Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1902-01-02
a FRIENDLY VIEW OF THE RUS
SIAN MISSION.
THE EASTERN QUESTION
How Long Will the Turk be Tole-
rated?-Europe is Getting To-
gether-Continued Massacre of
Armenians Stirs up the Powers of
That Country.

INuSSldu SONeEumSuL anu lIS pOllCleS
The Russian language is known to a
comparatively few experts, and it casts
veil of mystery over the govern
ment and it's policies. The Russian
language is known to comparatively
few experts, and it casts veil of
mystery over the government and
people of Russia, and where there is a
mystery there will be suspicion and
superstition. Russian official life is
sealed book to the general student
of politics and the general press.
English statesmen and military
men have long been haunted by a
strange apprehension of an invasion
of India by Russia. Such an invasion
would require an army Of 100000 men,
and thai army must be supplied with
immense stores of provisions and
clothing, of artillery and cavalry, of
ammunition and hospital appliances.
The nearest base of such supplies
would be Moscow, and then they must
be carried to the Caspian, across the
Caspian to the single-track railway to
Herat. Nor could such an army de-
scend the gOrges and passes of the In
lus incumbered with it's impediments.
The haunting apprehension is
phantom of the brain. No government
known to us by it's diplomatic records
shows such prudence and painstaking
care as Russia does to avoid the least
friction with the European states.
The language of Russian diplomacy
is always modest, courteous and civil.
1t uses no threats or menaces. Rus
STA does not Vancouver her armies
along the frontiers of neighboring
states, nor does she send her battle
ships around the world hunting for
islands to seize or lands to capture.
No prince has yet appeared in
history like the Gar Nicholas. who
has proclaimed to the nations the ex-
allied ideal of universal peace and that
the appeal of humanity should be to a
legal international tribunal. The
summons to dtsarm the nations and
abandon war came from the youngest
child of European civilization
Russia is a eastern as we'll as d
western empire. Her march to the
eastward is under the banners of the
European civilization and learning.
The vast region of Asia stretching
from Manchuria on the east to the
Caspian on the west, from the southern
slopes of the Altai mountains to the
plains of TUrkestan, is inhabited by
the Turanian tribes of TurcO-Hupic-
Tartar race who are of the same
blood and the same origin.
They are the most relentless.
savage and cruel barbarians known to
history. Nature has bestowed upon
the Tartar a high order of intellectual
capacity, but has denied him every
trace of moral sense or human SYM
pathy. History has always characer-
lied him as the demon of destruc-
ton"
The future objective point of Rus
STA is no doubt the conquest and
civilization of these kindred nations.
and as no nation and no other govern
ment can ever hope to reach them,
the would should applaud the pur-
pose, for it is the worlds work that
Russia is mapping out AS for Man
Churia, it is not proper Chinese ter
ritory at all, and is claimed as such
by virtue of the usurping Tartar
dynasty in the Chinese empire
The Russians and the Turks are
hereditary enemies. The Slavs, vino
are the descendants of the ancient
Samaritans have inherited the pas
sionate hate of their ancestors for
the Turanian race. As the Hun aid
the Samaritan were in bitter war, so
now is the Slay with the Turk and
the Tartar.
Russia makes no allusiOn for her
self Of the great power of the sultan
Her armies on the Turkish frontier
are always in maneuver and maintain
ed in strict drill and always ready
for action.
The government of the Turkish EN-,
pire is an absolute despotism. The
personal will of sultan and pasha con-
stitute the sole machinery of gov
eminent The finances are always in
a state of bankruptcy and the system
of justice, if such it may be called,
is hopelessly and radically corrupt.
1t is not the criminal it desires, but
the criminals money and property
for the sultan.
The governors of the provinces are
so far removed from the administra-
ton of the sultan that he knows moth
ing of their government, even if he
had the energy or capacity to control
them. The political bonds which hold
the empire together are ropes of sand.
Slowly but surely the distant pro-
yinces ar falling into political chaos.
The bond Of the empire which main
tains its unity is the bond Of religion
The Mohammedan religion is even yet
a tremendous power. The simplicity
Of its belief, There is but one God,
and Mohammed is His prophet" ap-
peals to the Tartar and Turkoman
i7laination as no other can and even
though the religion is not embraced,
they stand before it in we and fear
Its force has penetrated the Turanian
nations and the sultan knows it.
Many times during recent years the
Sultan has repeated and reiterated
his old claim as Caliph OF Islam, until
by its ceaseless repition is has met
with quiet acquiescence, except in
Persia, Arabia. and Egypt How far a
summons from the Caliph of Islam to
the Mohammedan world for holy