The National tribune., 1906-12-20
GERMANY As A coIox,.rp.

| GERMANY AS A COI.ONIZEH.
} There is legislative crisis in Cor-
many in bitter dispute between the
Kaiser and the Rcichstag over ghc re-
fusal of the latter to vote 5000. "eG
toward the support Of the aIT% IL Coz
man South Africa. Tho dispute tring.
out the facts which seem to Gsuou-
strate that the German attempt -
| failure. There has been no attraction
of German settlers to that county. and
| without these there can be no Satisrac-
tory colonization. Singuiarly. the Ger
mans who migrate from the Father
land seem to want to go anywhere else
| than to the German colonies. Afanr of
| them leave their country because they
are ineffably tired of the bureaucracy
and petty interference3 into their daily
life of the German official class. In
! the colonies they find all these coudi-
| tons continued and intensified. If The
| German Government had been wise IT
would have granted lands to its people
and allowed them to so there and form
such Government as they chose.
! They would then have done as the first
| English settlers did in this country
! established such rules ana regulations
and such social system as plea ed
them and developed in their Own way
/ into loyal German subjects and sup
/ porters of the Empire. This is what
! has happened with the English colonies
in Canada, Australia and New ZoaIaHd.
! Instead of this the German Cove rnman:
| has sent to South Africa to begin the
| settlements little official autocrats, Wiio
were even more imperiou5 and c.tacung
| there than they would be at homo,
where there was Immediately abuv-
| them somebody to correct and cheek
them. The German immigrant, there
| fore, was not willing to exchange the
annoying little tyranny at home for a
! still more eXasperatinS tyranny some
| place else to aggrayatc the hardshi2s
of a first settlement.
We saw this tried in Texas along n
the '40's. There was strong move
1 ''-Niit ~ 'iAipIS tHt 9uI piliS ptptlIdtli'l
of Germany into the magnificent area
of the Lone Star Republic, but it beega
most unfortunately by sending over a|
Prince with his encourage to establish
| the settlements. He located mis- capital
| at place which he named Sophinu-
| berg, and established a regular court
there with a bodyguard of so mount ed
l,11n 10 IL 9
festivities, and even established p the
ater. while the poor immigrants were
struggling with hardships and priya-i
| tions to subdue the wilderness and cre-
ate homes and farms. He did abS,-l
! lutely nothing to help them, not even
they had to struggle for hundreds OF
miles from the seaboard to reach the
interior. Not until he was gotten rid
of did the German colonists begin 10
prosper.
The ill-fortune which has attended
the German expeditions against the ma
tives is due to the same ironclad
ofiicialism. The German soldiers have
been trained to the stiff. mechanical
manG:ers of the open field of Europe
and they are absolutely untitled to cope
with the negroes in the bush fighting OF
South Africa. If the Kaiser had taken
lessons from our Indian warfare: had
sent his officers and soldiers over here
for experience in chasing Apaches. his
troops would have made a far better
showing in South Africa. A heavy
armed German soldier, carrying 80 or
so pounds on his back, does very we'll
indeed for the short marches and great
movements of European wars, but he
is at fatal disadvantage in coping with
an agile-footed negro carrying little
beside his gun and cartridge box and
fitting thru the forest paths with thei
speed of wild animal
Nor have the Germans made the sue
cess hoped for agrfculturally. TheI
primary idea of establishing the colon
les was to render Germany independent
of America in the cotton supply. FJrl
some inscrutable reason, as to which
scientists have so far given us no hint.
cotton raising can be done nowhere 0n
the globe so successfully as in olrI
Southern States. The only exception toI
this rule is Egypt, where cotton grow
ing is prosecuted quite as proftably asl
with US. The British have expended
immense sums in trying to grow cotton
in India, which is the home of tha
plant, and also in South Africa. and
have everywhere had to confess Il fall
are. How well the Russians have done
with their cotton plantations we do not
yet know, but we do know that thel
Germans, British, Spanish and Portal
8uese cotton plantations IN Africa haycI
been failures, and that we continue tol
supply at least 20 per cent of thcl
worlds cotton. The business men of
Germany are getting very tired of pour
ing money into the profftless colonies
and have called a halt, much to the |
Kaiser's Indignation.
DEATH OF PAST DEPARTMENT COM-
MANDER.
There is deep sorrow in Rhode Island
over the death of Past Department.
Commander David 6 Raw ono nf tbs