New-York tribune. [volume], August 15, 1915, Page 2, Image 18

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* AIM'S
GREATEST I
IAL
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Since George Washington the Brit?
ish Empire Has Produced No
More Momentous a Figure
Than That of the Conquer?
or of German South?
west Africa, ThinRs
Mr. Scott.
No Rider Haggard Novel Holds
More Stirring Plot Than the
Story of the Treason of De
Wet and the Triumph of
New Empire on the
Dusty Veldts of
Africa.
Bv A. MacCULLOM SCOTT. M. P.
THE conquest of German Southwest
Africa by General Botha is in itself
a great feat of arms. It took the
British Empire, with all its resources
nearly three years to conquer two small Boer
republics?the Transvaal and the Orange
River Free State. General Botha has subdued
a rebellion and conquered a German colony as
large as the German Empire in Europe in ten
months. At the beginning he had only 4.000
trained men at his disposal. He was handi
? iprsed by the treason of the commandant gen?
eral of the active citizen force of the union
and by a civil war in which some 10,000 armed
citizens took the field against him. He was
matched against the greatest military power
in the world, which had a fully trained force
of lo.ocio men and a large accumulation of ar?
tillery and ammunition. He won not merely
by the brute force of superior arms, but by
the exercise of superior military genius.
General Botha's campaign is a great mili?
tary exploit, but in its historical setting it is
something far greater than that. It is the cul?
mination of a great spiritual drama. It marks
an epoch in the history of the British Empire.
Like the Reformation or the English Civil
War or the French Revolution or the Ameri?
can Rebellion or the American Civil War, it
represents a great conflict of ideals, and with
it is associated ?** gigantic personality in which
the forces of destiny have been focussed as in
Martin Luther, Oliver Crcmwell. Napoleon
Bonaparte, George Washington and Abraham
Lincoln.
Louis Botha is the greatest imperial states?
man that the British Empire has produced
since George Washington, and, for Britain, the
conquest of German Southwest Africa is a
more important event than the American Re?
bellion. It is the converse of what happened
in i?7'"4. Then we lost an empire through at?
tempting to found it on an unsound principle.
Bui there was nothing to tell us that it was
only the principle adopted and not the idea
oi 71 colonial empire itself which was unsound.
Hi's often quoted phrase about the colo?
ries being a millstone hung around our necks
the aftermath of the American Rebellion.
Africa is an empire gained by the oppo
rinciple. This will have a profound in?
fluence upon the whole course of imperial de
\elopment. It establishes firmly a new tradi?
tion which will be deeply rooted in the popular
nd, reacting on all our imperial relations
pid even on India. There has always been a
rong party which opposed what was known
as "imperialism." It will disappear now that
imperialism" has taken on a new significance.
We know now with certainty our imperial des?
tiny.
And yet by how narrow a margin was suc?
cess ?-eparated from failure' It is well on in
the second century since the revolt of the
American Colonies, and yet we stood within a
hairsbreadth of losing South Africa through
the same false principle of empire. The old
tradition fought up to the last. There were a
few days when everything hung in the balance
and Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman held the
s ales.
? HI?ESE LABOR FORCED UPON THE ' '?I ONY.
The peace of Vereeniging ended the war
with the Boei republics, but it did not settle
the future of South Africa. The path of
Statesmanship was beset by deadly lures,
Lord M.lner, the High Commissioner of the
Crown, was an apostle of the old tradition.
He gave his support to an agitation to secure
the suspension of the constitution in Cape
Colony. Mr. Chamberlain had the insight to
disregard his advice. Lord Milner, however,
was more successful in his attempt to force
quasi-servile Chinese labor upon an unwilling
colony. So lonj*, as Mr. Chamberlain remained
Secretary for the Colonies his democratic in?
stinct warned him against this dangerous
project. He returnc' from his tour in the new
colonies convinced that "the opinion of the
Transvaal is hostile to the introduction of
Asiatic labor," and he assured the House of
Commons: "I shall certainly not be a party
to imposing it upon a hostile majority." But
his successor was more pliant, and Lord Mil
ner succeeded in securing his assent to a meas?
ure which was as repugnant to the people of
South Africa as was the Stamp Act to the
people of America.
The fate of South Africa next passed into
the hand of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman.
