The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-07-15
Paul Kruger.


nifled name, Stephanus Johannes Paul
Kruger. The man was fitting ruler
for such people as the. TransVaal
| Beers. Seventy years ago, when a
lad, he followed with his people the
| Great Trek from Cape Colony to the
| Vaal, across which they went and
settled to get far away from British
interference. Kruger was born with
| hatred of the English in his heart.
He was closely identified with the
history of his country. until his own
| precipitate fight to Holland in 1900,
after the fruitless three years strug-
gle against the whole power of the
| British empire.
They were great people in many
respects, these Beers, out of whose
| loins Kruger sprang. They are de-
scended from the burghers who
| fought unto the death for their lib
critics in the Netherlands against the
infamous tyrannies and religious ia
naticism of the Emperor Charles V
and his son, Philip II Of Spain.
After the revocation of the edict
| I'll 1NoillSS5 LII Iooo, Ny al V u
France, many French Huguenots who
bore the proud names Of some of
the oldest families in France, joined
and intermarried with the Beers in
South Africa and helped them in their
bitter struggle against the fiercely
hostile Kaffirs and zulus for the ter
ritory they had won in the wilds.
| I, III n t,,o;,
ing begotten Of constant fighting and
sedulous watchfulness against the
treachery of an active enemy in the
bush. This man, who began fighting
when a mere boy, became the trusted
leader of his countrymen in civil and
military affairs.
Unable to hold back the native
the English, then pushing their own
lines northward and gravitating to
the gold and diamond fields, the for
mer lying within the Transvaal. The
English did more than aid the Beers
against their Zulu and Kaffir enc
mics. British capital went into the
Transvaal to develop the gold mines,
arose under English auspices, stimu-
lating the Jealousy of the, Beers, no.
tably angering them thru the Jane
; son raid, which was the original pro-
curing cause of the fateful war with
England. q = .,:.,.t> ,-s,,G..e a-.=
; Kruger, who had been chosen pres
. ident Of the Transvaal four times, be-
| wis TO io11c
preparations for war and, in his
diplomatic dealings with the British
government, showed much skill and
:, a development of the quiet Dutch
O cunning which distinguishes his race
: He spoke for his people when he
q "suzerainty" from the Transvaa
s treaty of 1881, and decreed the min.
f imum Of concession to the 'uitland.
!; ers' who were, more and more, en-
e croaching upon the Transvaa1, an6
withheld his ultimatum until HI
found that the willy British were send
ing more reinforcements to join thei1
weak army in South Africa at ever.
$ refusal he made to recognize British
u supremacy.
w Kruger forced on the war quite a
ID much as the British government did
IS He had a very ambitious program, il
w conjunction with the Africande
TX Bond of Cape Colony, for a Dutcl
H. South African government covering
p the region from the Zambesi rive
to the Cape, leaving England a con
ed tracted footing on the east coast t
1T be buffer between the Dutch domai
1g and enemies from that direction
IN Kruger's ultimatum for Boer indie
AZ pendence found the British unpre
pared for a struggle, whose i'm
o. portance they belittled until the
a. found the Beers meant business. Kru
he ger did not overestimate Boer cour
he age and endurance, as the final trj
de increasing their comparatively sma
m force at the beginning to about 800
~ 900 men, and spending over a billio
T. dollars.
g Kruger was not hero who can es
ne cape severe criticism. His ardent Ell
adj forts to maintain his people from an
contact with outsiders and to prever
.cI the introduction of progressive civil
to lied methods, was a mistaken yea
to His fight to Holland, while as "
IN his great generals, Delarey, Both
"a and others, were still afield fghtir
,r-rI the British with the troops which ri
est manned, and while his own manda
~ to his people to Idle in the la
ed ditch" was still vibrating in the ali
All dim his record of patriotism. +
~ II, might have waited, as head of tt
Boer resistance and taken part in Il
m ultimate settlement at Vereenigin
to whatever might be the consequen.
O. to himself.
cd President Steyn Of the Orange FIR,
d. State (now the Orange River Color
be under England) is to be. regarded
,rs more consistent than Kruger. T
he went to the aid of his fellow Boo
of the Transvaal, a1tnos his COVER
~ ment had no quarrel with Britai
,ad and witnessed his country made Il
w. chief battlefield and left in a general
ia devastated condition, losing ever
es- thing he possessed. while Kruger s
! a cured the greater part of his fortu
be and fed, and has spent the last thr