THE SUNDAY OREGOMAN, PORTLAND, JANUARY 12,1908.
liL Could Not Be Achieved by War
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U
i NDKR our new government
with Great Britain, I am confi
dent that within five years all
the material losses of the recent war
will have been made up, and Trahs
vall will start on a career of prosperity
such as It never knew before:'"
It was a gallant enemy of the Brit
ish who made this prediction, no less
a person than General Louis Botha,
who In the two and a half years' strug
gle between" the little African republic
end the mighty forces of Great Bri
tain gave a valiant account of himself
in the field, and added much to the
troubles of Lords Roberts and Kitch
ener. ...
But now a new regime is being In
augurated. England recognizes the
valor of those Bhe defeated, only after
an expense of $803,000,000 and the' loss
of 105,000 men killed and wounded.
She wants them to be as good sub
jects as they were enemies, and to
assure this kind of a permanent peace,
based on mutual good feeling, has ex
tended perhaps , the most liberal peace
terms ever granted to a beaten foe.
The first act, the appointment of
General Botha to be the new premier
of the Transvaal, is In itself an act pf
magnanimity. The Boers have great
est confidence in him. They know that
he was fin closest relation's with their
great heroes Kruger, Joubert, Cronje
and De Wot.
They believe in his devotion in the
Boer, and trust him that In all which
develops in the future he will see jus
tice done the farmers who humbled
Bu'.ler. Metheun and Gatacre, and only
finally yielded to the prowess of Rob
erts and Kitchener.
In some respects it Is not surprising
that the Boers are receiving generous
treatment now, for it is significant of
changed political conditions tn Eng
land that the man who is at the helm
as prime minister. Sir' Campbell-Ban-nrman,
was a most ardent opponent
of the Boer war, one of those English
men who came Into disfavor for a time
from the vigor with which he opposed
It. The Liberal victory carried him
Into oower. and with the full sympa
thy of King Edward he addressed
himself to the Boer problem as one of
the most Important Issues of his term.
Those special objects 'of Boer dis
like Milner, Chamberlain and Jame
son have . passed from power. They
have no part now In administering the
government of the country that charges
all Us troubles to them. Sir Camp-bell-Bannerman
believes that all fric
tion between Boers and Britons might
have been avoided had the former been
taught a loyalty to the British sov
ereign, and been mado to understand
that when the acts of the sovereign's
Fatraps were unjust, they could get a
hearing and redress from the crown.
The main cause of the war was a
belief that what the Milners, Chamber
lains and Jamesons did, the Crown had
Instigated. King Edward is now ad
dressing himself to the task of showing
'.hat this was a wrong idea.
It must not be thought that the Boers
who spent two and a half years In the
Held battling for principle, and who in
that time lost families, wealth and even
country, have been reconciled in a day.
It has taken careful and judicious work.
But the Liberal victory that put into the
eats of power tho old English friends
Df tho Bocra was a fortunate stroke for
the peace of South Africa.
The effort of England to establish a
fair and equitable form of government
tor the Boers had no sooner been inaugu-
rated than the farmers of the veldt sent
ome of their trusted leaderes to London,
to aixe up the situation, and see wttat
rhance of just treatment they had. J. G.
Smuts, who was State Attorney for the
South African Republic and Assistant
Commandant-General during the war, and
lr. Kngolenburg. editor of Volksten,
tornwrly President Kruger's newspaper,
were the emissaries, and thoy returned
to the Boers with the confident promise
that whatever new arrangement might
be made would deal justly with them.
Tor the problem was in the hands of their
friends.
Then Britain reciprocated by sending
Its delegation to the Transvaal to report
the best way In which the Republic under
proper Knglish direction, could be re
itored to the Boers.
Some of the old-line actionaries re
sented the amount of self-government a
senerous England had designed for the
conquered foe, and Sir Percy FHzpatrick
nd Mr. Abe Bailey were sent from
touth Africa to London to tell the Min
istry how serious It would be to give the
Bocra any powers of self-government
whatever.
But their arguments did not aval), fcr
King Edward, while a stubborn and re
lentless foe. on the field of battle, knows
only liberality when dealing with a brave
foe with whom the fortunes of war have
dealt 111. All his pleasure was set on
giving such treatment to the Boers as
would keep them satisfied and happy for
11 times, and preclude the possibility of
"dny further conlllct.
The task of preparing a constitution
that would secure all this, and at the
. " Boers in Five Years Have Won From Endland That Whicfi ,
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same time safeguard ; the Interests of
Britain, was entrusted to the Lord Chan
cellor, Lord Loreburn, who has ever been
known as a friend of the burghers.
The new constitution gives the Boers
back their country In all that is essential.