The general election of 1906 gave him a larger
majority than any Prime Minister had pre?
viously enjoyed. He was a man of strong and
simple faith, and he determined to use his
power to reverse the policy of Lord Milner
not only with regard to Chinese labor but also
with regard to the whole principle of the gov?
ernment of the two new colonies. The grant
of self-government to the Transvaal and
Orange River colonies was made in the face of
strong protests, which, however, were not car?
ried into the division lobbies. Mr. Balfour re?
fused to accept joint responsibility with the
government for this great act, which he told
the House of Commons he regarded as "the
most reckless experiment ever tried in the de?
velopment of a great colonial policy" (July
31. 1906). In reference to this same subject
Lord Milner declared (Rugby, November 19,
1907):
I have seen the people of this country
talked into a policy with regard to South
Africa at once so injurious to their own in?
terest ? and so base to those who had thrown
in their lot with us that if the British nation
had only known what that policy really meant
they would have spat it out of their mouths.
What that policy really meant was the con?
quest of German Southwest Africa by Louis
Botha, a British general.
SUCCESS IN THE PACK OP DIFFICULTIES.
"First in war, first in peace . . ." Old
echoes ring in our cars. The native genius of
the Boer farmer shone as brightly in the coun?
cil chamber as on the battlefield. It was in
itself a portent that the commander in chief
of the Transvaal republican forces should be
within four years of the end of the war Prime
Minister of a self-governing Transvaal colony
by virtue of a Boer majority. It was a more
remarkable portent that his should be the
figure round which all the South African colo
/.ozm Botha, Who ('mined for England a New Empire and Proved
the Wisdom of Her Policy of Conciliation.
nies, Boer and British alike, should rally in
the movement towaid federation. Botha was
the first, and so far the only, Prime Minister
of the United States of South Africa. The
problems which confronted him demanded con?
structive statesmanship or the highest order,
the work of federation, the reconciliation of
the two while r;ces embittered by the memo?
ries of the war .ind that o'.lier racial problem
of a black native population largely outnum?
bering the whites, with the complication of a
strong infusion of Asiatic labor. In his hand?
ling of these problem!* Botha displayed an
elemental sanity and breadth of view which
won the confidence of men of all parties. He
was fortunate in having by his side a col?
league of brilliant intellr tuai gifts?General
Smut-*, a diplomati-t and negotiator unsur?
passed in any of the courts of Europe. But he
was no mere figurehead. In spite of repeated
challenges and some defections his position ie
mained unshaken; rather it strengthened from
year to year.
The European war was the supreme test of
the handiwork of Sir Henry Campbell-Ban
ncrman and General Botha. "The rain de?
scended and the floods came and the winds
blew and beat upon that house and it fell not,
for it was founded upon a rock." The effect
upon South Africa of the outbreak of war with
Germany was, as the report issued by the
Union government says, immediate and pro?
found. There were still many in whom time
had not assuaged the bitterness of the defeat
of the two republics and who still longed to
sec the old Vierkleur hoisted. There was,
moreover, a "Wee Free" sect'on of Boers, a
section of hard-grained racial and religious
bigots, who would fain have used self-govern?
ment to impose their narrow creed upon the
whole Union ai'd who had offered a stubborn
resistance to Hotha's policy of reconciliation.
As the Germans nearer! Paris they were all
thrown into a ferment of unrest, which culmi?
nated in rebellion.
LIKE A RIDER HAGGARD NOVKI..
The official report on the outbreak and sup?
pression of the rebellion is, both in its style
and in its matter, one of the most extraordi?
nary state documents ever printed. It is more
like a Rider Haggard novel than anything else.
Plot is concealed within plot; there is violent
action and stealthy intrigue; the long arm of
coincidence intervenes, and a strong super?
natural element is not lacking, indeed, had
the novelist introduced such episodes into one
of his plots critics would have jeered at them
as incredible.
Of De Wet's treason, I think, too much has
been made. He certainly was the most pictur?
esque figure in the rebellion, and his example
had a powerful influence on others who were
hesitating, but hif* was not one of the originat?
ing and directing minds. He was but an in?
strument in the hands of more astute plotters.
Like Botha, he bad a natural genius for war,
but, unlike him, he had no gift for politics.
His narrow "Dopper" creed forbade a broad
outlook, and in politics he saw himself out
mancruvred by arts which he despised and did
not understand. He imagined he was rebelling
against the alien power of Britain, whereas in
reality he had challenged Africanderdom led
by Botha. The ruin of this great man is a
theme which would have suited the greatest of
the Greek tragedians. The real directors of
the rebellion were General C. F. Beyers, com?
mandant general of the active citizen force
of the Union, and Lieutenant Colonel Maritz,
who was in charge of the defences of the dis?
trict where the Cape Province bordered on
German territory These men translated into
deeds the principles which "General" Hertzog,
the anti-Botha lawyer-politician, had been in?
culcating for yeais.
