CHIHUAHUA AND THE STRATEGY OF VILLA

To one who is not well acquainted with the scene and the characters in the recent bloody drama centering about the city of Chihuahua the evacuation or that city by Francisco Villa immediately after his capture of it may seem hard to understand. Americans who one day read in their newspapers of the capture of Chihuahua by Villa as an event of importance greatly injurious to the cause of Carranza are quite naturally astonished when they read a day or two later that Villa had relinquished his prize, apparently without a fight.

But the explanation is simple to those who know Chihuahua and Mexican character. Chihuahua, a city of more than thirty thousand, and capital of the State of the same name, is easy to capture and hard to defend. Spread out over and among several small hills surrounded by large mountains, it presents many easy points of attack to the invader, while its extended boundaries necessitate a large force for defense. Having captured the city by strategy equal to that which won him his nickname of the "Fox" and by the dashing bravery for which he is equally celebrated, Villa found that to hold the city against the rapidly increasing Carranza army was quite a different task. Moreover, the capture of cities is suited to Villa's nature and the nature of his followers, while to defend a beleaguered citadel is a task which the Villistas have never loved. For them probably their capture of the hill of Santa Rosa, known as the key to Chihuahua," in yelling, crazy attack was easier than to defend the same place would be.

Villa loves to attack. He hates to wait to be attacked. It was this very impetuosity coupled with a saving shrewdness which won him his greatest victories against Huerta. It was this same impetuosity, minus his usual craftiness, which led him to blunder into Obregon's trap in the battle of Celaya, the first large-scale crushing defeat the Durango mountain lion ever suffered. His evacuation of Chihuahua loaded with loot was in keeping with the bandit tactics he used before he became famous, just as much as it was in keeping with the policy he has followed since shorn of his greatest power by Carranza's generals. In less than two months Villa has captured Santa Rosalia, Jimenez, Parral, and Chihuahua, and evacuated all of them after looting to his heart's content. The fact that

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he gives up his prizes after stripping them hardly makes him less dangerous to Carranza, however. Villa must be captured, "dead or alive," to use a phrase which ought to make Americans blush, before there can be anything like permanent law and order in northern Mexico.

As we go to press, the last report of Villa had it that he was retreating with two trainloads of booty westward over the Mexican Northwestern Railway. This course would very quickly bring him within seventy-five miles of General Pershing's advance guard, and within the very territory patrolled by Pershing's forces before they retreated after the ambush at Parral. Because of the restraint placed upon him by Washington, General Pershing finds himself in a ridiculous position, and one which must be sorely trying to such a splendid soldier.

Perhaps before this reaches our readers Carranza will have replied to the protocol adopted by the American-Mexican Commission. In the meantime the congress of deputies to reform the Mexican Constitution has begun its sessions at Queretaro, and Carranza has outlined to them the reforms which he wants them to make. As the deputies were chosen at elections controlled by Carranza's subordinates, there is little doubt that the congress will know its master.

MARTIAL LAW IN THE
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

For a year and a half affairs in the Dominican Republic have been going from bad to worse, and on November 30, under instructions from Washington, martial law was established by the American naval force of occupation.

In 1905, at the Dominican Government's request, the Roosevelt Administration undertook the task of adjusting the controversies arising from the Dominican foreign debt, and for this purpose assumed management of the finances.

In 1907 this executive action was confirmed by a treaty under which an American Receiver-General of Customs collects the receipts at the custom-houses and pays the interest and other charges necessary on the bonds issued to cover the foreign debt, the remainder of the customs receipts going to the Dominican Government for its own use.

Political unrest in the island has now culminated in such a condition as to make the collection and disbursement of revenues at

tended with great danger. The authority of American diplomacy, indeed, was markedly lessened during the term of office of the late Minister to the Dominican Republic and of the late Secretary of State. Military authority has now supplanted that of diplomacy, and it is believed that the eighteen hundred marines under Captain Knapp, now landed, will be able to maintain order and prevent revolutionary agitation. Municipal and civil laws will still be administered by the Dominican court.

It is understood that our Government will shortly ask for the ratification of a treaty, similar to that now in force with Haiti, providing not only for American supervision of finance, but for a native constabulary officered by Americans. Thus the whole island of Haiti, comprising the Dominican and the Haitian Governments, would come under one rule so far as we are concerned.

