第23章 BRANDEIS(4)

The common charge against Brandeis was that of favouring the German firm.Coming as he did,this was inevitable.Weber had bought Steinberger with hard cash;that was matter of history.The present government he did not even require to buy,having founded it by his intrigues,and introduced the premier to Samoa through the doors of his own office.And the effect of the initial blunder was kept alive by the chatter of the clerks in bar-rooms,boasting themselves of the new government and prophesying annihilation to all rivals.The time of raising a tax is the harvest of the merchants;it is the time when copra will be made,and must be sold;and the intention of the German firm,first in the time of Steinberger,and again in April and May,1888,with Brandeis,was to seize and handle the whole operation.Their chief rivals were the Messrs.MacArthur;and it seems beyond question that provincial governors more than once issued orders forbidding Samoans to take money from "the New Zealand firm."These,when they were brought to his notice,Brandeis disowned,and he is entitled to be heard.

No man can live long in Samoa and not have his honesty impugned.

But the accusations against Brandeis's veracity are both few and obscure.I believe he was as straight as his sword.The governors doubtless issued these orders,but there were plenty besides Brandeis to suggest them.Every wandering clerk from the firm's office,every plantation manager,would be dinning the same story in the native ear.And here again the initial blunder hung about the neck of Brandeis,a ton's weight.The natives,as well as the whites,had seen their premier masquerading on a stool in the office;in the eyes of the natives,as well as in those of the whites,he must always have retained the mark of servitude from that ill-judged passage;and they would be inclined to look behind and above him,to the great house of MISI UEBA.The government was like a vista of puppets.People did not trouble with Tamasese,if they got speech with Brandeis;in the same way,they might not always trouble to ask Brandeis,if they had a hint direct from MISIUEBA.In only one case,though it seems to have had many developments,do I find the premier personally committed.The MacArthurs claimed the copra of Fasitotai on a district mortgage of three hundred dollars.The German firm accepted a mortgage of the whole province of Aana,claimed the copra of Fasitotai as that of a part of Aana,and were supported by the government.Here Brandeis was false to his own principle,that personal and village debts should come before provincial.But the case occurred before the promulgation of the law,and was,as a matter of fact,the cause of it;so the most we can say is that he changed his mind,and changed it for the better.If the history of his government be considered -how it originated in an intrigue between the firm and the consulate,and was (for the firm's sake alone)supported by the consulate with foreign bayonets -the existence of the least doubt on the man's action must seem marvellous.We should have looked to find him playing openly and wholly into their hands;that he did not,implies great independence and much secret friction;and Ibelieve (if the truth were known)the firm would be found to have been disgusted with the stubbornness of its intended tool,and Brandeis often impatient of the demands of his creators.

But I may seem to exaggerate the degree of white opposition.And it is true that before fate overtook the Brandeis government,it appeared to enjoy the fruits of victory in Apia;and one dissident,the unconquerable Moors,stood out alone to refuse his taxes.But the victory was in appearance only;the opposition was latent;it found vent in talk,and thus reacted on the natives;upon the least excuse,it was ready to flame forth again.And this is the more singular because some were far from out of sympathy with the native policy pursued.When I met Captain Brandeis,he was amazed at my attitude."Whom did you find in Apia to tell you so much good of me?"he asked.I named one of my informants."He?"he cried."If he thought all that,why did he not help me?"I told him as well as I was able.The man was a merchant.He beheld in the government of Brandeis a government created by and for the firm who were his rivals.If Brandeis were minded to deal fairly,where was the probability that he would be allowed?If Brandeis insisted and were strong enough to prevail,what guarantee that,as soon as the government were fairly accepted,Brandeis might not be removed?

Here was the attitude of the hour;and I am glad to find it clearly set forth in a despatch of Sewall's,June 18th,1888,when he commends the law against mortgages,and goes on:"Whether the author of this law will carry out the good intentions which he professes -whether he will be allowed to do so,if he desires,against the opposition of those who placed him in power and protect him in the possession of it -may well be doubted."Brandeis had come to Apia in the firm's livery.Even while he promised neutrality in commerce,the clerks were prating a different story in the bar-rooms;and the late high feat of the knight-errant,Becker,had killed all confidence in Germans at the root.By these three impolicies,the German adventure in Samoa was defeated.

I imply that the handful of whites were the true obstacle,not the thousands of malcontent Samoans;for had the whites frankly accepted Brandeis,the path of Germany was clear,and the end of their policy,however troublesome might be its course,was obvious.