AMERICAN LETTER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17251, 19 August 1916, Page 4

AMERICAN LETTER.

NATIONAL UNREADINESS. UNPLEASANT DISCLOSURES. ' [From Oun Correspondent.] NEW YORK, July 14. President Wilson’s policy of watchful waiting iii regard to Mexico has led him into a very embarrassing situation. The entire National Guard has been mobilised, and most of them are at the border ready for war with Carranza. At tho last moment, when war seemed inevitable, Carranza succeeded in getting Mr Wilson to Consent to mediation and to help Carranza to raise a loan in this country. After the killing of ma nf Amoricans and many raids by Mexicans upon American towns, this sudden relenting on tho part of our Administration has not added to Mr Wilson’s popularity. Cur unprepared ness was never more evident than since tho mobilisation of the troops. TJiis,gives grave cause for alarm, for we aro not out of the woods with Mexico. : Tho truth of the whole situation is that while the regular army departmental commanders are quick to praise tho energy and spirit of the militia organisations, officers and men, they aro ready to tear their hair over the lack of ‘things that ought to have been foreseen and .provided years ago, certainly months ago. The regular army experts, who aro toiling like cTitcli diggers to crank up tho militia forces onu make them run like regular machines, aro experiencing exactly the annoyances and troubles they predicted would occur if a quick call for service was made to the militia.

To put tho matter squarely, the situation is very little better than it -was at tlie outbreak of the Spanish war. Departmental commanders, spurred by orders from Washington, are finding that militia cavalry commands aro quite “ready,” except for the trivial-fact that they haven’t enough horses; tbatinfantry commands aro “ready,” except for tho fact that some of them haven't enough blankets to cover half their men. Distressing shortages in equipment pop up at every angle of the situation—hats, saddles, blankets, horses. Departmental commanders aro being nudged by telegraph to hurry up, has-ten-movements to the border, show results. They learn from tho newspapers that the War Department is priding itself on tho facility with which bothersome “red tape” has been cut, in tho present national emergency They have gained the impression that Washington thinks 100,000 men can be yanked overnight from offices and workshops and sent to Mexico,the next day. That sort of an impression has been spread over the country.

The regular army officers charged with the responsibility’of getting to the border men properly armed, properly' clothed and properly, equipped, understand perfectly the silliness of that point of view. They were working about four times as hard yesterday as would hare been necessary had the equipment of State troops generally been kept up to a decent standard. . These officers will say privately—it is impossible for them publicly to criticise the Government of the United States and tho various . State governments—that tlio way tho public lias been soothed to complete trust in the perfect readiness of the militia is little short of criminal. They will say that the newspaper's are partly to blame because of the local pride incentive to pat home militia organisations on tho back and toll what fino, dependable fellows they aro and at tho samo time omit to point cut defects in training and lack of equipment. Tho facts of tho mobilisation test of tho past week as observed by tho regular army officers are that it was deplorably, slow, that equip-; ment which ought to have' been on* hand as a matter of courso is lacking, a further causo for delay, and that it is already apparent that at least 30 per cent of the National Guard cannot possibly pass the medical examination. on Governor’s Island the staff officers figure that 30 per cent is putting the figure very low indeed. Their opinion is that if Uncle Sam can winnow 00,000 first rate soldiers—first rate by the regular army tests—c\it of the militia strengh of 128,000 he will be doing nliglity well. INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

Fourteen hundred cases of infantile paralysis have been reported in Nob’ York City within ten days. This epidemic has caused such ala»m that some States have declared a quarantine against New Yorkers. The Health Department is handicapped in, fighting tho spread of the disease by the fact that infantile paralysis is one of tho great mysteries raid tho germ has not been discovered. Tho Rockefeller Institute announced yeVerday that at last, after countless experiments, it had succeeded in isolating tho elusive germ. KILLED BY SHARKS. For the first time in historv maneating sharks havo appeared along the shores of Now Jersey and have killed five bathers within the last five days. The result is that no bathers now dare enter the water at any of Jersey’s crowded resorts. Tho attacks by the sharks have upset all the theories of tho scientists, who have declared again and again that rumours of sharks in northern waters were absurd. It has often been asserted that there is no such thing as a man-eating shark and that all -reports of attacks by them wero false. Tho Into Herman Oelrichs offered a few years ago a reward of fivo hundred for anybody who could provo that a shark ever had eaten a living man. Yesterday a shark entered a shallow creek, dragged down and killed a boy swimmer, and a few minutes later maimed a young man who dived for the 'boy’s body,so seriously that ho died au hour later. The young man who went after the body of t-ho Bov was attacked when he had almost reached shore, indeed his feet had touched gi cran'd and ho was standing in not more than four foot of water, with the dead hoy in his arms when the shark seized him by the leg. Half an hour later, in the same creek, another boy was killed 'by the shark. , A GALLANT AIRMAN. Victor Chapman, an .American aviator, was Killed last Friday in a battlo in the air with two German aviators. A correspondent in Paris notes that it was through Chapman’s heroism that his comrades were enabled to get hack safely to tho French lines, and his sacrifice is characterised as another proof of tho devotion to the caustf of France felt in the United States. . Many eyewitnesses testify to Chapman’s reckless bravery. He was shortly io receive tho Military Medal. This voung man’s death accents the general’ knowledge, sometimes realised onlv in the back of the mind, that a relatively large number of yotuig Americans, several thousands altogether, are now fighting in foreign countries for the Allies f we read oftenest of the exploits of those who aro serving in tho air upon tho Western front, but a substantial number of bravo young Americans aro making their offering in far less conspicuous billots, though not less usoful ones. The Canadian commanders konw how many ardent friends from this side tho border contrived to “go along” with the regiments which left to To their share in concerted resistance to German aggression. Such orders many Americans are pretty eager to answer and' obey, wherever they can hear them. RUSSO-JAPANESE TREATY. Senator Lewis, of Illinois, Jto-day introduced a resolution directing Secretary Lansing to report to tho Senate whether the new Russo-Japanese alliance is nob likely to- close the “open door ” in iCiiina and result in disaster