'Adult male suffrage is granted. There Is
provision for a representative house of
69 members to be elected for -five years,
and an upper house of 15 members to be
selected by the crown. . Moreover, the
people are given the right to revise this
constitution should it be found at any
time that it works prejudice to the best
interests of the people.
The selection of 15 members of the
upper house by the crown was virtually
nullified by a provision that when there
Is a disagreement between upper and
lower house, the two shall sit ' jointly,
and then the -vote of.. the majority-shall
prevail, the vote of a man appointed by
the crown counting no more than that of
a representative who owes his choice to
popular will.'
Under the new constitution new parties
quickly started up. One is known as the
"Het Volk." a Boer way of saying "The
People," the other, known as the "Pro
gressives," is composed of the old ele
ment who think the owners of the great
mines should control the destinies of the
country.- . . -
When the vote of .the first election was
counted it was found that the "Het Volk"
party had elected 37 members and the
"Progressives" 21. The other votes were
scattered among a number of smaller
political parties, moSt of whom stooa
closer to the Boers than the mine owners,
and hence preferred to act with the for
mer. -
. Botha was sent for to organize a minis
try, and chose General Smuts as his-right-hand
man. In his choice he was entirely
unhampered, and none of bis selections
was vetoed by the Crown. . Tet so de
lighted were the Boers that General De
larey. General Bayers and Mr. Schalk
Burger, Boer leaders, pronounced it the
old headquarters staff of the republic in
stalled into office, as ministers of the
King.
The fifteen men picked for the upper
house by Ixrd Selbourne have not been
entirely satisfactory to the Boers. - since
for the most part they are united to the
party that the Boers defeated at the gen
eral election, but it is significant of the
amicable relations established by the new
constitution that no serious protest was
made asainst the list. m
That England rejoices in the hearty co
operation the Boers have given to tue
peace cause is shown -by the. magnificent
reception accorded Premier Botha on the
occasion of his recent visit as one of the
delegates to the Colonial Council, in
which Rngland entertained the big men bf
her various dependencies.
Botha was by all odds the lion of the
occasion. . He was wined and dined by
England's elite, and wherever he went
among the people, was the object of riot
ous demonstrations of popular regard. He
expressed t himself as astonished at - the
welcome he received, and was particularly
touched by tne courtesies extended to him
by his. conqueror and former foe, lord
Roberts. . . .
The peaceful solution of the Boer prob
lem is as hopeful a symptom of interna
tional good will as a peace conference. Jt
snows mat nations are neginnlng io un
derstand that generosity heals wounds
quicker than the Iron, band.-
w4. ' 't ' JsSaM 1 II f 11 y-.-ST' W2re:r VOLS S$)
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5fs Sct' KV'' ""11 'P1
Advice About Swearing Off
' " Xcw tork "Notary Who Puts Drinkers TJndcr Oath.
THE head' man of . a typewriting bu
reau ' in a' downtown arcade is 'a
notary public. ' Probably during the
next few days he will be the busiest no
tary public In New York. - He always is
just at Uiis season, says the New York
Sun. He catches, coming and going, the
business and 1 notarial fees of a large
percentage of -New York's swearers-off.
He was busy - stacking in a drawer a
freshly printed lot of blanks a couple of
afternoons ago. . . . -
"Off the.rum blanks of the usual kind,'
he explained, exhibiting one of them
Filled in, signed and stamped and
sealed, they'll be going like hot tamales
presently. - -"
"What proportion of them stick it out?
I don't know. -I'm not & statistician. .1
start 'em off on the right road for them
selves, but I can't keep tab- on how or
where they finish. ---.:
"Of course often. I'm there with a bit of
advice. If they look as If they'll take ad
vice. For instance, the -.great majority
of them want to- swear -off drinking .with
the. beginning of the New Year. Now
that isn't any good scheme, in this -town,
where -there's , so-- much .- doing - on . New
.Year's day. - If there's .ever -a. day when
an earnest and zealous rummy wants to
drink." it's on New Year's day in New
York. .
"Usually I: call -the -attention- of my
swearers off to this phase of It- I .advise
them that the better day to swear off
in this town is January the second. ' Few
of them seem to have thought it- out this
way themselves. But -nearly all of them
see It, and see it at once when the thing
Is pointed out to them. :lt gives them one
final blowout on one of New York's chief
blowout days.- - -- -
"If they look as if they're amenable to
reason I frequently offer .them a bit of
advice, too, as to the length - of time
they'd better embrace'in their swear-off
papers. You see, most men, when they
reach the swear-off stage, are so low
spirited from remorse and alcoholic de
pression and things that they demand
that they be sworn off for life, or for five,
30 or 20 years, or other unreasonable pe
riods of time. -
" 'Say, fix ' it up,' these say to mo
hoarsely, 'so that I can never take an
other drop as long as 1 live without mak
ing a danged perjurer of mysej.' , '
"Well, these chaps have got to be rea
soned with. You see, a rummy who ties
himself up for life that way has really
got small chance to stick at all.
