The sun., 1906-12-28
The Crisis and the Man.

The Hon. JOHN BARRETT, who has just
been chosen Director OF the Bureau Of
American Republics. with headquarters
at Washington, ia now heading for the
capital with the expedition and the
energy which notoriously characterize
not only his movements but his speech.
The news Of his selection reached him
in Portland, Ore, few days ago, where,
after sternly repressing his bushes and
his astonishment, he took local reporter
by the ear and spilled into the yawning
aperture a prophecy so vast that it well
| nigh burst the reservoir.
Naturally, we shall have to content
ourselves with a contemplation Of only
the most bashful eddy of this roaring
torrent. 1t will yield but a meagre in
stalment Of the rapture eventually COM
ing to US, though for the moment it may
serve. The Hon. JOHN BARRETT says,
for example, that he intends to reorgan-
ize the Office first OF all. 1T will be
necessary to maintain a much larger
clerical force" he says. Much larger7
A thousand times larger at least. When
BARRETT gets good and warm in his new
chair and begins TO fire of, with the dev-
astating profusion Of a mitrailleuse, his
wads of educational remonstrances and
appeal, the typewriters Of the bureau
will have to be multiplied on a scale Of
geometrical progression for full six
months at least. Do we or do we not
recall his fructiferous literary and ora
torical activities during that bright
period which covered his Oriental and
Polynesian tour in the interests OF the
! St. Louis exposition? If yes, no need
for another word. If no, let the forget
full and the uniformed go perish in their
| ignorance! But we recall it ALL and il
the expression be permitted, we squat
in an ecstasy OF expectation.
In the light of those halcyon memories
we forecast the final pacification and
commercial exploitation of the teeming
millions Of Latin America. They will cry
| for our cotton shirts, fight over our
hams, hatchets and glass beads The
fruit smeared children Of the tangled
bush will forget the roaming flea and
| gather on stormbeaten shores to beg for
Chicago sausage and Fall River prints.
Best Of all, they will as one man drink in
the melody industriously churned by the
Hon. JOHN BARRETT and disseminated
| throughout the Western Hemisphere by
that inspired minstrels innumerable
choir. So, when he sets forth upon his
promised tour -of the twenty Latin
American republics which are members
Of the union" he will go to meet loving
and enchanted populaces. Once hostile
and suspicious myriads will bark and wag
their tails as things bewitched. He will
need only TO open his pack and there will
be no oroide too obvious for them to buy.
| Oregon will 90 abloat with opulence.
All our manufacturing and commercial
industries will swoon with surfeit. The
era Of harmony and international en-
dearment will set in. We shall cut
| pigeon wings upon the threshold of the
true millennium.
This is what the Hon. JOHN BARRETT
proposes in his more businesslike mo-
ments. Can we doubt that charmer
who has lured the King of Siam from his
evil ways, and by the ribald yet festive
expedient of tenderly chucking her under
the chin recovered the Dowager En-
press OF China to proper observance of
Christian gayety-can we doubt, we ask,
that the Hon. JOHN BARRETT is the man
of all men for the emergency?
|