The conspiracy was to a large extent con?
sciously and avowedly modelled upon the anti
Home Rule plan of campaign in Ulster, a fact
which still embarrasses the Union government.
It was based upen an appeal to deeply rooted
religious prejudices and antipathies. It pro?
fessed to be a "constitutional" rebellion, a kind
of armed passive resistance to a government
which was acting unconstitutionally and which
was trying to coerce the Boers into doing
something which they abhorred. If pressed
far enough "the government would resign
rather than fire on its own people." An in?
sidious pro; apanda was carried on in the army,
^ THAT FEMINIST HOME n*
The "Ist" Presents Her Briefs for Feminine as Well as Masculine Efficiency.
By MAY DEWITT TALMAGE.
1"\ HE article in a Sunday magazine en
titled "That Feminist Paradise Palace
Rouses the Ire of An Unbeliever" made
me think of the truism: There are always two
ways of looking at -my subject.
The new Feminist Heme is not, as An Unbe
licver suggests, to "eirct a privileged class of
women who would do no woman's work, leav?
ing children to hirelings, paying for the want
of the thousand ministrations that the true
mother lavishes on her children"; it is not for
the woman who shirks responsibility of chil?
dren, or to emancipate her from domestic
duties, but it is "for wage earners, in business,
or profession, whether married or single, and
it will enable couples to aflord to have children
which now they are too poor to do."
Th.* Feminist Home is to supply a great
reed of ?he women who mil * be wace earners,
some through inspiration, but the majority
through necessity. The money they go out to
r t n is not "to buy immunity from all that is
disagreeable drudgery, to hire other women
to do what they ought to do themselves; to
climb above ?he harsh labors of the house "i
the shoulders of other women whom hard ne?
cessity compels to he their paid servants," but
to help pay for the daily living.
A woman said to me recently, "I hate to
give up my apartment. I love my home, but I
cannot fry eggs and do creative work a? the
same time."
The word "efficiency" has been creeping into
all the walks of life, and with it go many
changer, slways for the better. Should it not
bf applied to the woman wage earner as well
as the man? The clever business manager
wnild never remain a clerk. Neither would a
bank president he content to be ? master
mechanic. Neither should my friend waste
her time frying eggs when she can get $280
for an ar'.irle. Eor who questions but that her
brain is of more importance than any culinary
art, especially as she is supporting her father
and self with hrr pen.
If from necessity a woman must be away
frcm home, what comfort it would be for her
t?-? think that her home was in the "hands of a
staff of trained experts," the children under
trained nurses, in a Montcssori school, or
1 indergarten, where they can have the best of
? ire morally and physically, a privilege here?
tofore claimed only by the wealthy stay at
home sister. What a privilege to leave those
they love in such an atmosphere, and with free
mind and heart to go forth, as a man does, into
the bittle of !ife untrammelled hy worries and
anxiety for the young lives they have left be?
hind in the care of incompetent help, for the
price of < ompetent help has gone up with the
high erst of livitig
Yes the Feminist Home will supply a great
need of the wage earning woman and will be
like m oasis in a desert. Not because she does
not believe in the old-fashioned home, but be
? ausc for economic reasons she cannot have one.
But there is still another class of women to
whom the Feminist Home must be a boon.
It is the woman to whom the Creator gives a
rare gift, the power to do creative brain work.
An Unbeliever says: "The genius of the man
is for specialized and concentrated effort, while
that of woman is for adapted effort and dis?
tributed energy, as every mother and house?
keeper knows."
with the object of inducing officers and m?
to refuse to resist the rebels or to carry out
the lawful orders of the constitutional author
?ties. To complete the parallel, General Bothi'i
reluctance to force the issue and his indiffer?
ence to provocation in the initia! stages bore
a strong resemblance to Mr. Asqu;th's policy
of "wait and see."
r.OVKRNMKNT EMPLOYES Til!. ? ?i\sp|R.
