The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-23
The CASE OF MACEDONIA
TURKISH SYSTEM OF EXTORTION TOO
DEEPLY ROOTED FOR REFORM.
Christians. So-CaIIed. Quarrel Among
Themselves and Offer No Hope
Vast system of Graft.

CorTesp ondeace of the Indianapolis Journal.
SALONICA. Aug. s.-Will the ultimate
outcome OF the Macedonian disturbances re-
solve itself into battle to the death be-
tween Mussuman and Christian?
Furthermore. should Russia assume con-
troll in the Balkans. will she give to these
mixed populations the personal liberty and
good government of which they stand in
such urgent need? The present Macedonian
uprising makes both these questions partic-
ularly pertinent In their solution rests
the peace of Europe
The struggle between Mussulman and
Christian, of which Macedonia has been
the battle-ground. has lasted q full ten CEN
turies and it is that long since the first
Russian invader made Constantinople the
object of his attack.
That any sympathy or basis of mutual
understanding between Christian and Turk
can ever be established seems to be an
utter impossibility; that Russian rule, des-
potic and obnoxious as il ever appears, can
be made acceptable either to Turk, Bull
gar or Macedonian Greek seems an absurd
proposition.
And in addition to 1t all the question of
heredity is such mixed one here in so
many instances that taking sides is only a
matter of personal preference. You will
hear persons of Greek descent speaking
Slav i'm Macedonia and vice versa. One of
another, they say in explanation: ''They
would not learn our language, SO we had
to learn theirs"
Ever since the unfortunate war with
Greece the attitude of the Turk toward
the Christian has been one of intolerabe
insolence.
The root of the trouble lies naturally in
the oppressive taxation, and it would SEEM
ingIy be as easy a matter to reform this
class of imperial taxgatherers as it would
be to perform similar feat in China. The
conditions are, in fact almost analogous
excepting that the taxgatherer and bene-
ficiary is in this case foreign government
THE BURDEN OF TAXES.
There be question that the Mace
DOMAIN is the most heavily taxed peasant
i'm the world. TO begin with. he must pay
his land tax and 1.-THE. He must pay for
the building or maintenance of highways
which have scarcely any repairs since
they were made by the Romans, centuries
ago. He pays school tax and receives
no education except what he pays for over
again. He pays a military exemption tax,
n
for the Turkish service. There is nothing
that he buys which has not been heavily
taxed, and he can sell nothing without pay
ing tax upon it. Whatever he carries,
weighs or owns is regularly taxed, and
few things that he does not own are gen.
orally included in the bill. 1t is not an
unusual thing to come across an orchard
and farm which appear as if they had been
will be cut down and the crops destroyed
not by strange hands, but by the owners
themselves, because the taxes upon the
crops have been larger than the actual
value of the crops.
But this is not the worst feature of the
taxation The government officials are
hopelessly corrupt and have only to make
out a new charge and collect the tax over
again when at all short of money them
selves Opposition to such procedure is
hopeless, for the imperial tax gatherers can
practically collect tax whenever they like
under the pretext of paying the military
or some additional expense incurred by the
government. Going to law about such
matter would be the merest kind of farce.
Is it to be wondered at that these OPP
pressed peasants play into the hands of
the revolutionary committees-a kind of
political banditti who see more for them
selves in a lawless life than in passive en-
durance of Turkish msrule? Naturally the
peasant suffers doubly by the connection.
When not despoiled of all he has by the
official tax gatherer the committee makes
its demand upon him. So. when the COM
mittee is active in its resistance and con-
fiict with the military occurs, the band es-
capes and the soldiers vent their fury upon
the villagers, whom they know to be SYM
pathzers with, if not actual participants
in, the revolutionary programme. In this
way the villagers are driven into the bands
of the revolutionists.
AN OPPRESSED PEASANTRY.
The situation with the peasantry here is
daily becoming more intolerable. Many of
the poorest are really starving. The
wretched creatures are existing upon a
flour or meal made from grinding the stalks
as well as the grain. The sheep have. in
committee or else used for food.
The system of graft that obtains among
the government officials is a complicated
one The popularity of it is that the man
higher up, typified in this case by the gov
ernment gets the worst of it, Instead of
being five months in arrears with the pay
of it's army as the government is to-day,
it should have unlimited funds at it's dis
posal Not that the Sultan's spies fail to
keep him informed on the subject of the