Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-03-27
AN EMPEROR's ABDlcATIoN.

/ x
AN EMPEROR'S ABDICATlON.
| Dispatches to the evening newspap-
ers Of yesterday announced the death
from heart failure of Cecil Rhodes, the
empire maker of Africa. His death
marks the passing of the greatest Eng
| lishlnan on the African continent. His
public life has been one of continued
achievement in finance and politics. He
went to Capetown a sickly boy to re-
gain his health and became an empire
maker with the wealth of a Monte
| Christie. He has been the originator of
nearly every step Great Britain has
made toward the acquisition of the
South African territory she has long
coveted and the political duel between
himself and Kruger for control of that
territory has been for years battle
between giants. He was the friend and
pupil of General Gordon and refused to
accompany him to Karthoum, prefer
ring to continue his contest against
Kruger and become managing direc-
tor in the enormously rich South AT
rican company and the famous De
Beers mines. He was commissioner of
the crown lands and minister of native
affairs and practically ruled the Eng
lish possessions in South Africa by vir-
tho ~ I,;s ;,,,,,,e,so ,yaa1+h sIoo,,1oe,
energy and imperious will ard INTEL
lectual force
Where Cecil Rhodes went in South
Africa war accompanied him but civil
ization followed. His projects were
great and his methods were simply
means to an end. If human lives were
needed to bridge the gulf between bar
barism and the civilization and level-
opment of an empire Rhodes used them
with the same lioerality that he spent
his millions in the same cause. Nothing
stood in the way of achievement that
he was able, by use of men or money, to
move aside or destroy. He took vast
territories from the natives by blood
shed and the right of strength but he
made farms where the kralls had stood
and conquered the soil as he had the
savages who had inhabited and owned
it. He followed the sword with the
pillow. His whole thought was the ac-
QUESTION of South Africa for the Eng
lish and to this end he used the means
best calculated to accomplish the pro-
ject. whether money, persuasion or
brute force.
When jameson made his famous raid
in the effort to inaugurate rebellion
against the Kruger government, the
STAR of Cecil Rhodes began to wane. 1t
was his desperate stroke for control of
the Boer republic. 1t called down upon
his head the execration Of Europe and
was indirectly the cause of the war
where Great Britain has lost the pres
tige gained by hundreds of years of
successful warfare. It was the mis-
take OF great master of political craft
and as disastrous as it's conception was
splendid. Kruger crushed the rebellion
like an egg shell and broke at the same
time Rhodes power in South Africa
and his spirit.
However much Cecil Rhodes meth
DDS may be worthy of condemnation his
greatness of intellect is not to be de-
MED. Neither lis the greatness of his
That the fourth son
OF an English vicar should by his own
force rise to the position Of dictator to
continent is splendid whether 1t is, or
is not good. 1t is too soon to judge of
Rhodes work irl South Africa. The fu-
ture will put its stamp of approval or
condemnation upon It. Until then Cecil
Rhodes must remain as he lived the
greatest Englishman who ever set foot
on African soil.