\roi;s
The rebellion was not a casual outburst; it
was a carefully planned conspiracy by men h
the government service who had a full know.,
edge of the government's plans and v.-ho wen
able to use the machinery of the postoff.ee
free of charge "on his majesty's service'* for
their treasonable correspondence. For tie
first six weeks they played upon the super,
stitions of the Back Veldt Boers by manipula*.
ing the hallucinations of an i terate farmer
who. on the strength of his visions, had -ac?
quired the reputation of a prophet. This ef?
fort in thaumaturgies ended disastrously. li?
the course of their stage management the con?
spirators fell into a police trap set for a gang
of motor bandits, and, thinking that the trap
had been set for themselves, they sought to
burst through the police cordon, with the re?
sult that the venerable and chivalrous Pe la
Rey, who knew nothing of the plot, was shot
dead. For a few days panic drove them to
cover, but gradually the grim irony of the ac?
cident dawned upon them. They gathered up
the threads of their plot, and soon Beyers,
Maritz and De Wet were in active rebellion,
rousing the country, commandeering food an?!
supplies and cutting up the railways. It took
General Botha exactly two months to round
them up. He could have done it in less, but
he spent some weeks trying to negotiate a
peaceful surrender. The conquest of German
Southwest Africa occupied him a further ?u
months.
PROTECTION FOR THE WOMEN LNO < HIL
DREN.
Tt was a great soldier who planned and car?
ried out the campaign, but it was a great
statesman who issued the various proclama?
tions to the rebels and to the G'rm~:-s. Every
door was left open for the rebels to
and a generous amnesty was offered. When
he occupied Windhoek, after marching through
a desert in which the wells had been poisoned,
his first care was for the Germ in women and
children. He wired home a v?ern rebuke to
the mob-valiant patriots who had taken ad?
vantage of his absence to wreck and loot Ger?
man premises in Johannesburg? and Cape Town.
After accepting the surrender of the whole of
the German forces he issued an order to the
Union forces in Damaraland reminding them
that "self-restraint, courtesy and consideration
for the feelings of others on the part of troops
whor-e good fortune it is to be victors are es?
sential." When he struck he struc!< with all
his might; but he was never vindictive, never
harsh, and he always sought conciliation. The
ideal of a united South Africa, in whicn all
races and parties should live together in neigh?
borly accord, was never absent from his min?!
What is to be the future of this farmer-sol?
dier-statesman whose heroic figure dwarfs the
little idols of yesterday like Cecil Rhodes?
There is already talk of an earldom and $50".?
000. But would he take it? Would George
Washington have accepted a crown? An earl?
dom is not such a big thing on the veldt as it
sounds in London. It is more important that
General Botha should sit upon the Imperial
Council, which, it is now clear, must be one of
the most important results of th;s war. H'.s
career did not e:*.d at Vereeniging, nor is it
likely to end with the conquest of Southwest
Africa. There is work for him still in the new
empire which is being constructed.
t^Tr^
Answers a Ost
"*?"?* *rHAT do you consider the cause foi
VV/ the lack of a distinctive national dra
? ' ma? Mr. Thomas: I do not think
any Sttcb lack. I think America ibout
? . h in playa that expresa her nationality
intry of which I know. If \ , i .hi'.ui
? consider the cause of the *_b
? of what may be calle. "The Great Amer
Play," one would say the great si/.c of the
try, which prevente any single play epito
rig thi geniua of the country.
of to~day
I
of to ??ay are made in New
York. New York is **ot characteristically
American.
are the more talented me**! or
lUthorO, an actt ?
Thr history of all arts, it seems to me. indi
that men are the more talented. The
question seems to be inspired by the fact that
women seem more emotional and are perhaps
more responsive to art, but that is not true
in the fields of creation.
dt !" nth <i ok Europe fot
dramatic enU rtaintnont4.'
We haven't. We have been very hospitable
to European productions, but we haven't en?
tirely leaned on them, and we could be. if we
cared to be, entirely independent of their*..
Why docs tin ?tagt pot ro? no ?'t'lv
m4traetion for our ??Otts und lut nu y
geniuses/
_.-?_.-_ Medial False ob_ "The Grea? Amerkan Flay," Commtu?,_T.al Theafares?, GH-ics, Wa?s,
etc, Is Felt Oui* and Mere Recorded.
I dr. not think it does j tsscss little attrac?
tion for them. I never knew a poet or literary
genius who had not tried it.
Will ilr plays of the futurs also cater
largely '<> ihr tired business man's need
for ?'i i*< - i on?
The first requisite of a play in the future, one
would think, would be the first requisite of
playa in the past; that is, to entertain. If tl.e
tired business man calls this entertainment di?
version, plays of the future will consciously
cater to him.
Will 'In' tha* ot?te n ttive
talent gets u hearing chana* f-'?*- broad
principles upon nhn-h out we*>ent day
drame reel ?' Do you not think that th*
neial cond ch govern the mor
ket to-day w '/ be as potent f<> shape I i
/ ut the drawn then as M I .'
