ts of danger
arrived, and when it was felt that their influence could be used
towards the preservation of peace,--as witness the Loch incident.

'It is no crime to be a capitalist,' said one commentator on the late
events, and neither is it necessary to attribute to this section of
the community motives of patriotism to justify their association with
the Reform movement. It is not intended to suggest that the men who
did associate themselves eventually with it were not moved by any
higher consideration than that of protecting their interests--in many
cases a far larger view than this was taken; but it may be
asked,--assuming that the capitalists were not moved by higher
considerations,--What is there in their position which should debar
them from endeavouring to introduce the reforms which would benefit
them only equally with every other honest man in the community?

Most of the wealthy houses in the Transvaal are either offshoots of
or have supporting connections with firms in England or on the
Continent. Between them and their principals much correspondence had
taken place on the political situation. As far as these houses were
concerned, it was impossible for them to enter upon any movement
without the consent of their European associates. For this reason the
Reform movement, as it eventually took place, has in some ways
the appearance of and has very frequently been stigmatized as an
organization planned and promoted outside the Transvaal. The fact is
that Mr. Alfred Beit, of the firm of Wernher, Beit and Co., London,
and Mr. Cecil Rhodes, managing director of the Consolidated
Goldfields, may be regarded as the chiefs to whom the ultimate
decision as to whether it was necessary from the capitalistic point
of view to resort to extreme measures was necessarily left. Each of
these gentlemen controls in person and through his business
associates many millions of money invested in the Transvaal; each of
them was, of course, a heavy sufferer under the existing conditions
affecting the mining industry, and each, as a business man, must
have been desirous of reform in the administration. Mr. Beit acted
in concert with Mr. Lionel Phillips, of H. Eckstein and Co., the
Johannesburg representatives of Wernher, Beit and Co. Mr. Rhodes was
represented by his brother, Colonel Francis Rhodes, and Mr. J.H.
Hammond, of the Consolidated Goldfields Company in Johannesburg. Mr.
George Farrar, another very large mine-owner, who joined