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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 1903)
How the Kaiser Bears the White Man's Burden t i L -"'- -!- 1 U Pt.AjMlmLf ill 'if STREKT IN TSINGTAU. GERMAN CHINA. GERMAN CITIZENS OF THE CAROLINE ISLANDS. r B (Copyright, mi. by Frank O. Carpenter.) IRRLIN. Nov. 10.-(Bpeolal Corres pondence or Tho Bee.)-Tho Ger mans arc exporting more than lfM ll.000.000.MO worth of goods every ' year and their foreign trade has become a vital part of their Industrial ex istence. They are frightened at the ad van res cf the American and are now or ganizing movements to develop their col onlos and thereby build up a trade which they can control. They also need new lands for their surplus population. Every German who settles In the United States becomes an American and the l;alser siys he wants his people to r,o to German de pendencies, where they will still be sup porters of the fatherland. As It Is now this empire Is chock full. It has more than CO.PO0.C0OO and there la a large excess of births over deaths. The desire for colonial expansion is not confined to the kaiser. The people of all clusss are with him and nearly oil are actuated by self interest. There are many societies In favor of the movement and a half dozen newspapers are regularly pub lished in Its Interest. There are Journals outside the country as well as at home which support It. The Deutsche Sud-Weat-Afrlcanl.ihe Zcltung for Instance is regu larly publlahed at Swakopmund, Africa, and there Is also the Deutsche Ost-Afrl-canlsl-.e Zcltung in the eastern part of the continent. These papers are weeklies cost ing from 2 to 14 a year. In Tslngtau there is a colonial newspaper devoted to expansion In China and in Shanghai another is published In the same Interest. There are German papers In South America. There Is one In Sumoa and there are colonial mugasines, monthly and weekly, In Germany Itself. Within tho past year or so a colonial mu seum has been established here In Berlin, and the government has created a colonial school In connection with the Berlin uni versity. Here the native languages of Africa, Asia and the South Sea Islands are taught. There are more than sixty differ ent courses of colonial study, embracing all branches of ethnology, natural hietory snd geography. Tho kaiser's colonial empire has been created since 1884. Germany was too poor to have colonies before the Franc v Prussian war. It was then an agricultural and not a manufacturing country. Today the kaiser governs five times as much territory out side Europe as In It. Ills colonial empire all told covers 1,000,000 square miles. In Africa alone it Is one-fourth as big as the United States, and its UlandB of the Pu Ilia have an area half as large as tha whole German empire. In Asia the kuls:r absolutely controls but 200 square miles, but he claims the earth. Ho has really only a stilp around Klauchau bay, but all the land back of this Is known as the German sphere of in fluence, and It entbruces tome of th Iwh': parts of China. The Germans ure going ahead, the r a as though they owned ft. Th y are building railroad,-), opening mine uini are reaching, out their itching palms to ward,' the Yangtse Kin rig valley. The Monroe doctrine kteps Germany from having a legal title to anything In South America. It has a commercial title, how ever, based upon its enormous trade, to a large part of the business of every country. It practically controls southern Bruzil, where there are provinces which have so many German citizens that they are known W niithiut norma ny m rnMnir Its trade into Central America and into nil the countries of Aula. The kaiser lately got his arms around the neck of the sultan find squeezed out a concession for a German railroad through Persia, and he Is cajoling and forcing German goods Into every cut-of-tjie-way part of the world. Indeed, the Germans are. doing best outstdo their own colonies. The territories they have an nexed are about the most worthless on the face of the globe, and they have hardly 1 .. i '. A ivy r.--; - '.- ' " : : j it- ? ' - . A i . 5, r :. . -'k ,:t;;.;'V, . , -i v"'-, ' , ';;frTT;iv ..";.;v 4 ' ; " r"'v -vvvv ''Vy.;o - . y . v : ; ''yf:- v - : ?W .r ,7 ' v.'- v , 1 . -:y j , K f ' ?k ' f:-V-. It!,.' " i f i . ' -,-, . .. ' v .X - : !iwy ..y ) v. - - ; ' ; - . .. r BLACK GERMANS FROM TOGOLAND, a colony that Is self-supporting. Their de llclt In WOO was $7,000,COO, and at present the. colonics do not anywhere near meet their expenses. The test of the German colonies are In Africa, but even there they have about the poorest lands, the chief exceptions being the French poscsjlons In the desert of Sahara. The German colonies lie on both sides of the continent beginning with the province of Togo on the west and in spots extending as far south as Cape Colony. Togoland Is about as big as Indiana. It lies only a few degrees above the equator on the Gulf of Guinea, and Is notoriously un healthy. Every German who goes there pets the fever and all attempts at coloniza tion have failed. At present Togoland Is managed by syn Uliates nnd Individual capitalists. They are trying to develop tho country with the nutlve labor, which they can get for from 10 to 0 conta per day. They have already set 0j.1t Sti.Wi cocoanut trees, 50,000 coffer, tret a and 50,000 rubber trees. They are en gaged In trading, importing cotton and other goc-ils and exporting palm oil, rubier and Ivory. Togoland U the smallest Ger man province in Africa. A little further south on the Gulf of Guinea is the Germun colony of Kamerun. which was acquired In and 1S90. This ro;;r.try !s '-.uch lzztr th:rt Tssalsr.i.