Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1921-04-22


reserve force which shall be able to
give men and officers promptly TO the
government in case of need.
Congress is to authorize standing
army of not more than 10000 men.
The reserve, which consists of the
National Guard Of all states and the
reserve officers and enlisted men of
the regular army, must be brought in
to state of effectiveness, and must
be developed to the full in personnel.
The army thus represented IS greater
than the standing army, and it can
be said today without much fear of
contradiction that Gener-l Pershing is
to be charged by the government with
the special duty of developing all the
reserve forces. 1t probably will not
be long before he wifi enter upon this
new and enlarged field of duty.
National Guard Needs Attention.
The National Guard OF the states
of the Union is not rec, uited up to
anything like its proper strength. 1t
is out Of touch with the regular army,
and to some extent out of sympathy
with it. The officers of the reserve
army number about $4,000 men. The
number of enlisted men in the reserve
is not known definitely. General
Pershing's high duty will be to use
his influence and advice in securing
the cooperation Of the state author
tiles in the work of bringing the Ma
tional Guard up to full strength, and
in the work of bringing the guard and
the reserves into sympathetic touch
and action with the War department
and with the regular ARMY.
This work for Pershing will remove
him from the anomalous position in
which he finds himself today. He is
the commanding general Of the United
States army and yet he is under the
direction of the general staff. The
ranking officer, therefore, is outranked
in influence and in actual authority,
and today he is little more than a
igurehead whose chief occupation in
life is to represent the service at var
ious official and private functions
throughout the United States. If Sc
cretary Weeks does for General Perish
ing what your correspondent believes
is to be done, the act will solve one
of the perplexing problems of the War
department
Memories of John Burroughs
John Burroughs, great naturalist,
who American men, women and
children loved for his wonderfully
truthful tales of natures children,
began his studies withlnin 200 yards
of the spot where this article is be
ing written. While working in the
/ United States treasury as clerk,
Burroughs, as the result of his walks
in Washington fields, planned and
wrote his first book, "NVake Robin"
The purple grackles still stalk across
the treasury lawn where Burroughs
saw them and was moved to write.
To Theodore Roosevelt, Burroughs
always was "Uncle John" Before
Roosevelt made his attack on the
nature takers he discussed the sub
ject with Uncle John" Then | was
honored with an invitation to join in
the late day conference, but some time
before this ! had discussed the matter
with the President and had urged that
he do something to put an end to the
teaching in the public schools OF a
false natural history.
The Sage of Slabsides" had tried
in his own way to put an end to the
taking of writer's of outdoor life who
observed and wrote in a closet. He
had failed because, although his books
widely were read, the readers largely
were persons who were interested in
natural history and who did not have
the influence which it was necessary
to bring to bear on certain authorities
to put an end to an evil. So it was
that "Uncle Jonn'' urged Theodore
Roosevelt to get into the tilt-yard, and
| added my very much less influential
voice. The result of the conference
was the article called, Roosevelt on
the Nature Fakers'' which appeared in
Everybody's Magazine and which. in a
way of speaking, certainly raised hob.
1t did its work.
Later Burroughs came to the de-
Tense of the President when his posi-
ton was attacked, and, later STILL
aided me in getting together express
sions of opinion on the subject from
the foremost naturalists of the United
States, every one of whom took the
Presidents position.
His. Skill as Taxidermist"
Once Oh time John Burroughs at
tackled the romancing tendency Of
some of the nature writer's in an ar
ticle in the Atlantic Monthly. He
singled out two men, both of whom
were extremely popular writer's Of
nature books. Afterward in speaking
about the matter naturalist who
knew Burroughs was right said, "Un-
Gle John, while known rather as
naturalist than a taxidermist, showed
proficiency in the latter art by the
way that he skinned those two fell
lows
John Burroughs had many friends
in this city who are as keen in their
pursuit of nature as was he. Most of
these men are members of the govern
ment's biological survey-Doctors E.
w. Nelson, A. K. Fisher, T. S. Palmer
and others.
Let me write of John Burroughs who
is gone, as / wrote of Theodore Roose-