Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1896-10-21
ANOTHER SPEECH MR.. GLADSTONE MIGHT
MAKE,

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The scene in Liverpool week before
last, when Mr.. Gladstone once more
took the platform, threw off the weight
of his eighty four years as n might
discard a top coat, and for one hour
and twenty minutes, without visible
fatigue, held a great audience enthIall.
ed with the passionate yet self re.
strained plea for Armenia. must have
been a most impressive scene.
The occasion, the man, and the au-
dience-the three prime requisites to a
great speech-were there COMBINED,
and it is not surprising that an enter
prising American newspaper The In
dependent) had the whole address Ca
bled over for its columns, nor that the
palace authorities in Constantinaple
had the speech cabled there as it was
in process Of delivery.
And yet the Armenians are no kin to
the English. They are not citizens
either of England or America, Germany
or France, Italy, Austria or Russia,
which Mr.. Gladstone is striving to
move to action. Neither by racial nor
religious ties are they closely bound to
the people Of these countries. The sole
tic to which Mr.. Gladstone could eff
fectively appeal, in his endeavor to
arouse civilized nations of the world,
was the tie of our common humanity.
But that was sufficient, And the peo-
pie OF those nations are today-what-
ever the inaction of their governments
may be-thrilling with the desire to
take the unspeakable Turk by the
throat and choke him until his fanati.
cism and diabolism shall become pow
erless forevermore.
But oh, what a contrast to this con
dition of righteous indignation exists
when we come to look upon the atti-
tude of these nations with reference to
atrocities committed within their own
borders upon their own people.
Where is the Turkish orator that
shall reply to Mr.. Gladstone? What a
speech he could make, not in defense
of the Armenian massacres-they are
indefensible-but in arraignment of
Mr., Gladstone's own country and gov
eminent, of ours, and of all those in
Europe.
What could such an orator say?
What, rather, could he not say?
Mr.. Gladstone points to the murders
of Armenians, estimated during the last
two years at from go 1000 to 100, 900.
The Turkish orator could point to Eng.
land and America, where the number
slaughtered by a legally protected
agency of murder is estimated at from
10000 to 100,0 900 in each country each
year.
Mr.. Gladstone points to the motive
back Of the massacres in Armenia as
that of religious fanaticism. In other
words, the Turk Stays or lets the Kurds
Stay because he believes that he is
thereby conforming to the will of God.
But the slaughter in England and
America is from q far lower motive, AS
our Turkish orator would no doubt
point out-the greed of gain.
Mr.. Gladstone's words fell upon a
public that has been told of innumer.
able acts of ~barbarity upon women and
children-babies pierced with bayonet,
and tossed from one soldier to another
women outraged and throwing them
selves over cliffs to escape in death fur
Their imfamy, But our Turkish orato.
would have no difficulty in matching
these terrible tales with others equally
terrible which our own newspapers arr
telling US day after day and to which
we remain stolidly Indifferent. Her,
in New York the other day Annie Con
molly, a II year old wife, slender ant
frail, was hurled from u fire escape b,
her big husband, drunk on liscene,
liquor, and her leg fractured on tn
pavement below. Another defenseles
wife, Mrs. Burke, fleeing with he
babe in her arm, was shot down by he
drunken husband. From Clevelan
Il story of a little woman, u Mr.
Mcmillan, seized by her drunken hui
band, dragged into the woods and lei
with her throat cut. Day after da
these atrocities come before us, an
every case of brutality by the KurdI
under the protection of the Porte, tn
Turkish orator can match with u
equally atrocious deed wrought by th
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