The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1921-04-21

Congress is to authorize a 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 "
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 II can
be said today without much fear II
contradiction that General Pershlng 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 will enter upon this
new and enlarged field of duty!
National Guard Needs Attention.
The National Guard of the states
Of the Union Is not recruited up to
anything like its proper strength. IL
is out Of touch with the regular army.
and to some extent out Of sympathy
with IL. The officers of the reserve
army number about $1,000 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 I'm 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 Pershlng will remove
him from the anomalous position In
which he finds himself today. lie 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
| figurehead 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 he 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 withmin 200 yards
of the spot where this article is be-
ing written. While working In the
United States treasury as clerk.
Burroughs. Us the result of his walks
in Washington fields, planned and
wrote his first book, "Wake 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
Iect with Uncle John" Then | was
honored with an invitation to join in
before this had discussed the matter
with the President and had urged that
he do something To put an end to the
reaching 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 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 ii was necessary
| To bring to bear on certain authorities
To put an end to an evil. So il was
that "Uncle John"' 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.
II did its work.
Later Burroughs came to the de-
Tense of the President when his posi-
tion 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 tho
Presidents position.
His Skill as "Taxldermist."
, Once on a time John Burroughs at
, tackled the romancing tendency Of
) some of the nature writers in an ar
p ticle in the Atlantic Monthly. lie
I singled out two men, both of whom
. were extremely popular writer's Of
4 nature books. Afterward in speaking
: about the matter naturalist who
I knew Burroughs was right said, "Un-
r Gle John, while known rather as a
D naturalist than taxidermst, 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 I'm their
p pursuit of nature as was he. Most OF
J these men are members of the govern
? ment's biological suryey-Doctors II.