The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-13
THE ARMENIAN OUTRACES.
Suggestion as to How the Turkish
Question Should be Solved.

The horrible slaughter by the Turkish
regulars o 1900 Armenians, men, women
and children, among whom are the sons
and brothers of American citizens. which
has just made the whole Christian world
shiver with horror. reopens. once more.
that old and always new Turkish ques-
ton which now, more than ever. may
endanger the peace of Europe and pre-
cipitate a war in a near future Let us
then try to find out what there is in it.
and how and by whom it ought to be set
tied once for all
When the Moors overran the south of
Europe by way of Spain, Italy, and even
France, they ventured on soil which des-
tiny prohibited them and from which they
were to be tepulsed sooner or later In
France Charles Martel oVercame Abdair-
amman. Spain. after several centuries Of
struggle, drove out the African invaders,
though she was indebted to them for
a brilliant civilization and as these in
vaders belanged to the white race, it seems
that they might easily have blended with
the ancient population, as had already
been the case between the Celtibers the
Carthagnians, the Romans and the WISH
goths This new fusion. however, never
took place, and the only reason given
is the antagonsm of the religious and
the varying tendencies they represented.
If the Moors did not succeed in i'm
planting themselves in Europe the Turks
could not hope to be more successful in
a similar enterprise. They had brought
with them the same religion as the con-
querers of Spain, but they Joined to it a
brutality which strangely contrasted with
the delcacy and elegance so characteris-
tic of the Moorish family. Far from en-
tightening and organizing the countries
they invaded, they drove out
the sciences, the arts and
antique letters which were stin their
glory. They belong to the sterile Tartar
race which has always lived by brigand-
age, has never created anything and has
never given to the world useful inven-
ton. Since they extended their empire
over Western Asia and a portion of
Eastern Europe, four or five centuries
ago, they haFe labored only to suppress
every kind of initiative and to smother
all independence under the weight OF
their stupid fatalsm. They have no
where been able to assimilate themselves
with the intelligent populations in whose
midst they have settled down. If they
have won over to their cursed belief a
few individuals, these have soon been
transformed into oppressors as barbarous
as themselves. They are as cordially de-
tested to-day in the country upon which
they have imposed their yoke and their
name as the day when they arrived with
scimitars in their hands. When the peo-
pie conquered by them are reproached for
their ignorance and coarseness we forget
that independence is the first condition of
all civilization. of all moral ana intellect
ual development.
1t is true that during the last half cen
fury, the men placed at the head of Turk
ish society have made some effort to re-
form it by means of customs adopted
from European nations. 1t is also true
that in the highest strata of this society
the Introduction through the women of
the Caucasian element has somewhat
advantageously modified the race. But
the changes effected are superficial and
the Turkish system remains intact. We
will willingly allow that the last sultans
have cut off fewer heads. impaled fewer
victims, thrown fewer women into Bos-
phOrus than their predecessors, and we
rejoice a it; but has this softening of their
manners penetrated the masses? Alas
this last massacre speaks for itself, but
even before, it would have been absurd to
think so, when we remember the many
outrages already committed upon our
Christian fellows, outrages which have
been the work of a whole population, and
not only of a few furious individuals, as