MARJORIE STERRETT'S DIMES

Those who were interested in the labors of Marjorie Sterrett to provide a battle-ship for Uncle Sam's navy will be glad to learn of the purpose to which the money which she and the New York "Tribune" collected will be devoted.

It will be remembered that ten months ago Marjorie Sterrett sent ten cents to the New York "Tribune" with a letter which drew forth a most surprising response to her request for money for the navy. More than two hundred thousand children and grownups, following her example, sent in contributions which totaled more than twenty thousand dollars.

Now twenty thousand dollars, while a large sum for a small girl to raise, is a small fund to build a large battle-ship. It appears, however, that Marjorie Sterrett, though she is not to have the honor of having raised the price of a battle-ship, may succeed in raising the standard of efficiency of the battle-ships which the Government has already built.

The Marjorie Sterrett Battle-Ship Fund has now been officially accepted by the Navy Department, and the interest upon it will be devoted to the giving of prizes for marksmanship.

The money, when divided as proposed, will give to each member of a winning crew about twelve dollars. Marjorie Sterrett, the "Tribune," and the Navy Department are all to be congratulated on the final disposal of Marjorie's Battle-Ship Fund.

BACKING OUT OF A BLIND ALLEY

When Congress passed the Hay Bill, it turned off the highroad of genuine military preparedness and entered a blind alley.

Congress had a chance to turn to universal training, and it chose voluntarism.

Congress had a chance to turn towards universal service, and it chose to pay certain selected citizens for carrying the burden which belongs to all.

Congress had a chance to abolish for all time the present divided control of our military forces, to eliminate the individual States as military factors, and it chose to rivet State control upon the military arm of the National Government under a plea of "Federalization."

Then came the mobilization upon the border, and the end of the blind alley came into view.

The task before Congress is, or should be, obvious to all. The country must now be backed out of the blind alley of voluntarism and State control (into which it has been so painstakingly driven) and led out upon the broad and democratic highway which leads towards universal training.

Universal training means that to every fit citizen shall come the chance to learn to defend his home and his country.

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declaring that the President has been vacillating, uncertain, infirm, at a time when there was special need of steadfastness and definiteness. Those critics who find this fault with the President do not find fault with him because he has taken a wrong policy toward Germany, for example, but because he has never had, or never seemed to have, any definite, firm, and consistent policy toward Germany at any time. So with Mexico. So with the critical situation that arose in connection with the threatened railway strike. So with preparedness. It has seemed to such observers of the President's course that he has sought to avoid difficulties rather than to overcome them; that he has seemed to be guided by a consideration of temporary circumstances which are continually changing rather than by any well-defined purpose; that he has been willing to be on both sides of the same question at different times; that he has been, not a leader of public opinion, but a reflector of it; that, as one of his own supporters has suggested, he has made a virtue of being flexible.

Such critics cannot forget that the President who declared that he would hold Germany to a "strict accountability" for the lawless destruction of American life on the high seas has not yet succeeded in rendering Germany accountable for what America suffered in the loss of the Lusitania, and has not even prevented the continued lawless attacks by German submarines on peaceful merchantmen bearing American lives. They cannot forget that the President who acted with vigor against Huerta for a failure to observe a stipulated ceremony has failed to act with vigor in the cases of Americans killed by Mexican chiefs with whom the Government had official dealings. They cannot forget that the President who sent an expedition to get Villa alive or dead has failed to get him either alive or dead, and has not yet succeeded even in getting any one else to get him alive or dead. They cannot forget that the PresiIdent who has urged international action on the basis of humanity has declared that "we are not interested to search for or explore the causes of the bloodiest war of all time. They cannot forget that the President who urged Congress to act in compliance with the threats of a body of labor leaders took no effective action during the weeks while the threatened strike was impending. It is not with the action or the opinion or the policy of the President that these critics find fault. It

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is with his inaction, with the absence of any apparently definite and steadfast conviction, with the lack of a policy.

Now that the election is over, now that Congress has reassembled, now that political pressure is somewhat relieved and political distractions have somewhat disappeared, the country can hope for a more definite, more vigorous, and more intelligible policy. There are signs which we welcome of increasing firmness at Washington. To the merely partisan critic this will make no difference. It will make no difference to the critic who is merely prejudiced or ignorant. And of course it will not prevent those who disagree with the President's policy from expressing a difference of opinion. But to those who want firmness, even though it may not be firmness in the direction in which they would like to see it applied, to those who desire leadership, though it may be a leadership in what they think is the wrong direction, such signs of firmness and of leadership will be welcome.

