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of China's foreign-patterned army, and he has always taken keen interest in military affairs. As soon as he assumed the presidency he directed his energies toward making the army loyal to him. That he was wise is now being proyed in China, where the troops of the Yuan government are whipping the rebellious elements of the South back to loyalty. Yuan created created lieutenant-generals, major-generals, and brigadiers by the score. He disbanded as many troops from the South as he could pay off, in the meanwhile keeping those

Copyright by Rio V. de Sieux

THE PRESIDENT OF CHINA

military took a hand by sending word that further delay would not be tolerated. There can be no doubt that this effective strategy was the work of Yuan Shih-kai.

After this Yuan became so powerful that Southerners like Sun Yat Sen, General Huang Hsing, Chen Chi-mei, Wen Tsungyao, (an unsung hero who has far more to do with present-day events in China than Sun Yat Sen has, for example), began to suspect his intentions. This grew to a belief that there would never be anything in the Government for them if Yuan were permitted to pursue his course. It was not long before there was open opposition in the Southern press and finally a general anti-Yuan propaganda throughout the South. The provinces heard that Yuan was planning a coup d'état out of which he would emerge as Emperor.

The revolutionistic tendency of the South was, however, mostly in talk until the murder of Sung Chiao-jen in March of this year. He was a Southern leader of note, a man of ability, and a real patriot. He was killed in the railway station at Shanghai, just as he was about to start for Peking, there to lead the fight against Yuan in the Parliament. Charges were at once made in Shanghai that Peking was responsible for the crime. This Peking immediately denied. The murderer, however, was caught. He proved to be a paid assassin. Then the police captured the man who hired him. This man proved to have a connection with Yuan's Premier. It was enough. It was proved,

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AS A GENERAL IN THE SERVICE OF THE MANCHU said the politicians of Shanghai, that the

DYNASTY

upon whom he believed he could depend in an emergency. It was not long before this proved of great advantage. The struggle between Yuan and the Southerners has been almost as continuous since he became President of the republic as it was when he was trying to maintain the monarchy, although it has not been so bloody. Last summer the National Council, a provisional legislative body in the control of the Southerners who were becoming dissatisfied with Yuan, adopted obstructive measures that for a time threatened the existence of the Government. Their tactics came to an abrupt end when the

Premier ordered the murder. And if this were so, there is no Chinese in the world who would not jump at the conclusion that if Yuan's Premier instigated the crime Yuan himself must have known of it.

Before the end of March, and while the case was still under investigation, word went filtering up the Yangtze Valley to the followers of Sun Yat Sen and the others to "be ready." Then Yuan Shihkai brought to an end the long negotiation for a great foreign loan of $125,000,000 by signing the contract. The South broke into a flame of passion. Yuan without funds was a proposition difficult enough. but an affluent Yuan was well nigh im

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WHERE CHINA'S FIRST PRESIDENT WAS INAUGURATED

THE ENTRANCE TO THE FOREIGN OFFICE WHERE YUAN SHIH-KAI THEN LIVED, DECORATED FOR HIS INAUGURATION AS PROVISIONAL PRESIDENT ON MARCH 10, 1012

pregnable. The South protested against the loan or at least the politicians of the South did. The rebellion that followed seems to be losing ground. Sun Yat Sen and Huang Hsing have fled from the country. It leaves Yuan Shih-kai again supreme. To Western eyes he is a man of contrast. Here is an imperialist, the last defence of the Throne, serving as president of a republic. He is a patriot, but his methods are not our methods. He is statesman enough to realize the benefits for China in modern thought and

things, although he is surrounded by foreign-trained men and modern thinkers as he has been for years. He was, in fac one of the first of China's great men t utilize the services of men educatec abroad. In his presidential orders Predent Yuan utilizes the style of the ol Imperial edicts, although his orders are often more blunt than those the Throne used to issue. In one proclamation he issued, in telling of conditions immediately preceding the establishment of the Re public, he said: "Enmeshed in these

used to issue. He is a patriot,

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YUAN SHIH-KAI'S FIRST OFFICIAL RESIDENCE AS PROVISIONAL PRESIDENT

modern ways of doing things, yet unlike the modern, foreign-educated official, Yuan Shih-kai clings to old methods. He has severed his queue, it is true, and he wears foreign clothes sometimes, particularly when in uniform, but he prefers the Chinese dress of old, while the new official revels in foreign clothes, especially the frock coat and the high hat, and in Western manners and mannerisms. is what is called in China an "old style" official. In the administration of his office he still adheres to some time-worn

Yuan

difficulties, it was futile for me to pray for death, and requests for dismissal were refused. I indulged in secret griefs and hidden sighs. We could do naught but weep."

Such proclamations are as far removed from our methods as is the brutality with which Yuan deals with conspiracies. The morality of his course is not Occidental But from either Eastern or Western standards the power and personality of Yuan Shih-kai marks him as one of the strong men of this time.

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FORESTS OF USEFULNESS

HOW THE GOVERNMENT HANDLES ITS TREE CROP SO THAT THE FORESTS CAN BE FULLY USED AS WELL AS PROTECTED

T

BY

HENRY S. GRAVES

(UNITED STATES FORESTER

HE National Forests grow more wood than they lose by cutting, fire, disease, and decay. A few years ago that was not true. Our forests are now constantly improving in condition. They used to be in worse condition every year.

In accomplishing this the first great task of the Forest Service is to prevent injury and destruction by forest fires. Our Western forests are peculiarly subject to fire because they are chiefly composed of coniferous trees and because in many regions there is a prolonged dry season during which the forests become very inflammable. The National Forests have a value in the trees alone of fully one billion dollars. The protection of this great national asset is simply one of business prudence.

The task of protection is of great magnitude and is of such a character that only the public can successfully cope with it. There are 163 separate forests, not including the areas now being purchased in the

Eastern mountains, and they cover a net area of 165 million acres, which is about four times the size of Missouri.

Much of the land is a wilderness, inaccessible and without means of communication. Its protection is not merely a question of developing an organization to fight fires; the forests must first be opened up so that it is possible to patrol them to fight such fires as start. There must be constructed a carefully planned system of roads, trails, fire lines, telephone lines, lookout stations, ranger headquarters, and other improvements. Without such a development a forest cannot be protected adequately, no matter how many men are patrolling it. The greatest problem of the Forest Service has been to extend its system of roads, trails, and telephones, and at the same time keep down fires under the handicap of the forests' inaccessibility.

There have so far been built about 16,000 miles of trails, about 14,000 miles of telephone lines, about 2,000 miles of roads

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