The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-08-24
BLACK DAYS IN TRANSVAAL
CAUSES OF THE DECLINE
Present Oppression Felt Espe. cially in the Capital of
 the Country.

Believe me, the Transvaal to-day is very good country--to get away from. For nearly three years now
 has depression reigned in Johannes
 burg. Only one more stage is left great financial crash. The people have become familiar with the words ''stagnation' and ruin" They have
 grown callous to insolvencies and irn- Irnense lists of judgments in the small- CT civil courts. Debts are too common to worry about. Book debts are un- salable.
 Never before has the financial sky
 of the Rand been so dark as 1t is to-
 day. A cloud of the deepest pessim- ism has settled over us. The gloom is unrelieved. It is impossible to find
 one man who looks forward with con- fidence, or even hope, to the next 12 months. Every week retrenchfnent
 becomes more drastic. Every day swells the rangs of the unemployed. Only the wealthiest can obtain credit
 The disappearance of so many sound, we'll established firms is signifi-
 cant. In the main streets dozens of shops are empty; an equal number of good businesses have given way to tea-rooms or auction marts or sixpen- Thy shows anything that is easily started and as easily abandoned. The
 ewelers' shop, once the pride of the Rand, are almost all in the hands of liquidators.
 To say that last Fridays vote in the Legislative Assembly. which, as Sir George Farrar admits means the end of Chinese labor, is solely respon- Isible for the chaos of depression
 would be untrue. Fifty-three thous- and Chinese alone have not stood be- tween the Rand and ruin.
 Undoubtedly the decision of the government has made bad worse. It
 has removed last hope to which many cling with pathetic confidence. People have been buoyed up by the
 assertion of the mining houses that Chinese labor spelt prosperity. Lon-
 don houses have continued their sup
 port with tie mental reservation that
 the Chinese vote would decide their action. If favorable they would cut their losses and get out of the whole business. Repatriation marked the end of perseverance. It was the sig nal for giving up. It was regarded as implying a continuation of depres- scion. Alone it would have worked
 mischief, for in shaky community the withdrawal of any prop is dan
 gerous. Combined with the strike, 1t has been fatal But the output is still 2,000, GOO pounds a month. There are 17.000 natives ready to take the places of the 17,000 served with eject
 men notices On the face of it the decisicn should have not deepened the
 deprcs cssion so thoroughly.
 Put repatriation is only one of the
 minor causes of the Rand's decline.
 The real cause of the extraordinary
 depression lies deeper. It is partly reaction, partly the beginning of a
 new policy forced on by economic laws
 The reaction Is plain, every one re-
 cognizes now. Johannesburg has been
 overshopped, overbuilt, overpeopled, It is town founded upon the sand of an unwamanted optimism. Capital ists and spectators have built as though for 100000 white people. This
 madness of construction work gave work to thousands. To-day it has
 ceased and thousands are out of work
 thousands have already left. In a year the municipal valuation of Jo-
 hannesburg has been reduced to ten million sterling. And it is still sink ing.
 This is bad enough. Yet the new policy in the industrial world is worse. It has not been in operation long. yet lit has done more harm than the de-
 porting of twice the number of Chin ese could do. It is not peculiar to the Rand. It is not confined to one in dustry or to one colony. It is com
 mon to all South Africa. It is produc- ing as much distress in the Cape and Natal as it is north of the Vaal,
 The policy is simply this: The oust- ing of the white man in the labor world Perhaps it would never have been enforced in days of prosperity.
 But the slump has hastened it. Re- trenchment is the cry. And one way
 of retrenching is to do with less white