In domestic affairs the President's capacity for leadership has been tested and not found wanting. He has led Congress often where it did not want to go. May not the country look for the exhibition of such leadership in executive matters ?

It is for this reason that we welcome reports from Washington that the President's Mexican policy is about to become more definite and more vigorous.

It is for this reason that the country welcomed what the President is reported in the public press to have done in protesting against Germany's lawless action in deporting Belgians, although, as we report elsewhere, no official confirmation of this protest has been made by the State Department.

It is for this reason that we welcome such expressions as the following concerning the European war which the President uttered at the ceremony of illuminating the Statue of Liberty: "Peace cannot come so long as the destinies of men are determined by small groups who make selfish choices of their own. . . . Our long standing and delightful friendship with the people of France has come from a community of ideals."

The election was not so much a vote of confidence in the present Administration as a vote of want of confidence in the leadership of the opposition. In the coming months the President has the opportunity of winning the country's confidence.

"Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,

Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;

But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,

When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!"

T

HE first line of this verse of Rudyard Kipling's is the one oftenest quoted. But the moral of "The Ballad of East and West" is in the last two. The West can never duplicate the East nor the East the West. The Puritan can never become an East Indian nor the East Indian a Puritan. Why should they? There is room on God's earth for both Puritan and East Indian. But they can try to understand each other and they can respect each other, and each can learn something from the other.

He

The first serious attempt to bring about such mutual understanding and mutual respect was the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago at the time of the World's Fair (1893). It was followed about ten years later by the mission of Charles Cuthbert Hall to India on the Barrows Foundation. went to learn as well as to teach truth, and, going in this spirit, found himself warmly welcomed and eagerly listened to by members of the most cultivated classes of that universally misunderstood people. A similar welcome has been given to Sir Rabindranath Tagore on his visit to America. He has come at an inopportune time, when we are absorbed in war and politics and abnormal business conditions. Probably curiosity quite as much as an eager desire for truth has attracted his audiences. Nevertheless they have listened to his message with respect, and, if they have not been converted to his doctrine, they have been captivated by his personality.

The photograph on another page assists me to introduce Sir Rabindranath Tagore to the reader. He is, at a guess, six feet tall and well proportioned. His finely chiseled face wears in repose an air of great serenity,

1 Sir Rabindranath Tagore: His Life, Personality, and Genius. By K. S. Ramaswami Sastri, B.A., B.L. Ganesh & Co.. Madras.

Sadhana: The Realization of Life. By Rabindranath Tagore. The Macmillan Company, New York.

but when he is aroused it glows with an inward fire, for he is a man of strong convictions, and expresses them, whether in friendly conversation or on the platform, with forceful persuasiveness, accompanied by virile but always graceful gestures. He speaks a beautiful English, as one might expect, remembering that the beautiful English of the translations from his works in Bengali is his own. Spoken by him it is musical in intonation, as perfect in pronunciation as in literary form, and wholly free from those provincialisms, degenerating at times into slang, which so often disfigure American conversation, and even at times American oratory. When I met him, he wore a long, flowing, kimono-like robe of rich stuff-I suppose an India silk-which fell in ample folds about his person from his head to his feet, and presented a graceful contrast to the stiff black garments which the masculine American has inherited from his Roundhead ancestors. Clothes are a symbol of character; we might say, of civilization. The loose, flowing robe of the East belongs to a civilization of thought rather than of action. It would be impossible in our crowded subway and trolley cars, difficult in our offices, stores, and streets. If women conquer the economic independence which some of them covet, and work in the factories, mines, offices, and shops with their husbands and brothers, will they wear clothes as ugly as those of their male companions? I wonder. If they do, civilization will pay a good price for their imagined emancipation.

Western definitions of Eastern thinkers are, for a reason presently to be stated, not only inadequate but misleading. It may, however, help the reader to place Sir Rabindranath Tagore if I say that professionally he is a teacher and religiously a member of the Brahmo Somaj. He is the principal and, I believe, the proprietor of a large school in Calcutta with an atttendance of between one and two hundred boys. The fact that there are also some girls in the school indicates Sir Rabindranath's broad and progressive temper. The Brahmo Somaj may be crudely described as a Hindu Protestantism, in which the Hindu faith is preserved, but modified by the influence of Christian ideas and ideals. Sir Rabin