"Now, it's different, with a fellow 'who
has sworn off only for a year, say. The
Job ..doesn't . look so "infernally difficult.
He-always has the fun .he's going to
have at the windup of his abstinent year
to look forward to. .
"He has no excuse . whatever to make
for Ijimself for taking a drink. The for
mer can. and does say to himself: 'Well.
as long as I'm tied up for life and there
isn't a chance on earth of my sticking for
life, why, I might just as well begin
again right now as any other old time,'
and then resumes his habit just as soon
as his bloom wears off. The man who is
pinned merely for' a year,, of course
hasn't that sort of oil wherewith to un
loose the wheels of his indeterminatlon.
"He has a far better chance to win out
by sticking throughout the year nomi
nated In the bond, and while I'm not giv
ing out statistics. I don't mind saying
that the chaps who stick to their swear
off paper for a year very often come
right back , and put up their hands for
another year. They're in shape to do
that,-you see.
"I put 1t in the same way to the fellows
who come rushing In and saying that they
want to swear off for five or ten or some
other unreasonable number of years.
"A great many of the swearers-off who
take out their water-wagon papers at this
season say that they want those docu
ments as New Year's gifts for their
wives. The women folks are behind most
of the swear -offs.
"The women whose husbands are drink
ing too much for their own or anybody
else's good connected with them tell
their spouses that they'd appreciate a
duly recorded and witnessed swear-off
paper more than any other New Year's
gift that could be made them. This gets
the overdrinkers to thinking, and -the
more a conscientious chap thinks about
the spick and spanness and the blnding
ness of a swear-off paper the more likely
he is to fall for one.
"Plenty of fellows do" the swear-off
thing at the instigation, of-their sweet
hearts. They're, forced up to the. be-good
bench by the girls, and they take their
medicine .,ke little men, particularly
when circumstances are so framed that
they've got to. By that I mean that
there are chaps 'whose sweethearts force
them to take the non-drinking pledge for
a year and sometimes for longer periods,
on perlil that If they don't stick to the
oath there 11 be no wedding bells.
- "I have yet to. see one of these fellows
thus bound fall down; Men may do, I
grieve to say. break promises to the
wives of their- bosoms in a matter of this
sort but not . to - their financeesv if
I know anything about the swear off
business, and I've been filling in those
blanks for a long time now. -
"Not infrequently ,a man's wife accom
panies him when he drops In to swear off.
I never consiuerea tnat -gpoa ousiness
You can make a jumping horse hop i
hedge, even If he's balky, but you. can't
make him win a race. A swear-off, to
have any of the. good gravy of absolute
Intent in it. has got to be voluntary.
"A chap who's led up to the swear-off
line by his. wife always has the grouchy
holdout to excuse a lapse that he swore
off under wifely duress. The fellow who
swims right In. all on his own hook and
Initiative, without having told his wife
word of it. Is the boy who's most likely
to stick. .. ..
"I never ''have maoe out - swear-off
papers for a drunken man. or even a man
partially Intoxicated. You see, while
swearing off is athing that .we talk about
lightly enough., it really isn't much of a
laughing matter when you look It over.
The man who, gets to the swearing-off
stage always has 'hurt 'himself and hurt
others a heap, or he wouldn't be meditat
ing swearing off. And swearing off Is a
Job for a sober man, not for a fellow
whose senses are obfuscated.
'No' determination framed up under the
influence of a strong emotion, much less
while under the Influence of drink, ever
can amount to very much. . That's my
view, anyhow. Swearing off is a matter
for a man to lie in bed and think over
for a bunch of nights in a row. and while
his thinking apparatus is in regular -working
kilter.
"The pickled ones who come here to so
through the motions of swearing off
really make a good deal of bother for
me, and they're hard to get rid of. I al
ways request them to come hack when
they're right. Few of these chaps really
want to swear off, for they rarely came
back In their sober senses.
"Men swear off on plenty of other
things besides rum at this season. T havo
to have the papers -typewritten lor incse
side line's of .swearing off.
"Generallyi at this period. I swear off
at least a dozen fellows who .undertake
on oath not to touch a playing card for
varying periods. 'Say. make me stop
playing poker-for a year, will you?' is
the usual greeting of these chaps when
they step in, and I send 'em away cheer
ful In the belief that If they're broke
at the corresponding period next year it
won't be on account of the game of draw.
"Iast year I swore off two downtown
business men who took their oath that
they'd never again buy or sell a share
of stock on margin as long as they lived.
; They'd been pretty well stung In the mar
ket, these two. and I guess that there s
not much chance that they've broken
the terms of their pledge.