to'American business interests.' The United States Government has already begun quiet inquiries abroad regarding the treaty. It is the understanding that .the ’document contains important secret clauses, and it is about these that the United State’s is chiefly concerned. In an amazingly frank speech Senator Lewis declared be had excellent reason to believe tbs Russo-Japanese nllianco was intended to curb American trade in the Orient, and that it had been entered into in retaliation for the clause in the pending Immigration Bill which seeks to'exclude Asiatics from the United States. “There is a clear tendency, which I saw when I represented the Senate at 1 ho safety-at-sea council in London.” said'Mr. Lewis, “to divide the world into three major parts—England uad Franco to control Europe in trade and politics. Japan and Russia to divide Asia, and 'America to control tho Western Hemisphere. This treaty gives concrete basis to that tendency. If wo do not ascertain the facts now, and protest if necessary, we will be told plainly later that wo sat silent while the compact wa-S in its formative state, and that wo havo forfeited our right to complain. This treaty seeks to exclude Americans from Asia, as our Immigration Bill now pending does Asiatics from America. I havo no doubt it is a retaliatory measure.”

“ WATCHFUL WAITING.”

So far as tho attitude of the Administration at .Washington toward the Mexican situation can be made out President Wilson takes the view that the Mexican people are on strike, and that we must keep a sufficient force along the border to prevent the strikers from throwing things across it or coming over in person to kill and burn. In accordance with this policy it is beginning to appear that the National Guardsmen who were pulled away from their various civilian employments at great cost to themselves and their families and their employers, are to* lie kept on tho border indefinitely to do police duty. Not onlv tho country at largo, but those individually who have been patriotic enough to identify themselves with tho militia aro to pay for a further continuation of watchful waiting. ON THE STUMP.

That President Wilson is planning to disregard Presidential precedent and make a brief stumping tour in the interest of his candidacy for reelection became known here to-day. It is understood that the President s friends have suggested, ill view of the widespread tour planned by tlio Republican nominee, that Wilson should accept some of the numerous invitations to 'speak arid discuss the nation’s present day problems and give the voters a chance to see him in action. Precedent forbids a President actually making campaign speeches, but other Presidents have managed to find speaking dates to show themselves and incidentally outline to the people their positions on great problems of the day. Democratic politicians are not overlooking tho array of campaign talent which the Republicans will havo _ lined up against them. Roosovolt is recognised as a genius at stump speaking, and former President Taft, is expected to be used extensively by the G. O. P. Hughes himself, who made a big reputation as a stump speaker back in the days when he was Governor of New York. ORDERED TO LEAVE.

Dr David Starr Jordan, sole representative of tho American Union against militarism, has been officially ordered by tho police to leave El Paso, Texas, to prevent a demonstration against him. Dr Jordan and his secretary left on the first train for Albuquerque, New Mexico, whore, lie announced, the .conference would be held upon the arrival of the Mexican Commissioners. While there had been no demonstration against him since he came to the border, there havo been a number of meetings and several American refugoes called at his hotel and wero ordered to leave by a captain. x>i police wjio has been .stationed Dr Jordan’s ‘roopi. Threats against i him were heard freely in the streets, and it was necessary for a number of prominent citizens to call a meeting to prevent any official action being taken to order Dr Jordan out of town. However, when tlio feeling was seen to be growing, Mayor Lea scut tho Chief of Police to inform Dr Jordan that it would bo wise for him to leave on the first train Dr Jordan consented, after delivering an address to the University Club. Governor W. C. New Mexico, lie said, had invited him to come to hold peace meetings.