John Chinaman on the Rand

by Anonymous

Indeed, to expect spiritual ideals on the Rand is too ridiculous for words. The man who searches the Bible for a text to suit his line of argument might perhaps find one for the Rand lords from the Old Testament, and preaching from the sentence that "silver was counted as naught in the days of Solomon" might argue that all practices were justifiable to bring about a state of affairs which apparently had the Divine approval. The ideal of the Rand is money. All imperial, social and religious considerations have no weight with the masters of the gold mines. Their object is to get gold, and to get it as cheaply as they can, and with this in view they realize that they must obtain two things—1. Political control of the Transvaal; 2. Slave labour. To attain the first, all Englishmen, with their democratic ideas of liberty and freedom, must be kept out of the country. This first object attained, the introduction of slave labour would be extremely simple.

How they achieved their object is the history of South Africa for the last eight years.

As long ago as 1897, when mines were booming and vast fortunes were being made, the leaders of the mining industry suddenly realized by a simple arithmetical calculation that more money could be made if their workmen were paid less.

Representations were made to President Kruger, a Government Commission was appointed, and the possibility of reducing the wages of Kaffir workmen was discussed in all its bearings. Mr. George Albu, who was then the chairman of the Chamber of Mines, pointed out that 2s. 3d. a shift was being paid to the Kaffirs, and that this could be reduced to 1s. 6d. a shift for skilled labour and 1s. or less for unskilled labour. When he was asked how this could be accomplished, he replied, "By simply telling the boys that their wages are reduced." Mr. Albu, however, declared that a much better state of affairs would be brought about if a law was passed compelling the Kaffir to do a certain amount of work per annum, though he admitted that nowhere in the world was there a law enabling any particular industry to obtain forced labour.

President Kruger's Government—accounted corrupt and irradical in those days, but now regarded by comparison throughout the Transvaal and Orange River Colony by both English and Dutchmen alike as most benevolent and beneficent—refused to sanction a system which would not only have been in opposition to the Conventions with Great Britain of 1852, 1854, and 1884, but would have been opposed to the spirit of humanity that should exist among all civilized communities.

Then came the war. The Boer Government was swept away. Two hundred and fifty millions and 21,000 English lives was the price exacted for planting the Union Jack in Pretoria and Bloemfontein.

During the war the magnates, with a persistence worthy of a better cause, kept before them those objects which I have enumerated. The consulting engineer of the Consolidated Goldfields reported to a meeting of mining representatives at Cape Town that dividends could be increased by two and a half millions by reducing Kaffir wages, and it was agreed that on the opening of the mines Kaffirs' wages should be reduced by 33 per cent. When peace came it was found that the Kaffirs were not prepared to work on these terms. They had grown rich during the war, and in the independence of their new-found wealth they refused to be treated as so much human machinery. It was bad enough for them to work at their original wages in the Rand mines, without their consenting to such a large reduction in their wages. The rate of mortality in the Rand mines was seventy per thousand per annum; the rate of mortality in the De Beers mines was only thirty per thousand per annum. The De Beers never had any difficulty in obtaining what native labour they required, because they treated their men well, looked after their interests, did not sweat them, and admitted that a black man, although black, was still a man. But even under these circumstances, had the magnates of the Rand offered the scale of wages that pertained before the war, they would have found black labour in abundance. But even with a black man a minimum of 30s. and a maximum of 35s. a month with food is hardly tempting enough to draw him from his kraal.

The alternative of white labour was, of course, never seriously considered. The mere Englishman who had fought for the country was not to be allowed to settle in the country or to work in the country. The Angots, the Beits, the Ecksteins, the Hanaus, the Kuchenmeisters, the Rosenheims, the Schencks, the Taubs, the Wernhers, and the rest of the gentlemen delighting in similar grand old English names were determined not to permit it. The foolish Englishman would want to vote; would have ideas about personal liberty and personal freedom; would have ridiculous notions about Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights; would, in short, think that the nation that had spilt its blood and spent its money for the Rand was entitled to a vote in its management.

With almost unparalleled insolence the Rand lords frankly declared that the introduction of English labour would place the control of the country in the hands of Englishmen, and would lead to that trail of the serpent, the formation of labour unions. It was to meet with this that two hundred and fifty millions was spent by the English people, 25,000 died, 25,000 were permanently maimed.

That white labour could be used, and be used profitably, was proved beyond a doubt. Even when the higher wages were taken into account, it was found that in the cyanide works of the gold mines the Kaffirs' cost per ton was 5s. 3d., against the Whites' 4s. 9d. In developing and stopping actual work of the mining underground, the Kaffirs cost 4s. 8d. and the Whites 4s. 2d. per ton. It was only in the machine drill work that the Kaffirs proved slightly cheaper than the Whites. There Kaffir labour worked out at 6s. 4d. per ton, white labour at 6s. 9d.; a difference of 5d. per ton, so small a difference as to be almost a negligible quantity.