I do nut think that the fact that more r.at've
talent is employed will change the broad prin?
ciples of their work any more than I think
more people at a t?blc will alter the principles
of digestion Our present ciay drama rests, as
far as it rests at all. tipjn its ability to stir
the human emotions. If it advances at all it
will be because it advances in that ability no
matter who works on it, and if it degenerates
it will be from the failure to do that. To the
econd pi 1 o;' ,-our question : I think the finan -
cial conditions will affect the theatre as much
in the future as they affect i? now as long as
the theatre is a financial enterprise.
/.?? it rut poSSibls in the fu''ire 'o ?tah
lish in Ann run the communal theatres as
'/?(,'/ i//?- established in Ear ore i
That will be possible wherever you ?an per?
suade the governing intelligence of the com?
munities that the commun;.; theatre is desir?
able.
Will i very piny tent to '/'????r offi e re
reive the necessary attention with the
rinr of establishing Us real merit?
Emphatically no; that is a physical impossi?
bility, hut those which shew at first glance
that they are written by persons with some
knowledge of dramatic construction and with
? "f the value of a dramatic idea will
get the necessary attention.
? part inil tlie erities platt ??" this
mo ? 'i < nt/
The serio s and qualified critics can and will
be constructively helpful. The indifferent ones
who come with their tongues in their cheeks
and try to make reputations for themselves by
saying, "Oh. mamma"?they will p!ay v? ry
much the part that they have played hereto?
fore.
Will you consider the advisability of o
test tin ut re to try plays out i
The idea is admirable. I do not think this
office will take the initiative step in that direc?
tion.
.1 work ??" drama tiiat is to f**-* eaoroe*
teristically American must natural'.*, be
? ? ?? of tiKir element if our so?
ciety n i '??? '"/*'f in our
social fabric. Which ? *-**< e< ?a that,
working?middle cla I ' !
atona?, or the artistic?
It would only be necessary to be character?
istically American tint it should express deeply
the emotions of a heart innately democratic.
There is no especia! call for class plays or class
distinction, for human nature is the same in
every zone. The difference lies only in the
counters with which it plays the game.
Will "?' the ?fay work of >)" ,.
future be tinged l>y the struggle fioittn r>>\
? /" Europe? And 'til! not this war
tend 'o makt art-OXprt tion more cosmo?
politan in trend? Are not the na'iori}
lean big i > understand ea^h other*? ?'?-w
point as never befar* '
I think it was our historian. John Fiske. who
said that a change in philosophy preceded
every epoch making change in an art. If that
be true, then I am inclined tc think this war in
Europe will affect our art-expression just so
far as it affects our philosophies, and in the
? me it will naturally vitilize, although it
will no, in reas.*, the output of those read.r?
who are most closely touched by the struggle.
? m this country da yon l. ink
?
That is a question that rccuires considerable
qualifying in the answer. Things artistic,
broadly speaking, touch the emotions through
several tones,which may be broadly enumer?
ated is, let us say, six, and which would be
did crammed by the figur? of an equilateral
triangle. If such a figure is set upon its base
and ruled off into six raquai strata and on those
strata, beginning at the base, we re^d re?
spectively the words, "self-preservation, repro?
duction. !:in, country, man and God," we shall
have zones in which the emctions are stirred
by various kinds of appeal, the broadest appeal
being made in the basic zone of *?slf?pi*eaerva
tion and the smallest appeal artistically being
made in the apex of religion. Granting this.it
would seem that the answei would be that a
part of the country would respond to an ar?
tistic appeal made to it in the -
greatest interests. To illustrate, the Alaska:'?
frontier would most readily u:;Jerstind the
play where the appeal as a question cf self
preservation; the section most d?.?t-.nctive.y
American and patriotic would respcnd more to
a play made -long the lines of patriotism.
Is there, a possibility of Art I
I [?-/toi s the fui
Religion is nn art itself, under the '
defnit.cn of art, which definition, in ?tlM opin?
ion of many qualified to judge, is "that any
work of man the primal i-.tention of which 9
to stir the human emotion is an ait r?cligio?**
are the work of man. Their intention is to
stir the human emotions. They ?re a vel7
high type of art.
What is ganin11
Of all the definitions of "genius" that I rtfP
pen to have read I am mcst friendly to that
of William James. I am quoting cnly 'r0ffl
memory and not at all accurately, but Mr
James siys that the distinctive quality of the
genius is his power of association, that ability
which makes one idea recall a relative one an
is in contradistinction to the mi
in tel'ing you a story says that "it was on Mob
day morning, no it was on Tuesdiy mornini
because 1 was going to get my groceries ?
in ether words, the genius is not the F"4?n"
of detail