Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-04-03
WORKMEN OF RAND
LIVE WITH DYNAMITE
Familiarity With Explosive One
Cause of South African
Labor Troubles.

From the London Daily Mail.
The present trouble on the Rand.
from where is drawn practically the
whole OF the worlds regular gold sup
ply. originated largely in the tragic
deeds of last July and ). It may
vaguely have come from still farther
back. but shape and definition emerged
six months ago
South Africa. the graveyard of
statesmen's regulations. has problems
which no other country on earth pos
sesses: and the wisest men have failed
time and again to cope with them. Ger
tainly the Botha government prior to
last July understood little of the
Rand's real soul: the soul of wild.
reckless race of men jumbled together
among scholars, mining rlathematic-
ians. younger sons and other remit
lance men. The same spirits that re-
belled against the Kruger government
and the children of these men are on
the Rand today: and the fatality or
their affairs is that they are governed
as Kruger governed them-from n town
only thirty miles distant geographi-
cally. but so far away in spirit. tenn
permanent and outlook. Indeed. the
Botha government is, geographically.
farther from the Rand than that OF
has as much to do with the govern
menr of the Rand as Pretoria.
Death Ever Present.
PsycholoSicauy there is one terrible
fact to be realized when discussing
the Rand trouble and endeavorins to
compare it with a European strike. Ii
is dynamite. Without exaggeration IT
can be said that quite one-third of the
entire Rand population has worked
at some time or other with dyna
mite. The men we meet today on the
stock exchange, in offices, in shops.
in bars in tramway cars and trains
have nearly all in the past tried min
ing: The constant use of dynamite
has an extraordinary effect on one.
How well do l remember my own first
experience on a little Rhodeaian reef.
The first night in Kalfir hut I
screamed out at the sight of match
lighted near A case of gelatine' in d
weeks time l stuck candle to the
same box and lay reading until 1t was
time to sleep. Death and violence are
ever before the gold miners of the
Rand; each has to impose his VIII
upon twenty or more kaffirs working
for him in the depths of the earth:
each grows used to seeing men killed
and wounded by falls of rock and ex-
plosions And so the dynamite eats
into the very soul OF the Rand.
Today all the miners or all the lawless.
miners have dynamite concealed IN secret
places ready for an emergency. They du
not want any deliberately made bombs
with clicking clockwork or safe-tme
fuses. a condensed milk tin. packed
with a few sticks of gelatine. "A percus-
sion cap embedded IN one of these and u
short fuse just protruding is all. To a
man who pinches together with his TEEN
each day, instead of with pliers fifty
percussion caps. any one of which can
blow him to pieces where is the terror
of a short fuse?
l saw and | felt all this during those
days of last July. The streets were
stained with blood. the houses were rid
died with shot horses lay dead and dis
tended everywhere But the miners We're
undaunted-all they felt was fierce re-
sentiment at the shooting of their COM
rades. Immediately after the affair AT
the Rand Club thousands of men went
off to arm, and had the government NOT
surrendered within a couple OF hours
scenes of bloodshed would have been en-
acted before which those of July and
become but a faint memory.