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The Psychology of Jingoism

The worth of such evidence, selected and worked up for popular investment by a sensational press, is very small. The Dutch press in the Transvaal, equally reckless and nearly as corrupt, wrought in similar fashion, and an examination of the popular opinion of Holland would disclose a mass of anti-British evidence, derived by methods parallel to those here described. This fact alone might serve to abate the overweening confidence which we have felt in the consensus of 'British South Africa.'

Journalism does not exhaust the influence of the press. Magazine articles and volumes in which party politics parades as history furnish more solid food to Jingo passion. Here again the authority of 'British South Africa' has been well-nigh absolute. Few magazines have been willing to print a 'pro-Boer' article; and it is no secret that even the genius of Olive Schreiner could not get a hearing for what she most cared to say in any important English magazine. I speak from personal knowledge when I say that the retail book trade, led by Messrs. Smith and Son, has done its best to 'boycott' 'unpatriotic' literature. Those familiar with the trade will understand how injurious such obstructions are to the circulation

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