Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-04-28

TNHE feverish activities Of well-meanins
l. amateurs in this time Of crisis has
stirred Colonel George Harvey to raise his
voice in warning. we have entered says
he In the current North American Review
"upon the beginning of the end of the great
war and the beginning is good We shall
make blunders Of course he continues /;
1--WE have made two or three already ; nut
upon the whole it is fine start. Indeed,
more seems likely to be sacrificed in the
Immediate future to the feversh activities
of well-meanng amateurs than to technical
errors" II is Colonel Harvey's opinion
that nothing could be more imprudent or
really absurd than to send Colonel Roose-
welt to France at the head Of some thou
sands of men. who. he admits, are not
merely unframed but are actually dis
qualified by age or physical defects Tor
regular CONSUMPTION service. The soldiers
comprising the allied armies in France to-
day are pronounced by experts the best the
world has ever seen. How TO their eyes
could appear such an aggregation as Our
Colonel proposes except as sort of YAM
kee circus, making. no doubt, for the gaycty
of nations, but also. alas for humiliating
reflection upon the quality of our soldiers
and tho good sense of our Government.
A Job for Bryan
"If n division or even a few regiments of
our splendid regulars, the equals Of any
fighting men living, can be sent to France
under our skillful professional officers,
glory be Nothing could be better But If
we must make a laughing stock Of our own
country and our own army, let us do
thorough job and ship Major General
Roosevelt at the head of division COM
prising Private William Jennings Bryan,
bearing aloft the flag, and Semprvate Will
liam Sulzer. carrying the water pail! And
II, by chance to round out the expedtionary
force and complete tho SHOW 1t should
seem advisable 10 dispatch Mr.. Oswald Car
rison Willard in submarine made in Ger
MANY and Mr.. Amos Reno Pinchot in a
fidgety aeroplane, we should contemplate
the vacuum thus created with little of the
adherence traditionally ascribed to nature.
mot that we hold in slight esteem or
would restrict In any degree the noteworthy
activities of these or any other distinguished
fellow countrymen in this our time of min
gled need and opportunity. Far from II /!
We stand squarely with the President in
his earnest hope, otherwise expressed, that
those who have been accustomed to grunt
will now begin to lift. But selective' serv-
ice means that which, in the opinion of the
Government, not of himself, one is best fitted
70 perform Wherefore we respectfully sug-
gest that Colonel Roosevelt be urged 70
haste the mobilization of his western cow
boys and eastern sports and lead them at
once TO the South for two years or more of
patient patrol work on the Mexican border
that Private Bryan be commissioned to
prove his patriotism in the dripping sweat
of his capacious brow by hoelng potatoes,
and that Messrs Willard and Pinchot be
assigned to the task Of sowing the seeds of
patriotism in the fields of pacifism.
.The remainder Of US hundred millions.
meanwhile, will do we'll to keep cool and
do our bit In conformity with such oppor-
tunities as may appear. We would not be-
little the magnitude of the task which we
have undertaken; we would regard It serl-
ously and give painstaking consideration to
possibilities Of personal endeavor in aid and
comfort especially Of our Allies who have
been laying down their lives In our behalf
a much as in their own. Above an. "
Toula uphoN ~ I Aes'e :! =! J: e e t3sss M