THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL. XIV. 



CHICAGO, NOVEMBER, 1899. 



NO. 2, 



THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICl 



Boers 



and 



Britains. 



Whether it is due to the in- 

 stinctive feeling: of sympathy 

 for the "under dog" or wheth- 

 er it is the recollection of sturdy men who 

 fought some hundred years ago for life 

 and liberty against fearful odds, we are 

 unable to say but one of the two. or possi- 

 bly both, causes many Americans to have 

 a strong sympathy for the Boers. The 

 same spirit which actuated the Pilgrim 

 Fathers to set forth to an unknown land 

 wherein they hoped to worship God after 

 their own belief, caused the sturdy Dutch- 

 men to seek Africa: the same uprising 

 against injustice which was exhibited at 

 the well-known ''Boston tea party'' is 

 manifested in the ultimatum of President 

 Kruger. "Nothing- succeeds like suc- 

 cess.'' Geo. Washington was a hero, the 

 great man of the hour: had he failed he 

 would have been a rebel. The man who 

 fails is the rebel. He who succeeds, the 

 hero. We may all question the wisdom 

 of Oom Paul's ultimatum, since it cannot 

 but provoke war with a migh y power, 

 which might by diplomacy have been 

 averted, but perhaps our Declaration of 

 Independence seemed as absurd a docu- 

 ment when first promulgated. The Boers 

 are not progressive: they are not fashion- 

 able: they prefer ox-teams to railroads: 

 oppo&e improvements and innovations 

 which are bound to come: but to balance 

 these defects they are known to be an 

 honest, industrious pe >ple. leading simple, 

 pastoral lives with an almo?t patriarchial 

 form of government: the only favor they 

 ask being the very negative one of being 

 "let alone." Olive Schreiner, whose life 



in Africa has qualified her to speak with 

 authority, in a cable to the newspapers, 

 deplores the attitude of England toward 

 the Boers, an opinion which is held by hei^ 

 brother, who holds a position under the 

 British government in South Africa. 



Down below the surface is the gre-d for 

 gold: there are diamond mines in the 

 Transvaal and the Boers are a weak na- 

 tion. Unscrupulous politicians; men who 

 'went to the country ostensibly to represent 

 the British government but who used 

 their position for selfish ends, who by in- 

 solence and arrogance contrived to breed 

 discontent among the Boers against the 

 British, to these men, in a great measure, 

 is due the present crisis, just as the revo- 

 lutionary war was directly traceable to 

 similar causes-. 



Before another number of the 

 giving Day. AGE goes to press Thanksgiv- 

 ing Day will be one of the 

 holidays to which we look backward. The 

 small boy will have gorged himself and 

 had the regulation discomfort attendant 

 thereon: speeches will have been made,; 

 festivities indulged in; and we will have 

 all been thankful. At least we should be, 

 for there are probably none among us so 

 poor, so sorrowful, so forlorn but what our 

 conditions might be worse. It is strange 

 how our holidays have come to have such 

 a different significance from what their 

 originators designed. Christmas from 

 being a solemn anniversary has come to 

 mean mainly a time of gift-giving pre- 

 ceded by a long^jjd agonizing period of 

 pr3paration in which fancy work and shop- 



