of the individual traits of Oyama, we take the liberty of quoting from a personal letter written by Mr. George Kennan, who, as our readers know, was the representative of The Outlook in Japan during the war with Russia: It was the general understanding in Japan that he was a stern, despotic Samurai of the mediæval Japanese type; a man of strong character and an indomitable fighter, but not a skillful military leader in the modern sense of the words. He was greatly respected and feared by his soldiers, but he did not direct their movements nor “prearrange" their victories. It would not be quite accurate to call him an imposing, awe-inspiring Samurai figurehead, because he was more than that; but he was not the strategist who planned the Manchurian campaigns. The thinking mind in the battles of Liaoyang, the Shaho, and Mukden was that of General Kodama; but Field Marshal Oyama got most of the credit, partly because he was the nominal head of the army, and partly because he really was in character an immovable rock of strength. You perhaps know men whose mere presence gives you a feeling of power and security. They may not be intellectually brilliant or resourceful, but they cannot be surprised or shaken or terrified. They are the captains of their own souls and of yours. Oyama, from what I heard of him, was a man of this type. Princess Oyama, his wife, was one of the first young women sent from Japan to the United States for an education. graduated from Vassar in 1882. PROGRESSIVES IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY She was One of the most marked aspects of the recent election was, as we have already pointed out, the very general success of progressive candidates, irrespective of party affiliations. Progressive Republicans and former Progressives who during the campaign were affiliated with the Republican party are undertaking a movement to make the Republican party progressive in organization. One plan outlined last week by Mr. Chester H. Rowell, of California, involves four methods. The first is to attempt to put throughout the country Progressive-Republican candidates on Progressive-Republican platforms or programmes before the voters in the Republican primaries, and to back such candidates up. This effort, if successful, will lay in the popular vote a foundation for a thoroughly progressive organization of the Republican party. The second method is to attempt to im prove the administrative side of the Republican party by continuing as an active committee the party's Executive Committee, which during the campaign consisted of ten regular Republicans and six Progressives. The third method is to attempt to reapportion the delegates to the National Convention so that States which are not naturally Republican will no longer have the disproportionate influence that they have had, to the demoralization at times of the whole party. The fourth method is to attempt to render the members of the National Committee subject to their respective State committees, so that the Committee itself will be more responsive to the will of the Republican voters than it has been heretofore. How far this plan has been accepted we do not know; but it suggests the sort of practical politics into which men who really wish to improve political conditions in this country ought to enter. PREPARATORY SCHOOLS FOR The most interesting part of the first annual report of the Secretary of War, Mr. Newton D. Baker, is his advocacy of a change in the educational systems of West Point and Annapolis. Secretary Baker intimates that the present system of choosing students for West Point and Annapolis-the system consisting of "designation by the President, Senators, and Representatives, with examination as a prerequisite to acceptance "-is not adequate for the need of "a nation efficiently organized from a military point of view.". The Secretary of War suggests that the Federal Government establish throughout the country a number of schools"in which the rudiments of a sound education, the elements of mechanical skill, the principles of business co-ordination, and the beginnings of military science" should be taught. Such schools, the Secretary thinks, "would develop the natural aptitudes of the students in such a way as to supply those fittest by temperament and talent to pursue in the Military Academy and Naval Academy the study of military science; and incidentally these schools would furnish a great body of men returning to civil life fitted by training either to respond in an emergency to a call to the colors or to take their places as civil soldiers in the service of the Government in those industries and undertakings fundamental to the successful conduct of military operations." This suggestion is somewhat similar to one made more than a year ago by Commodore R. G. Denig, and reported in The Outlook. Commodore Denig advocated the establishment of a preparatory school to serve both West Point and Annapolis, and to have a oneyear course which would be the equivalent of the first year of training at the two National Academies. Such a course, Commodore Denig pointed out, would weed out the unfit who now to some extent cumber the entering classes at West Point and Annapolis. Secretary Baker's proposal is much more comprehensive than the suggestion of Commodore Denig in that it would build up a larger reserve of men. The question has been raised whether the ends that Secretary Baker has in view would not be more economically reached by the development of military training in schools already existing. The subject deserves wide discussion. GENERAL SCOTT'S PROPOSALS It seems to us, however, that the principal objection to Secretary Baker's scheme is that it does not go far enough. The reform which goes the whole way, and one which we have long advocated, was outlined by Major-General Hugh L. Scott, Chief of Staff, in his annual report made public the day after Secretary Baker's report was issued. This reform is universal military training, and General Scott gives it his unqualified indorsement. Among army men General Scott has never been considered a militarist. All the more, therefore, should the General's arraignment of the volunteer system be taken to heart by every one who thinks that that system will still suffice for this Republic. After calling attention to the fact that several months after a call for recruits in a grave National emergency was issued many of the organizations of the National Guard have not yet" been raised even to minimum peace strength, and likewise the units of the regular army have not been recruited to the minimum peace strength authorized in the new National Defense Act," General Scott goes