DIVISION OF HOME READING. THE CHAUTAUQUAN, A Monthly Magazine for Self-Education. FRANK CHAPIN BRAY, Editor. Contents for May, 1902. Cover Design. Mephistopheles in the Guise of a Monk Appearing to Faust. Frontispiece 107-120 Cecil Rhodes Builder or Wrecker? A List of Secretaries of State. Subsidies for American Ships. of Work. Religious Gatherings. Edward Everett Hale's Birthday. The Diplomatic Service of the United States. Democracy in Nominations. Italian Education. Pontifical Methodists Seeking Adjustment With portraits, cartoons, and Louis E. Van Norman . George B. Waldron. 121 127 Current Events Programs and News Summary. . 195 CHAUTAUQUA: WILLIAM S. BAILEY, Director of Publications. Entered according to Act of Congress, May, 1902, by CHAUTAUQUA ASSEMBLY, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. O. Yearly Subscription, $2.00. Single Copies, 20c. Entered at Cleveland Post-Office as Second-class Mail Matter. MEPHISTOPHELES IN THE GUISE OF A MONK APPEARING TO FAUST. From the engraving by Cristoph van Sichem, Amsterdam, 1608. Now in Kupferstichcabinet at Berlin. (See page 170.) MAY 1 1902 T HE not unexpected death of the quarter of the world under British soverSouth African "Colossus," Cecil eignty. Rhodes, has provoked animated discussion, not only as to the real character of the man, but as to the moral of his marvelous career. Cecil Rhodes was born in an obscure parsonage, and his early life at home and at school afforded no indication of genius. His health was so unsatisfactory in his youth that the physicians confidently foretold his death of consumption. It was the fear of this malady which first took him to South Africa. While some of the accounts of his adventures, plans, and ambitions in the first phase of his South African career are plainly mythical, there is no doubt that he conceived his vast, vaulting ambitions at the very outset of his African career. His success, in a material sense, was stupendous, alike in the financial and "imperial" phases of his operations. He defeated Paul Kruger in almost every direction in their long rivalry for territory, and, largely against the wishes of the home government, gave Great Britain an empire in South Africa. He was no enemy of the Dutch, and it was as their champion, and by their votes, that he held the premiership of Cape Colony for a time. He had no political opinions on any subject alien to South Africa. He worked with the Tories, the Liberals, and even the Irish Nationalists, contributing impartially to campaign funds and at one time supporting the "home rule " demand. More than once he fell under suspicion of sacrificing imperial to personal interests, although he is supposed to have said that his essential purpose was to "paint all South Africa red," and to lay the foundation for a federated commonwealth in that Even his ardent admirers admit that he lacked patience and real statesmanship, and the Jameson raid, for which he was morally if not technically responsible, was one of his characteristic blunders. "Attempting to force the hand of Providence" is the phrase applied to that piratical and perfidious enterprise. That raid disgraced and destroyed Rhodes as a political factor. It made every Boer and Afrikander his bitter enemy. It has proved to be the efficient cause of the disastrous and terrible war in South Africa. Such a personality as Rhodes can hardly be described in one sentence. He was in a certain sense an idealist, but he was unscrupulous, reckless and contemptuous of the moral law. Gold was his weapon, ard physical force only a last resort. Many call him a true builder of empires, a dreamer and benefactor of the race, albeit a man with certain faults. On the other hand, he is denounced by earnest and high-minded men as a wrecker and marplot, an enemy of peace, true progress, and Christian civilization. Here are two radically different judgments upon him, the first being that of the New York Tribune. There will and must henceforward be much discussion, pro et contra, of the moral aspects of Cecil Rhodes's career. Memories of and parallels with Hastings and Clive come readily to mind and will be dwelt upon. Such parallels will be neither perfect nor impossible. Scarcely in our time will it be within the power of man justly to balance good and evil and form true judgment. To recur to one of the examples mentioned, Macaulay's estimate of Hastings was doubtless that of Burke and Sheridan in the hot passions of the far more accurate and just, in later years, than was hour. So will it be with Cecil Rhodes. In the present day the old rule nihil de mortuis nisi bonum will not land, and who remember without compunction, but rather with a certain exultation, our own conquest of Mexico. Neither such criticism nor glamored adulation will be the final judgment of posterity. But it may well be believed that not many names of empire builders in the world's restrain from criticism of him those who complacently ering, John Marshall, James Madison, Robcondone the savage conquests of Central Asia and of ert Smith, James Monroe, John Quincy Finland, of Madagascar and of more than one other Adams, Henry Clay, Martin Van Buren, Edward Livingston, Louis McLane, John Forsyth, Daniel Webster, Hugh S. Legaré, Abel P. Upshur, John C. Calhoun, James Buchanan, John M. Clayton, Edward Everett, William L. Marcy, Lewis Cass, Jeremiah S. Black, William H. Seward, Elihu B. Washburn, Hamilton Fish, William M. Evarts, James G. Blaine, F. T. Frelinghuysen, Thomas F. Bayard, John W. Foster, Walter Q. Gresham, Richard Olney, John Sherman, William R. Day, and John Hay. THE LATE CECIL RHODES. checkered story can better can that of Cecil Rhodes. The second view, representative of a great element, is expressed by the New York Evening Post: Mr. Rhodes was a faithful reflex of his generation in the fine name which he devised for the rapacity, the cruelty, the disregard of both moral and legal obligations which his methods involved. He was an "empire builder." 46 He worked for the British flag - that chief commercial asset,' as he once called it, in an unconscious revelation of his mind. If he was a true imperialist, the argument was if he was extending the bounds of his country's sway, why, neither his motives nor his acts must be too closely scrutinized. He could wrest lands from the natives, he could force them into practical slavery, he could march over corpses to his Subsidies for American Ships. en For several years the principle of " couraging our merchant marine" and bestowing direct government aid upon shipping companies engaged in the ocean-carrying trade has engaged the attention of legislators and platform builders. American capital has not found the shipping industry very attractive, except in so far as the coastwise trade is concerned, in which foreign competition is barred by our navigation laws. The theory is that it costs more to build and operate ships in this country than anywhere else, and that Americans are unable to meet the competition of foreign shipping companies. True, of late years our merchant marine has displayed remarkable vitality and growth, but our position on the sea is still an inferior one, and we are forced to depend on foreign-built ships to carry our exports to Europe, the Orient, and other parts of the world. According to conservative estimates, we pay annually about $60,000,000 to foreign shipping companies (some put the Writing in the present number of THE total at $100,000,000, and even higher), CHAUTAUQUAN MAGAZINE on "The Diplo- and it is urged that all this might be saved matic Service of the United States," Louis if our supremacy at sea should be restored. E. Van Norman refers to the secretaries of If we protect our manufacturers by imposing state. How many persons could give, high duties on foreign merchandise, is it not offhand, the names of all those who have right and wise to protect American shipping held the office? An examination of the either by a system of discriminating duties list furnishes one some entertainment, at on imports or by subsidies equal to the differleast. Following are the names: Thomas ence above mentioned between construction son, Edmund Randolph, Timothy Pick- and operation of ships here, and abroad? Is A List of Secretaries of State. |
