Encountering a gentleman whom I knew in Sydney, Australia, and who is
now on the Stock Exchange here, I inquired of him what he thought of the
condition of things. He said: "Mostly everything is at a standstill, I
think. To-day stocks and real estate are a trifle firmer, but I cannot
conceive any reason for it. There is nothing within my knowledge to
justify confidence. Old Kruger is relentless and implacable. He will
never yield, whatever people may say. And unless the reforms are
granted, so that the mines can be worked at a profit, Johannesburg must
decline, and things will become as bad for the State as for ourselves.
The old man positively hates us, and would be glad to see the town
abandoned. On the strength of the Industrial Commission report, many of
us bought largely, but when we found that there was a majority against
us, we sold out in such a haste that for a while it looked like a panic.
The majority in the Raad had been bought out by the Dynamite Company,
and, of course, we were helpless. You people at home have no idea of
the corruption of our Government. Kruger appears not to know that when
he calls the Dynamite Company a corner-stone of the State, he is giving
himself away. We know that the Company and its twin brother, the
Netherlands Railway Company, support the twenty-four members of the
Raad, and as they, with Kruger, are the State, those companies may well
be called corner-stones."