the authority of the Beers. Theil
leaders were represented being only one
degree less hostile to the British government
than they were to President Kruger, the
cause of their complaint being the TACT ina
Mr. Rhodes and the high commissioner mac
never given them any effective assistance II
their campaign against Krugerism.
Cosmopolitan Uitlanders.
The Uitlanders were men who had at thei
disposition the enormous wealth Of the RAND
i that treasure Of the Nibelungs which ma
drenched the Veldt with human blood-tne
| were men of all nationalities and OF none
| and even those who came from Great BRIT
! ain and the colonies held very loosely to tn
! empire. Conspicuous among thise were tn
| Irish and the miners, whom Mr.. Rhodes DE
| scribed as the Sydney Bulletin Australians
| The Sydney Bulletin, it may here be eX
| Dlained, is an extremely able weekly paper
! published in Sydney, which neither fears Go
! nor reverences the king, and winch make
| British imperialism the favorite butt OF II
| attacks German Jews, Frenchmen, Russians
| Poles, Hollanders and Americans-it was
| motley crowd that the great golden magDe
| had attracted to Johannesburg-of which on
| thing at least could be stated without hesita
| tion-viz., that 1t had as little enthusiasm &c
| the union jack, or for anything more ldes
| than dollars and cents, as any assemblae
| of human beings that could be collected o
| the planet. 1t was goddess crew, OF Who'll
| one shrewd observer remarked, that it wa
! too much addicted to gambling, women an
whisky to have the proper revolutionary hbel
| But gross nammon worshiper though
| might be- Mr.. Rhodes believed it was tn
brain as we'll as the pocket OF Africa. II
! knew it was fretfully impatient Of the irk
some restrictions enforced by President Kru
ger. He underestimated the resisting fore
of the Beers, and believed that at any mo
ment the news might come that a bloodles
revolution had taken place in the Transvaa
| that Paul Kruger had disappeared, and thai
| in his place. he would have to deal with
| president of new republic, flushed wit
| victory angry at being refused help, an
| very much inclined to pay Off old scores b
| being much more anti british than the Boer
| had been. Gin fact" said Mr.. Rhodes to II
| when he was explaining how it was he cam
| to make the one fatal blunder OF his career
cit seemed to be quite certain that If di
not take a hand in the game, the forces O
| the spot would soon make short work g
J President Kruger. Then l should be face
| face with an American republic-Amerlca
! in the sense of being intensely hostile to an
| jealous of Britain-an American republi
| largely manned by American and Sydne
| Bulletin Australians, who cared nothing TO
| the old flag. They would have all the wealt
of the Rand at their disposal The DRAWN
mower of the Uitlander republic would hav
collected round it all the other colonies. The
| would have federated with it as center
| and we should have lost South Africa. T
! avert this catastrophe, to rope In the sUit
| landers before it was too late, I did wha
1 did"
! Repeated conversations with Mr.. Rhodes
| even so recently as last autumn, found hill
unchanged in the conviction that the DANCE
of the American republic in the heart {
! South Africa justified his conspiracy. Kru
! ger was doomed anyhow It was for Eng
land to stand in with the Rising Sun.
Bearing of Venezuelan Question.
Not only will Americans be interested i
knowing the true story of the genesis Of th
| Jameson conspiracy; they will be not les
surprised to know that its failure was largel
due to President Cleveland's message on tn
Venezuelan question. The Jameson .conspir5
cy, as originally planned, based Its. hope {
| success upon a revolutionary movement
johannesburg, in which all natonalities wei
| to take part. Conspicuous among the cor
spirators were the Americans, Mr. Hayes
| Hammond and Captain Mein, and round thel
| were several other Americans whose syn
pathies were enlisted by the idea that the
! were in some way emulating the eXploints
the fathers Of the Revolution in overthrow
ing new George III. in the person Of Pres
dent Kruger.
Americans Desert.
When Mr.. Chamberlain made it the cor
dition Of his Connivance in the conspiracy tn.
DR.. jameson should go in under the BIRTHS
flag, and that the next governor of the Tran.
vaal should he appointed by the colonial o.
fee, he hamstrung the one chance of SUD
cess which the conspiracy had possessed. H
condition about the flag was suppressed for
WHILE but the news leaked out just about til
time when the :anti-British sentiment anon