Transvaal (South Africa) -- Politics and government -- 1880-1910
Rightly to understand the problem before the little Transvaal Republic
to-day, it is necessary for Englishmen to imagine not merely that,
within the space of ten or twelve years, forty millions of Russians,
Frenchmen and Germans should enter England, not in driblets and in time
extending over half a century, so that they might, in a measure, be
absorbed and digested into the original population, but instantaneously
and at once; not merely, that the large bulk of them did not intend to
remain in England, and were there merely to extract wealth; not merely,
that the bulk of this wealth was exported at once to other countries
enriching Russia, France and Germany out of the products of English
soil; that would be comparatively a small matter--but, that the bulk
of the wealth extracted was in the hands of a few persons, and that
these persons were opposed to the continued freedom and independence of
England, and were attempting by the use of the wealth they extracted
from England to stir up Russia and France against her, that through the
loss of her freedom they might the better obtain the command of her
wealth and lands. When the Englishman has vividly drawn this future
for himself, he will hold, as nearly as is possible, in a nutshell an
image of the problem which the people and government of the Transvaal
Republic are called on to face to-day; and we put it straightly to him
whether this problem is not one of
INFINITE COMPLEXITY AND DIFFICULTY?
Much unfortunate misunderstanding has arisen from the simple use of
the terms “capitalist” and “monopolist” in the discussion of South
African matters. Without the appending of explanation, they convey a
false impression. These terms, so familiar to the students of social
phenomena in Europe and America, are generally used in connection
with a larger, but a quite distinct body of problems. The terms
“capitalism,” “monopolist,” and “millionaire” are now generally
associated with the question of the forming of “trusts,” “corners,”
etc., and the question whether it is desirable that society should so
organize itself that one man may easily obtain possession of twenty
millions, while the bulk of equally intelligent and equally laborious
men obtain little or nothing from the labor of humanity. This question
is a world-wide question; it is not one in any sense peculiarly South
African; it is a world-wide problem, which, as the result of much
thought, careful consideration and many experiments, the nations of the
civilized world will be called to adjudicate upon during the twentieth
century; but it is not the question with which South Africa stands face
to face at this moment. The question before us is not: Shall one South
African possess twenty millions, live in his palace, live on champagne,
have his yacht in Table Bay, and deck women with a hundred thousand
pounds’ worth of jewels, while the South African next door has nothing?
This is not our question. Our problem is not the problem of America.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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