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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



The greatest event of the year, perhaps 

 the greatest for many years, has been the 

 promulgation of a constitution and the 

 promise of a parliament for China. The 

 late Empress Dowager, under the wise 

 and prudent advice of her cabinet, 

 adopted a progressive plan of political 

 reorganization covering a period of nine 

 years, with the gradual evolution of a 

 liberal representative government begin- 

 ning in the municipalities and advancing 

 annually until 191 8, when the authority 

 of the Emperor is to be shared with an 

 assembly elected by the votes of the peo- 

 ple. During this gradual development the 

 people are to be educated to understand 

 its purposes and its benefits, and modern 

 methods of administration are to be in- 

 troduced from time to time in the vil- 

 lages, the cities, the provinces, and at the 

 Imperial Court. Following the example 

 of the Japanese, the wise men of the 

 East are seeking the light and the truth 

 and the way, and an imperial commission, 

 headed by one of the ablest men of his 

 race, is now in this city with a staff of 

 assistants investigating our executive, 

 legislative, and judicial systems with a 

 view to recommending those that can be 

 applied to existing conditions in China. 



Thus, civil and religious liberty, which 

 all men so highly prize, is advancing with 

 resistless force and with comparatively 

 little bloodshed. A divine law, which 

 was difficult to understand, seemed, in 

 the past, to require that human freedom 

 must be bought with suffering and sacri- 

 fice, but with the exception of Persia, 

 these victories were won without the 

 sword. The cause of civil liberty has 

 made greater progress within the last 

 three years than in any previous century, 

 and the year 1908 will have to its credit 

 the political regeneration of Turkey, 

 Persia, and China. 



THE TOASTMASTER 



Our land is dotted with monuments 

 erected to the memory of those who have 

 won glory upon the field of battle, and 

 justly so; but, while we are celebrating 

 the achievements of a great fighting ma- 

 chine, let us hope for the time when 

 greater honor will be paid to him that 



saves one human life than to him that 

 takes a thousand, even though the cause 

 of the latter be just. It is fit that the 

 toast of "The Red Cross" should be re- 

 sponded to by a woman. She has ever 

 been the one to make the greater sacri- 

 fice when a nation is suffering from the 

 horrors of war; and her soft, soothing 

 ministrations assuage the intensity of all 

 pain. And so, as woman has had much 

 to do in creating the leaders of courage, 

 she has also done much to minimize its 

 horrors, and we come to the toast "The 

 Red Cross," by one who has done much 

 to further the ends of the beneficent asso- 

 ciation — Miss Mabel Boardman. 



THE RED CROSS — BY MISS MABEL, BOARD- 

 MAN, DIRECTOR AMERICAN RED CROSS 



The Charter of the American Red 

 Cross says of its duties that it is to act in 

 matters of voluntary relief, in accord with 

 the military and naval authorities, as a 

 medium of communication between the 

 people of the United States of America 

 and their Army and Navy. Therefore, 

 it seems fitting that at a time when the 

 achievements of our Navy are being 

 toasted by so many of the people of the 

 United States, the Red Cross should find 

 a modest place. 



But if you chance to be of a critical 

 turn of mind, you may question what is 

 the geographic justification for its intru- 

 sion here tonight. There is a reason, 

 and a very excellent reason, too. Think 

 for a moment: Is it a map or a chart of 

 the country for which he is willing to 

 give his life, that the sailor or soldier 

 carries before him into the death strug- 

 gle of battle, or is it not rather a symbol, 

 a symbol that means to him, that means 

 to all of us, wherever we may be, the 

 land we love, that symbol — our flag! 

 Possibly the sun now never sets upon the 

 stars and stripes; that we leave for you 

 wise geographers to say, but in God's 

 good sunshine floats another flag, from 

 the arctic regions to the torrid heat of the 

 equator ; over the peoples of the Orient 

 and the peoples of the Occident, pro- 

 tected by the laws of nations, honored 

 and respected by all the world, that flag 

 of humanity — the Red Cross. And so, 



