Page:The Psychology of Jingoism.djvu/124

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
112
The Psychology of Jingoism

resources by obtaining from the British military authorities the sole right to establish a newspaper at Bloemfontein. The newspapers at Kimberley and at Buluwayo are in the same hands, and the Cape Times is financially controlled by Mr. Rutherford Harris, a colleague of Mr. Rhodes in his several financial ventures. The principal organs of public opinion at all the political pivots in South Africa are thus owned by the little group of men who also own or control the diamond mines at Kimberley, the gold-fields of the Rand, and the government and resources of Rhodesia.

In a country like South Africa newspapers are not in themselves either a safe or a remunerative investment; and it may be safely asserted that Messrs. Rhodes, Beit, Barnato, and Rutherford Harris put money into these newspapers for the same reason which induced Messrs. Eckstein to establish last year, at immense expense, the short-lived Transvaal Leader – the desire to control the public mind. The business man in an English manufacturing town, the country vicar, or the college don, who has been convinced by the unanimity of the provincial and the London press in recording and endorsing the statement of Outlander outrages, the Dutch conspiracy, the cowardice