At one electioneering meeting the President said that he refused to have
electric trams at Johannesburg because he could not see his burghers
deprived of the means of selling their forage. He also assured his
audience that the Dynamite Company should be compelled to manufacture
dynamite from the products of the country--although it is well known
that almost every constituent of it must be imported from Europe. He
also stated that the Dynamite Company was essential to the independence
of the State since it made the manufacture of gunpowder possible,
whereas he knows well that the ingredients of the composition must be
purchased abroad.
At another place the President said: "I get so much money from the mines
that in a short time I shall be able to pay for the dynamite factory. I
will not break the factory. I will not allow any importation of the
ingredients to take place, but at the same time I will not throw up the
factory." The people were unable to perceive any nonsense in his words.
As the factory can only manufacture 80,000 cases a year, and as 250,000
cases are needed, it never struck them that 170,000 cases would have to
be bought elsewhere, nor that as dynamite cannot be made in the
Transvaal without obtaining its constituents elsewhere did it seem
necessary to ask how the President could keep his promise.