New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-02-21

BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER.
hurs; the barriers and in defiance of the practical
Judgment Of international politics the little sgGai-
p2n E ap0 , aSd ssy forth To- the rescue
1t Is too late for the Powers TO combine ana smut
did few years since. They now at largo;
They are n feeble force The navics Of England
the face of the the sea but no iher proes They
have acted. The protest is registered The publ,
with Arbitrary action on the part OF the Powers
tolerated.
ALL THE WORLD INTERESTED
The Eastern question is therefore reopened. And
when the Eastern question is reopened all the
world is concerned Russia is concerned. because
il affects her route To the and. what is more,
her relations to England In Asia. Austria Is CON
csrned eeGause affects aer prospects among
concerned because IT affects her commercial ambi-
,icnS in the Orient her claim, IN Aica ner S
Germany. though Bismarck has said the Eastern
anian grenadSr. is Yet actively concerned because
of her relations to Russia and France e.. England
death interest the maintaincr OF Il world-empire
in the sucz Canal AL the colonial interests in
Southern Asia and in Africa are concerned. inter-
national politics all over the world, Whatever the
apparent issue and habitat. are resoiyable into
some form of the Eastern question ana stand stand N
some sensitive connection with this great political
Bosporus. America is well isolated and self-ab-
sorbed. but the great question 1t Is now conside--
is most deiicately articulated with the Eastern
question in it, srger s 6fsrn Ns Greece practically
bankrupt in its finances. with population of only
1000 cO and territory only half the SIS OF New
by interfering in the as a5sd q ~ The s amswe Tn =
question OF geography and of history as Interpreted
I have just had the good fortune TO spend year
on the borderland between the East and the West
one who has stood by The straits OF Salamls ana
coasted out among the Greek islands that dot the
Aegean and entered in At the 4ardanees dis
again in Bcsica Bay; who has had chance to
see the discomfort OF the Maccdonians and to
know something OF the Cretan insurrection, all
in one year. cannot well avoid a strong impression
Eastern question haunts the history of civilized
mankind .,.a.,,o, g.. $40. ,,,o.,,o, ., ,o-do,
nor Of Ea yescrda When EToean history first
began TO be written IT already there 1t was there
England. Ii indeed created the ancient nationality
Greece, far az such nationality ever existed;
its discordant clements TO face the Eastern, qucs-
ton 1t is not question abGu, whS sha,, d nave
question which one must understand in order 10
Ga dsson n who Sre It's S fy
concerns the perennial antithess between Occldent-
teal statement for US and ours means this: Who
is to lead; who is to champion. who Is to repre-
hicts Inevitable with Orentalism?
OCCIDENT AMI ORIENT.
That is what call the greater Eastern question.
When crosses the Aegean. which is at one
part only 100 miles broad. the Bos-
porus. which is merely broad river. deep and
rich, flowing down out OF the Black Sea. and
comes to the shores of Asia Minor, one becomes
aware that he has passed out Of one world into
another world. He has passed out of the Occl-
to-day, a boundary that every one feels who
passes IT, there It was OF yore, fixed as, by the
left the active and ambitored Occdcnt and has
entered into the vast dreamy passive, tmcless,
The contrast between those two things. occdent-
alism and Oricn talsm you cannot mistake.
The West is ful of creation progress restlessness
achievement. failure. disappointment, exultatlon;
the East abounds in quetism, resignation and bliss
Those are the great outlines of the difference.
frontier through life, through the nations OF men.
That frontier now has stood al these ages in its
great Bosporus. and along that frontier lire the
great conflicts between Occidcntaiism ana oriental
over that fronticc influences have gone from one
and Whatever comes from Asia to Euro5e comes
through IT, This is the lesson Of early European
the north renemeH ant cVzation moved back
in the revers, Of their track.
THE WAVE OF IsLAMIsM
The reaction from Alexanders onslaught upon
the East came late but 1t came strong. 1t came
in the form OF Islam. Mahometanism Is inspired
Orlentalisnl: it is Orientalism set fire. On came
Islam in a mighty tide, seeming. 1t were, to have
gathered force from the strong impact Of Alex
anders onslaught thousand years before. well
as from having been pent up under that tremendous
pressure which the Roman Empire urged upon II for
so long It on In terrible tidal wave, swept
across Northern Africa across Spain. half across
France, all Asia Minor. up into the OF
Europe the gates OF Vienna. and buried old
Greece under terrible slavery for centuries.
That the reverse tide. The reaction I'm
long ago. Spain long since cleansed. This
century has done noble work in cleansing. The
Balkan States have been freed Greece since the
twentes has been free. The Sick Man OF Con-
stantinoplc. more accurately termed the Great AS
sassin. fingers there by slende" footing. He stays
where he IS by the sunerance Of the Powers,
rather the Persian Empire stood-namely so
long the Greeks could not agree among them
selves about the leadership OF Occidentallsm. That
Is what are waiting for now. Who is TO be the
leader of Occidentasm In these last years OF the
nineteenth century?
WHO WILL BE THE CHAMPION?
Who is TO be the champion OF Occldcntalism in
the twentieth century? This is the practical form
In which the greater Eastern question Is stated 10
l. such n champion 10 be found among
The nations which surround the Aegean and
the Bosporus? That II TO say L. the greater East
ern question TO be settled In terms of the lesser?
First of all Turkey commands attention! She
sits still At the old-t!me gate by the Bosporus.
The guns OF the fort at Kun Kaich still command
the entrance 10 the Dardnnellcs. As state Turkey
IL a heterogeneous assembage OF peoples under tho
absolute sway OF the Sultan. II Is government
lacking altogether for the fight of a COM
munity 10 choose concerning It's own government
government Is trahscendent a power above and