The Savannah morning news., 1903-03-15

ed of the Balkan Question almost con-
stantly. The annual recurrence of the
rumOr Of Trouble in the Balkans" is
so regular that it has become a sub
ject for worldwide jest. serious and
notwithstanding as it is.
And yet to almost the whole world
the Balkan Question is little more
than a muddle of obscure geography
tangled history and still more tangled
intrigue.
Briefly expressed, the Balkan CUES
ton is the keystone of that tenderly
poised arch. the Balance of Power-the
Monroe Doctrine of Europe.
And as the Monroe Doctrine of the
United States was susceptible to the
meanest outbreak of instruction in
Cuba, so Europe's doctrine is shaken
every time a handful of patriots or
brigands raises a revolt In Turkeys
Cuba of Macedonia.
At any day a horde of mountain
robbers with no aim higher than TO
pillage a poor village, or a band of de-
voted liberators with the mere aim of
freeing their obscure province from
the Turk. may strike the spark that
will blow up the whole Balance of
Power and bury the peace of all Eu-
rope in the wreck.
AS a concert, the Powers are bent on
keeping that keystone of the Balkans
in its place Jealousy and fear are the
powerful motives that make them zeal
Gus in the endeavor.
individually. each Power is study
ing to see how it can assure itself of
advantage enough to pay to pull it out.
The two nations most openly con-
cerned in the Balkan Question to-day
are England and Russia. England's
interest just now lies in keeping the
question as it has been. Russia can
not, and will not, be content in the ma
ture of the case till she controls the
Balkans or has been so signally de-
feated in trying that she will not be
in position to try again.
To Russia, the ownership of the
Balkans would mean the ownership of
an empire covering the entire eastern
portion of the European continent.
That would mean the control of the
Mediterranean in the East and the
movement toward Englands Oriental
empire would be advanced by a
mighty step.
To Austria the acquisition of Bal
kan territory would mean a free way
to the Orient, and Austria is doing an
immense business with the Far East.
Her interest is far more important
than the world guesses.
To Turkey a collapse of the present
condition means almost certainly that
there will be no Turkey in Europe
after the smoke clears away, what
ever nation is defeated or victorious.
1t is written that Turkey must go
out of Europe.
1t is barely possible that she will 90
finally without war, squeezed out by
the slow and fatal process of diplo-
matte coercion.
If she does not go peacefully, it is
certain that there will be war in Eu-
rope sooner or later.
United States Concerned.
1t is this that makes the Balkan
Question no mere academic question.
but one rife with constant probabili-
ties for mischief that may involve the
whole world.
Now that the United States is a
world power, with thousand foreign
interests in places where twenty years
ago she had none, the Balkans may
be said truly to be of vital concern to
this country as well as to Europe No
man can guess at how many ends the
world might catch fire in case of a
general European war.
So it is to the present interest of all
civilized communities that the Bal
kan buffer be kept inviolate and I'M
disturbed as long as possible.
That buffer of mountain and plain,
peopled largely by semi-savage and
halfcivilized tribes, is no small terri
tory valuable merely on account of its
strategic position.
1t is big enough to make a formid-
able empire, il ever another Boris or
Gar Simeon nOYtlH to
tribes and hold them together The
Balkan States--Servia, Bulgaria, Mon
tenegro, Albania, Macedonia and other
Turkish provinces on the peninsular
form territory bigger than England.
Scotland and Wales put together; big
ger than Italy or Norway; almost as
large as Sweden, and three-quarters of
the size of the German Empire
The states of New York, Pennsylva-
mia, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
Massachusetts and Connecticut if put
together i'll one jumbled mass would
make country of almost the exact
size of the land of the Balkan Cues
ton.
If jumbled together hard enough
the states would make a land some
thing Ike the Balkan peninsular, too.
in conditions.
Throw in the Maine winters and the
rocks of Vermont. Tumble the mix
ture down toward the sea. Throw the
pennsylvania oil wells into the mid
die. Stir them up, throw the Adi.on-
dack and Allegheny Mountains indis-
criminately into the pudding, and YOU
would have a hint of the Balkans. TIE
Adirondacks and the Balkan have
about the same average hight The
forbidding aspects of some of the Al
Ieghany Mountain scenery is dupli-
Gated in the Balkans. Throw in, fur
thermore, vast tracts of land denuded
OF lumber and blackened; throw in a
smiling sea; throw in villages and
towns ranging in appearance from the
charm of thriving New England viii
lagos to the desolate ugliness of a
pennsylvania coal mining town; mix
in the grotesque architecture of the
American sea shore; stir in sulphur
wells, magnificent scenery, earth
quakes and blood-red mud, and you
have the Balkans
There are many ways of entering
the Balkan peninsular; but there are
rot so many of getting out Too
often one goes in by railroad and
comes out by ransom, a method too
expensive for any except large purses.
The SerVian Country.
The most comfortable way Of en-
tering the land is by way of Hum
gary into Servia. The Servians have
advanced beyond the old and simple
life Of throat Sitting and revolution
and are building up a fine land rich
with agriculture and mines. Austria
Hungary is pushing her feelers Of
railroad through II in all directions.