on to say that this failure "should make the whole people realize that the volunteer system does not, and probably will not, give us either the men we need for training in peace or for service in war. "In my judgment," says General Scott, 841 "the country will never be prepared for defense until we do as other great nations do that have large interests to guard. . . . "There is no reason why one woman's son should go out and defend or be trained to defend another woman and her son who refuses to take training or give service. The only democratic method is for every man in his youth to become trained in order that he may render efficient service if called upon in war." General Scott asserts that universal military training" has been the corner-stone" of every republic in the history of the world, and that it was intended by the makers of our Constitution to be a part of our system, but that their intentions were frustrated by the growth of the doctrine of States' rights. The Chief of Staff thinks that "we have fallen away from the teaching of the fathers," who held that "every man owes a military as well as a civil obligation to his Government." General Scott believes that military training would benefit the youth and his parents as well as the country. To prove that the Hay National Guard system has been a failure, General Scott cites figures showing that on July 31, 1916, there were 151,096 Guardsmen on the border and in State mobilization camps, a number 4,083 under the authorized minimum peace strength, and below war strength by 97,350 men. From eleven States in which complete returns are at hand thirtyseven per cent of the aggregate strength of the militia at the date of call either failed to report entirely or were dismissed for failure to pass physical examination. A month and a half after the call to the Guardsmen was issued only 110,957 officers and men were on the border out of 151,096 mustered into service for the President's call. Finally, so cold was the response of the American public to the call for recruits, even in a National emergency, that in twenty-five days twenty recruiting stations in Massachusetts enlisted only 189 recruits, while in New York during a period of slightly more than a month the recruiting was so slow and the cost of the recruiting propaganda so great that the average expense of getting each recruit was forty dollars. We hope it is not true, as General Scott intimates, that the fine volunteer spirit of our fathers is "moribund." But certainly the evidence produced by the Chief of Staff as to the impracticability of our militia system ought to be convincing. Even aside from the question of patriotism, as General Scott adds, the present militia system stands condemned when judged even by the standard of "dollars and cents." GEORGE C. BOLDT The recent sudden death of Mr. George C. Boldt, proprietor of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York City, brought into print many interesting stories of his remarkable career. He crossed the Atlantic when not much more than a boy to seek his fortune in this country, and, beginning very modestly, became the foremost hotel expert in the United States, if not in the world, as well as a very wealthy man. His administrative ability is measured not merely by his success in hotel building and management, but by the fact that he was a director of a large number of important enterprises outside of his own particular field. That he was a trustee of Cornell University and recently received an honorary degree from that institution indicates the wide range of his interests. He was modest, kindly, thoughtful, and refined, and these qualities greatly counted in his business success. Among the many tributes that have been paid to him we have seen none with a deeper human interest than the following by Dana Burnet, which was published in the well-known "Sun Dial " column of the New York Evening Sun,” nor do we think there was one which would have given Mr. Boldt greater pleasure if he could have seen it : George C. Boldt is dead and there are many to pay him tribute; but we have our own memory of the man. . . It is a memory confused with the adventure of a foolhardy boy in a leaky sailboat; with a wild bluster of wind and a certain tumult of waters. . . . "There was a storm from the northeast and the bosom of the placid St. Lawrence was heaving in majestic anger. The boy was abroad in his leaky boat, very much excited to be out in such a wind-his seamanship was still a matter for parental regulation and general doubt--but on the whole rather enjoying the show. Suddenly the boat staggered head first into a small hillock of water and came up half drowned. The navigator hauled about and put for home. But the wind smote him and sent him sidling helplessly into the shelter of a stranger's pier. . . "It was raining torrents and a black dusk had fallen upon the troubled waters. The boy clung desperately to the side of the pier, meanwhile trying to unstep his mast and furl his flapping sail. . . Then a man came out of the dark and said that all shipwrecked mariners were his guests, and would the boy stay to dinner? Forthwith the world came to rights. The youthful adventurer was escorted into the house, was outfitted with sweaters and other extemporized raiment, and went down to dinner feeling like a character out of some thrilling novel of the sea. There were a dozen people seated at the table, all in evening dress and very brilliant. But the boy had donned a high wing collar, which, despite the fact that it was several sizes too large for him, nevertheless established him as one inured to the niceties of civilization. . . . So that he soon became one of that pleasant company. ANOTHER TERCENTENARY Among those who share the tercentenary honors of this year with Shakespeare and Cervantes is that haunter of bookstalls, gatherer of pamphlets, and codifier and abridger of other men's labors, Richard Hakluyt, of Herefordshire. The New York Public Library has been doing him honor, on the occasion of this anniversary, by an exhibition of books, maps, and manuscripts. A strange claimant, at first glance, seems Hakluyt, to rites from posterity. But it is not given to every man to realize that great history is in the making in his own day and to constitute himself the effective recorder of it. This is Hakluyt's distinction. A map was a growing thing to him, something bred and nurtured by explorers, adventurers, freebooters, and traffickers in rare and costly stuffs. One of his treasures-trove among pamphlets had been printed in Latin in Macao, a city of China, on China paper, in the year, a thousand, five hundred and ninety and was inter |