"I don t have enough New lcara
swearers-off on cussing to need a separ
ate blank for notarial patrons of that
kind, but I always catch quite a few
of them at this season.
"A man with a curious sort of a hunch
toward virtue dropped In on me along
toward the close' of the year In 1905. He
wanted to take oath that he'd never 'lay
hand to .his wife' again.
"Trig, well-groomed sort of a chap, too.
he was probably a wlfebeater In pros
perous circumstances. But I wouldn't
make out any swear off papers for him.
"I told him that I thought a normal
man ought to be able to make up 'his
mind and stick to it not to beat his wife
without taking any oath to such a prop
osition.
"He took It huffily and told me that he
hadn't dropped in upon me for advice.
but to get a paper made out and exe
cuted. But he didn't get his paper from
me.
"Another .man-this was last year-
wanted me to swear him off on ever get
ting up and giving his seat to a woman
In a public vehicle, elevated, subway or
surface car again as long as he lived and
breathed. It seems that he'd given up his
seat in a subway car that forenoon to a
woman who got on away uptown, and
she hadn't even given 'him a. nod of
thanks, and he stormed around that the
same thing had happened to him about a
dozen times during the previous month,
and he wanted things fixed .so that ho
wouldn't make a fool of himself by favor
ing a woman again as long as he was on
top of the earth.
"I didn't swear him off, either, for he
was too substantial and fine a man to be
bound by any such frivolous oath. I told
him, all the same, that he ought to be
able to hang on to his seat without doing
any oath taking in connection with ,it.
"He'd have perjured himself sure if
he'd taken that oath, for a few mornings
ago I rode down with him, and although
he's 65 years of age, at One Hundred and
Twenty-seventh street he sprang up and
surrendered his seat to a fat woman with
a market basket and she never even
looked her thanks, if she felt- any, at the
fine old boy, either.".
How Texts on Coins
Have Dropped Out
London Observer.
rHB omission (announced during the
past" week) of the words. "In God
We Trust" from the United States
coinage is interesting as marking the dis
appearance of what was probably the
last surviving religious motto on coins
In the currency of the Western world.
So many, protests were . raised against
the change that President Roosevelt sent
out a letter explaining that there was
no warrant in law for the inscription,
which,- he declared, had been an indict
ment "to "sneering ridicule." He ex
pressed his firm conviction that to put
such a motto on coins did positive harm,
and was an irreverence .'that came da'n
gerously close to the sacrilegious.
The motto which has just been discard
ed in America was of comparatively re
cent adoption probably in or about the
year 1870, its place having formerly been
taken by the words "E pluribus unum, '
which first appeared on the New Jersey
currency In 1786.
In the middle ages texts from the Bible
were very commbnly 'adopted, both in this
country and abroad. A German coin. of
the 16th century, for instance, bears the
Inscription, "Love God before all things."
and in England we find texts and relig
ious mottoes dating back to Anglo-Saxon
times. Here are a few of the biblical
quotations which have figured (in Latin)
on the coinage of these islands:
"Lord, save thy people."
"He - hath. done, marvelous things."
"Let NGod arise and let his enemies be
scattered."
"Give peace. O Lord."
"Blessed be the name of the Lord."
"What God hath Joined together let no
man put asunder."
"But Jesus, passing through the midst,
of them, went his way."
The origin of several of these inscrip
tions is full of historical interest. The
last, for Instance,' was "chosen by Edward
III in reference to his naval victory over
the French at the battle of Sluys, when
he drove his ships through the French
fleet and got away unharmed. The coin,
the first English noble, was struck in
18-13, three years after the battle, and
marked the beginning of a gold currency
in England.
"He hath done marvelous things" iMir
abilia fecit) was chosen in Anglo-Saxon
times by Siegfried, who succeeded Ca
nute. King of Northumbrian and became
converted to Christianity.
"Let God arise and let his enemies be
scattered" refers to the civil war In the
time of Charles I.
"Blessed be the name of the Lord" was
taken from the French coins by Henry
V, as King of France.
"What God hath joined together let no
'man put asunder" refers to the union of
the English and Scottish kingdoms, and
was adopted by James I in 1604. The
coins were struck ayn silver derived
from Welsh mines' in the neighborhood
of AbtrVstwyth.
Why H Didn't Know Him.
Boston Herald.
An up-country business man was once
Introduced to Abbott Lawrence.
"Mr. Smith?" said Mr. Lawrence, with
a musing air. "I don't think I know you,
do I?''
"Well, you ought to," was the reply.
"I've traded with you for twenty years."
. "Always paid your bills, perhaps?"
"Of course." t
' "That accounts for It,'-' said Mr. Law
rence. "I know the others.'