The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1903-09-02
OUR DUTY IN TURKEY.


able as to threaten destruction of the Sultans
ereigny The duty OF the United States in the sit
uation is the same it would be in the presence
OF disturbed conditions in any other country. Our
citizens who there in business other pursuits
must be protected and their treaty rights respected
Our officials must be free to come and go and the
flag over their legations must be an involabe shell
ter to all who seek it. Beyond that our Government
has no concern with what happens to the Ottoman
empire.
The Turk fought his way into Europe as result
of the inexpressible corruption decay, debauchery
and decline of the Christian empire OF the East
that began with Justnian and progressed rapidly
under his pious and predatory successors The Chris
tan temples became mosques, and the Turk, by
taking advantage of the weakness and wickedness OF
Christendom, improved upon his foothod and
tended it. Now that Turkey is bad the Eastern
empire was under Justinan, probably the time has
come for the fall of the Mahometan power. Crcum-
stances will take care of that
The proposition that the United States shall lead
Christian crusade to slaughter the Turk, or drive
him across the Hellespont, is nadmissibe from any
point OF view. This hation is a religious estab-
llshment, nor IS it. officially Christian nation 1t
has no religious function whatever 1t is neither
Jew Gentle Christian nor non Christian, and it
is part of its constitutional duty or power to con-
slider the religious faith of foreign revoutonists on
one side and foreign government the other
1t seems necessary that these things be said, in
view OF the loose and inammatofy talk that is being
melted in regard to the Turkish situation 1t has
its origin in the habit of loose thinking In one re-
spect it may do much harm and be the means of
great. embarrassment When the Christian clergy of
the United States cry for slaughter and demand
immediate war overthrow the Turkish empire it
is quite natural that every American Christian mis-
sonary in the Sultans domnions should be sus-
pected of interference in civil affairs and of plotting
for the overthrow Of the government. Among
fahatical people, like the Mahometans this is sure
to cause bitterness and lead to reprisal the form
OF attack upon missionaries their schools and their
property. When it is remembered that we have
among us, in the midst of superior enlighten-
ment, people who make themselves objects OF atten-
ton by tearing down foreign flags and trampling
them under foot, we should consider an excess Of
the same feeling among. people who are made the
subject of heated .denunciaton.
|. The sincerity of Christian is to be doubted when
his zeal takes the form of crying for war and augh-
ter for the propagation OF the faith The Christian
clergy may reconcile with their professions if they
can, their demand that the Turk be wiped off the
face of the earth that "the time has come for his
wholesale destruction" and the other demands for
war, bloodshed and devastation Those things would
sound harsh if the given for them were purely
political, and their purpose the acquisition Of
territory and the extension Of political power But
when it is claimed that all this shall be done in the
interest OF the Christian faith, and for the propaga
ton OF its methods and practices to the lay mind it
appears in the form OF advice that we proceed to do
exactly what the Turks are charged with doing. If
it can be proved to- be in conformity with the com
narlds Love your enemies" Love those that hate
:you, Return not evil for evil but overcome evil
with good" and the other injunctions, intended to
guide the course OF the Christian in the midst OF his
enemies, and in the. presence OF those who use him
Idesptefully; then laymen throughout Chrstendon1
have read the faith backward and are mfsnsructed in
its requirements
1t is appalling that two religious ideas should be
in conflict in Turkey for the worlds history furnishes
proofs that such conflicts the most relentless that
can engage the ferocity of If one. wish to know
their full and awful import he needs but to read the
story OF the long wars and prosecutions that have
ragged between the different Christian sects in which
la thousahdfod more professed Christians persisted
riserably under the bloody hands of their fellow
believers than have been sacrificed by the Turk and
all nonb believers combined:
To demand that the United States, as a govern
ment, shall embark in religious war is fantastic
This Government is a political institutions purely
and" has nothing whatever to do with ahybodys re-
ligion or lack oft. We protect our own people in
Turkey and elsewhere, equally, whether they be jew
or Christian missionaries merchants and whether
they be our Mahometan wards of Sulu; or those
who pray to Pelee in Hawaii, or the red-skinned
brethren who gyrate in the sun, dance and conjure
rain by rafting pebbles in dry Bladder But we
do it as political duty enjoined by the necessary
implications of the constitution and as the price of
the loyal allegiance of all who are under our flag.
The California pastime Of killing men. under
mistaken notion that they are deer, is broaden
ing IN its dangerous possibilities. Two boys went
hunting few daysoag and one was taken homo
dead. The other thoughthe saw dove and fired
death-dealng ball into his companions. head.
These eccentrcities of vision offer wide field of
usefulness TO oculists.