The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-08-18

still alive but were under siege and
were in constant danger of being ov-
erwhelmed.
In this state OF uncertainty the
civilized world was waiting, when
Hay, then Secretary of state, with
Root. then Secretary of War, con-
cocted scheme which WIS carried
out with the assistance OF WI then
as now, the Chinese Minister in
Washington. They wrote telegram
addressed to Conger. 1t had been de-
scribed by those who did not appre-
ciate its real intent as utterly sense
less. And so 1t was. for the Chi
nese government would not under
take to deliver any message which
open remotely referred to the exist
ing troubles. and IL had to be color
less to the point of being lnane.
But 1t was sent. It was delivered.
And in tie course or two or three
days it was answered. That proved
to the world that its diplomatic rep
resent3tives, imprisoned in Pekin,
were still alive, though in great
danger. Believing that they had
been killed, Germany and others had
wanted TO wait III Gil they could gith-
er great punitive army of 10000
men to whip the Boxer rebels and to
force rep1ration from the Chinese
government. That army would have
taken months to prepare.
But just as soon as communication
had been established and 1t was
known that the besieged diplomats
we're alive, the whole civilized world
demanded that immediate steps be
taken for their rescue. The result
was the formation of the joint expe-
dictionary force in which, besides the
United States, Germany, Great Brit.
ain, Japan, Italy and France, partic-
ipated. This consisted of only H.
goo men composed of troops th5t
could be the most quickly gathered
for the duty. Their march Is his
tory and so is the Fact that they had
been FIVE days later in arriving at
Pcliin they would have found nothing
to save and only the mutlated bodies
of their compatriots to bury. But
historians have overlooked the i'm
portant part that was played in THIS
drama by the unimportaut telegram
which, establishing the fact that there
was somebody to be saved. set III
motion the army of rescuers.
The Forest Service comes b5ck
strong against its critics in the
House and Senate in Il press bulletin
just issued, and one that is backed
up by an opinion OF the Attorney
General, by the way.
At the last session of congress. the
lawmakers threatened to cut down
the appropriations for the service
because of the so-called ''press ag-
ency" which Chief Forester Pinchot
had been conducting in connection
with the forest work. 1t was free y
charged that the service maintained a
corps of expert writer's, FORMER news
paper men, and editors, who wrote
nice little puffs, advance notices, etc,
telling what a great organization the
Forest Service was, what pile OF
good 1t did the public, what great
man Clifford Pinchot was, and what
rascals those men were who opposed
the forest policy. To prevent this
the lawmakers inserted a "joker" in
the appropriation bill, apparently
shutting out the agency" completely.
But the foresters we're resourceful.
They turned to Attorney General
Ronaparte, and now flourish in the
faces of carping critics his official
opinion that the news bureau (they
call it the Bureau of Information
down at the Service)-ls perfectly
legitimate and right. Congress
thought 1t had stopped all the 'press
bulletin service" of that branch, but
with the Attorney Generals opinion,
tbe Forest Service Is going right ON,
Issuing bulletin nearly every day
with all sorts of information, from
how TO cut down a tree to how much
alcohol may be extracted from a
pine wood chair Washington cor
respondents are real grateful for all
the "stuff" that comes in Forest
Service envelopes. II the matter is
not avail1ble the back side of tie pa
per on which IL is mimeographel
makes a good copy paper
Congress is likely to become rec
onciled 10 the publicity work of
the Forest Service. Every branch of
the government has some sort of a
press agency for dissemination of in
fomation-the Cnly trouble is that
the Forest Service has gone step
further and organized the agency 50
well that 1t is row the highest form
of efficiency, so far as distribution Of
news is concerned.