290 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
ening of water-courses can prevent any 
usual floods and, moreover, reclaim great 
quantities of land for cultivation and 
provide work for thousands of famine 
sufferers. 
In the meantime Mr. Jameson, Consul 
General Wilder, and Bishop Graves, of 
the Relief Committee, send tne same ter- 
rible story of conditions in the famine 
district. Last year the Chinese govern- 
ment gave a million dol'ars for relief, 
but internal confusion and consecjuent 
business depression will prevent public 
and private contributions. Consul Wil- 
der writes hundreds of thousands are in 
desperate need and the worst is yet to 
come. 
Were it not for two new hopeful fac- 
tors he would not repeat his cry to feed 
these hungry people. First, the relief 
funds will be expended for labor, ac- 
cording to Mr. Jameson's plans, provid- 
ing work and at the same time repairing 
the dikes, both factions in China prom- 
ising protection for the famine relief. 
The second reassuring feature is the fact 
that in the future the Chinese govern- 
ment will be in a better condition to care 
for its own, and an example of what can 
be accomplished will have been given it. 
But after all — in the presence of need, 
sufifering, starvation, and death — in the 
presence of facts like these, the wise 
saws of political economy, the deductions 
of the well-fed dinner company go fly- 
ing to the winds. The man who loves 
his fellow-man, whose heart goes out to 
helpless, innocent children, cries, 'T give 
what I can," and conditions only that it 
be applied to the best of human wisdom. 
Has our little flight carried us among 
scenes too sad for an after-dinner story? 
Were it only to see the misery it would 
be so ; but remember we fly the Red 
Cross flag, and under it the duty is not 
only to know the sorrow, but to know 
also the joy of helping those who sufi^er. 
Even though our hearts are saddened, 
ere we turn homeward over the wide 
Pacific, we may smile on a passing pic- 
ture in Wuchang of hordes of distracted 
Chinamen carrying all their portable 
goods to place them under the protec- 
tion of some Red Cross flag. 
And now that the Flying Carpet of 
wise old SuUiman has brought us safely 
back to this good land, will you not agree 
with me that the flag under which we 
made our flight — the flag to which the 
poor Chinese fled for protection, which 
has meant so much of help and comfort 
to our suffering fellow-men throughout 
the world — is a flag to which every one 
of us tonight, no matter what his race,, 
no matter what his creed, may pledge 
his loyal fealty? 
TllJi TOAST MASTER, DR. BELL 
Japan has sent to America a great 
many students, who have gone to our 
universities and carried off our highest 
honors, and now she sends teachers to 
us, from whom we may learn. We are 
honored tonight by the presence of the 
great educator of Japan, Dr. Nitobe, of 
the University of Tokio, who is well 
known to us all as the author of Bushids, 
the work which has made known to us 
the high code of morality possessed by 
the Japanese. 
DR. INAZU NITOBE. 
Mr. Toastmaster, ladies and gentle- 
men: We are well aware under what 
obligations the toastmaster of the even- 
ing has placed the world, but the un- 
abated admiration and confidence, as 
well as the curiosity, of mankind are 
still looking forward for further reve- 
lation of his genius, and I for one wish 
to ask a little favor of him. I wish him 
to add to the long list of his inventions, 
already pretty long, another : a new kind 
of phone whereby when one speaks in 
an unknown tongue his words, by the 
time they reach the ears of his hearers, 
may be so translated that all may under- 
stand him. 
This is, of course, nothing new in the 
history of inventions. We are told, in 
a book which we are instructed not to 
disbelieve or to doubt, that once upon 
a time good Christians, apostles and 
fathers, made use of such a device on 
that memorable day of Pentecost. But 
ever since Christianity left the soil of 
Asia this precious art seems to have 
been lost. Perhaps you do not miss it 
out here, but I do very badly, and espe- 
cially on an occasion like this, when I 
