The National tribune., 1903-04-16

CHENTUNG LANG
the age of 10S years. He was a soldier
in the War of 1912. There are only q
few of these veterans left.
4 chief electrician in the Navy only
gets $50 month and the rank of Il chief
petty officer. He must be good me
chanic, good electrician. an engineer, and
a man of education and brains enough t.
not only know the mechanical details OF
his business, but the theories and scien
tific reasons to account for results. Al
this for $50. The White Wings get more
than that for sweeping the streets. and
don't even have to know enough to do that
properly.
Senator Julius C. Burrows, of Michigan
who was in Washington last week. says
that President Roosevelt is making and
gaining votes wherever ne goes in the
West. That was what he started out for.
Just at the present time the affairs of
the American Red Cross are being dis.
cussed with more or less acrimony. with
Miss Clara Barton the National Presi
dent of that organization for the storm
center. There was a time when it was
thought indicate to speak of a iady's
sh and does not deny that IL she were to
follow the prophet she would very shortly
be obliged to give up. the ghost. In spite
of her years. however. Miss Barton does
not seem to have lost any of her yigor of
either mind or body.
The bone of contention just now seems
to be the Presidency. Somebody else
wants il. and Miss Barton has suddenly
been found too old for the position. Isn't
there an old adage which says something
about ''old men for COUNSEL" etcI One
would scarcely like to say .'old women, -
etc, but just the same, it fits. The Amer
lean National Red Cross Association has
been before us for about 80 years. Miss
Barton has been its head for those three
decades, and as such has represented the
United States at almost every Court in
Europe, and several in ASA to say moth
ing of the Islands of the sea. In every
emergency that has cried out for help for
the plague-stricken, storm-ra ged. OF
famine-scourged of any land, Miss Barton
has been promptly on the spot with ra.
tons, clothing volunteer nurses and neces-
sary assistants, and to her as National
President of the Red Cross in the United
States supplies and money have been sent
without stint. She never lacked for any
thing that a symlA hetic people found that
she needed. 1t has never been suggested
until now, that anything had been wasted.
For 20 years Miss Barton was practi-
cally The Red Cross" For 20 years
almost alone she knocked at the doors of
Congress, asking to have the Society made
a National organization and given Ma
tional standing. Up to the time that Con,
2resS acceded to her p,eadings and made
it an incorporated body, there had never
been a single dissension, Il word of strife
4 murmur against the manner in which
the association had been conducted. Con
gress made it an Incorporated body. and
there has not been minute of peace since
Now that the American Red Cross has
National standing, many people are
moved to desire office in it and to man
age il.
Was Miss Rarton's desire to have the
organization given National standing q
wise one after all? 1t seems as though
the only time that the Red Cross has
failed to be the leading and chief factor in
succOring the distressed since it became
known in this country, WIS last Summer
when Mount Pelee's eruption sent destruc.
ton and awful death over the little Island
of Martinique. Miss Barton was then in
tie middle Of the ocean, and knew nothing
of the disaster till she landed in RUSSIA
The then Executive Committee which now
seems to think Miss Barton too old to
longer conduct the business of the RED
/ Cross, and which desires TO have the rules
Of the organization changed again to give
I them the power to act, was in absolute
control at that time, and remained mac
! tive. Miss Barton was made quite i'll by
! the disaster and the knowledge that the
| Red Cross of America. for the first tia,
in its history. had failed the people.
! Congress is to be asked to legis!ate .
new organization. Miss carton expresse.
herself as exceedingly anxious for Con
sress TO investigate the affairs of the Rec
Cross for the last 30 years.
| Chentung Liang Cheng. That is tn,
name of the new Chinese Minister exactl,
as he directs its spelling himself "Th,
first part Of my name. which correspond
10 your John. is spelled C-h-en-t-u-n-g
all one word-Chentung. The middle par
is my family name-Liang. pronounced a
if it were spelled L-e-ea-n-g the letter i
in our language always having the soun,
of your double e. The latter part i
iplain Cheng. My full name, therefore, il
Chentung LANG Cheng," he says.
He has a handle to his name. "Sir,
which he came by at the hands of Queer
! Victoria, who made him a Knight Com
mander of the Order of st. Michael ano
st. George. This title he is very proud of
and memorialized his Government TO per
NIT him to bear, which permission wa.
granted. Count Cassini. the Russian En-
bassador, says tht Sir Liang Cheng has M
right to use the title: that he is a China
man and the title is English, and that h,
couldn't possibly call himself an English
l h. al
Hence, he, Count Cassni, says he viii MOI
call him ..sSir, but inst plain Mister. II i,