Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-03-21
WHEN I'VE TAKE coks1AN1INoPLE.

! WHEN We lake CUNSiHNIiNUrlI.
w. T. stead, the famous English edi-
| tor and writer, whose name is as ia
miliar to the readers of this continent
as to those of Europe, sees a possible
solution of the eastern question by
means of American occupation OF Iur-
key. He recalls to notice that Golden
long ago wrote of such an arrangement
rs n remedy for the conditions that OBJ
tain in the Ottoman empire, but made
no suggestion as to the manner IN
which it was to be brought about. Mr..
Stead in his new book, The American
ization of the World. goes farther and
predicts the process of accomplishment.
He says:
1T seems to me the most natural
thing in the world that some fine day
there will be one of those savage out
breaks of religious or imperial fanati-
cism which will lead some unhanged
luffian who has been decorated by the
sultan, or some Kurdish chief, TO take 1t
into his head to avenge the wrongs OF
Islam on the nearest American mission
station. He will sweep down at the
head of his troops upon school or
manse. The building will be given to
the flames, the American missionary
will be flung into the building to perish
in the fire, while his wife and daugh-
some pasha.
"1'he story of the great massacre,
when the missionary was burned alive
in his own flaming school house, would
leak out, and then In the natural course
CT things some enterprising newspaper
man would make his way 10 the scene
OF the outrage. would verify the facts.
would ascertain the Whereabouts of the
unfortunate American women, and pos
sibly return to the outside world bear
ing with him pathetic and urgent APP
peal from the captives for rescue from
the Turkish harem.
This outrage, after all, is nothing
more than the kind of thing to which
to submit from generation to genera
ton. The victims have been as white.
as Christian and as wretched as those
whose imaginary doom at the hands of
the Turk or Kurd / have been describ-
ing. But in the latter case the girls
with their devoted mother who may be
subjected to the worst outrage at the
hands of their captors, would differ
from the Armenians in that they speak
English. That one difference would be
vital. On the day on which that smart
newspaper man wrote out his story of
the fate of those American women
wrote it out in vivid characters, bright
and clear before the eyes of the whole
lEnglish-speaking race-the doom of
the Ottoman empire would be sealed.
There are eighty millions of human
beings in the United States, most of
whom speak English, and each one of
whom would feel that the imprisoned
women We're even as his own sisters.
On the day on which the news of their
Incarceration and outrage reached the
Christian republic of the west, the
whole of the eighty millions who inhab-
lit the invulnerable fortresses which
nature has established between the
fosses of the Atlantic and the Pacific
would start to their feet as one man.
and from the whole continent would
rise but one question and one impera-
tive command.
THE question would be: Where is
Dewey? Where is Sampson? Where
are our invincibe ironclads, which in
two battles swept the flag of Spain
from the seas? Why are our great cap
tains roosting round upon their battle
ships, while such horrors are inflicted
upon women from American And after
that inquiry would come quick and
sharp the imperious mandate: To the
Dardanelles! To the Dardanelles!'
In three weeks the commanders who
shattered the Spanish fleet in Manila,
and drove the inronclads of Admiral
Cervera In blazing ruin upon the coast
of Cuba, would appear off the Darda-
nelles to exact instant and condign
punishment for the outrage inflicted
upon American women.
Nor would they stop at the Darda-
nelles. The stars and stripes would
soon fly over the waters of the Sea of
Marmora, and the thunder of the Amer
tcan guns would sound the death
knell of the Ottoman dynasty. No
power on earth would be able to arrest
the advance of the American ships, nor.
indeed, is there any power in Europe
that would even attempt to do so. The
patience of Christendom has long been
almost Worn out, and Europe would
probably maintain an eXpectant atti-
tude while the deathblow was struck at
the crumbling relics of the Ottoman
power
when the sultan had fled from
Stamboul, leaving his capital to the
violence of the mob, the Americans, to
save Constantinople from the fate of
Alexandria, would be compelled to oc-
cupy the city of Constantine, and, as
our experience has long shown, it is
much easier to occupy than it is to
evacuate. Every day that the stars and
stripes fioated over the gates of the
Euxine would tend to familiarize Eu-
rope with the idea that, of all possible