- eivj 11 has about a million more people. Its soli la better and there are brighter pros pects of development. The government Is trying to encourage capital . to . come In, and it hus recently given a territory about as big as Indiana over to a syndicate. The syndicate has the right to buy. and sell land, build railroads and canals and to provide steamship communications. It is now setting out plantations of cocoa, cof fee, tobacco and rubber, and U experi menting In the raising of cloves, ginger and pepper. It has factories for palm oil, and trading houses In different parts of the country. The imports thero now amount to ubout $2,000,000 a year, consisting chiefly of German goods. The exports are less. This syndicate is building a railroad from Victoria on the coast to the town of Lisoka in the Interior. The Kamerun population Is much the same as that of Togoland, consisting of Bantu negroes and similar races, which have a slight admixture of Hamitlc blood. The chief town is Kamerun, although there are other Important stations. The German possessions In southwest Africa are almost entirely controlled by a German colonial company, entitled tho Deutsche Kolonlnl Gesellschaft fur Sud-wcst-Afrika. This syndicate has charge of an area ten times as large as the state of Ohio, with a population half that of Cleve land. The country Is of little value. It is mostly desert, with a few grassy oaies scattered over It." Some of it is as barren as the worst of the Sahara, and thu most of it cannot be cultivated. . Nevertheless the Germans are setting out plantations in the lowlands, and are ex 'peiimenting with cotton, tobacco and vine yards. Some of the highlands are good for 'grazing, and on the edge of the desert as ostrich farms. But little prospecting has been done for the precious metals, and it is doubtful if they exist. There are now about ' 5.000 Europeans In this colony. The kaiser hns better lands In eastern Africa than In the west. Ills possessions there are populous and more suscepttblo of development. The territories are found along the central part of the eastern coast of the continent, extending north and south about COO miles. They are bounded ( on the north by British East Africa, on the west by Lakes . Nyassa and Tanganyika and on the south by Portugese Africa. They are right on the great rout across Africa and in one of the best settled por tions of the continent. The land here is high and salubrious. At the northern boundary of the territory is Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain on the continent, and a llttlo farther over is Vic toria Nyanza, the largest lake. The railroad which has been projected from the cape to Cairo will go through this territory, and it will be cut at right angles by a railroad which the Germans have laid out to connect Lake Tanganyika with the sea, opposite Zanzibar. Already fifty-four miles of railroad and many good wagon roads have been made. The capital of German East Africa might be called the center of the German inter ests. It Is situated on the seacoast a little couth of the Island of Zanzibar; It is known as Dar es Salaam, and It has now something like 25.000 Inhabitants. When the Germans took possession - of the country this place had only a few hundred native huts and several stone cabins. It soon grew to a town of 10,000, and it has been growing at the rate of 5,000 a year ever since. It has now eight German exporting and importing Arms, some good stores, a brewery and three hotels. There are many native shops kept by Arabs and Hindoos who have come over from Zanzibar, and there are also Greek and Portugese mer chants. Thero are several large German companies which have agencies here, their plantations being scattered through dif ferent parts of the colony. One of these companies has a big rubber plantation, another Is setting out coffee trees and a third has begun to raise cotton, having Imported a number of colored stu dents from the TuBkegee College In Ala aba ma to aid In the work. Labor can bo gotten for a few cents a day, and If these enterprises succeed they will probably open the way to a large Industry. At present all sorts of experiments ore going on In East Africa. The Germans are planting cocoanut trees In 'the lowlands and coffee trees higher up. They have set out quinine plantations and are beginning to raise tobacco, rubber, sugar, cacao and tea. There is excellent pasture on the highlands and gold In the mountains. Quan tities of garnets, agates and topazc3 have been found and diamonds are looked for, but so far none has been discovered. East Africa has better connections with Europe than the west coast. There are regular steamers to Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, and the latter may In' time become the chief seaport of east Central Africa. During my stay In Australia I learned much of the German possessions of the Pacific. The largest of them is Kaiser Wllhelm's Land, the northwestern part of tho Island of New Guinea. It consists of a territory twice the size of Indiana, Inhab ited by a population of 100,000 savage Papu ans. This country Is being developed by a syndicate and until about four years ago the syndicate was the supreme power. At present the administration Is In the hands of the kaiser, who has appointed a gov ernor for New Guinea, the Bismarck arch ipelago and other Islands of the Pacific. The governor spends part of his .time on the. Island of Neu Pommern and a part In New Guinea. Altogether tnere are less than 100 whites In Kaiser Wllhelm's Land and of these only seventy-eight are . Germans. .. , The New Guinea company Is still carry ing on Its plantations and trading. It has Riid vf cotton .tctacco cr.d 13 expert mentlng with coffee and stock. Horses, . cattle and goats are dolgn well, but sheep have so far proved a failure. The North German Lloyd steamers to Australia some times call at New Guinea. Almost adjoining Kaiser Wllhelm's Land la the Bismarck archipelago, consisting of several large Islands ruled by the Germans. . The New Guinea company has also house (Continued on Page Sixteen.) .,