The Columbus journal., 1909-05-26
TURKISH WOMEN TO Benefit
FROM THE new GOVERNMENT

fnU TIC Ucv
Women in Turkey insist upon free
dom q we'll ~ men. and under the
changed conditions ofgovernment due
to tie triumph of the young Turk par.
II and the deposition of Sultan and Alb
dol Hamid II, will rapidly rise to the
status of their sisters in other European
lands, according to Reouf Ahnad Bey,
acting consul general of Turkey in
New York City and secretary Of the
Turkish leglation in Washington. As
quoted by the New York Sunday
World, he said about the recent chan
ges and their consequences:
"As the years go by the Moslem
women will not feel bound by the con.
ventions that bind them now a. part
of the old order. They will adopt the
ideas of conventional association Of
men and women; receptions and social
gatherings, that are, with you, every
day affairs. lending useful recreation
to women and enlarging their know.
ledge, will soon be as common in Tur-
key as they are in western countries.
1.-The men of Turkey are at heart as
liberal in this regard as other men.
Some of the men, like the women them
selves, not knowing or caring about
the ways Of the outer world that has
50 long been free, may be satisfied with
the social life as it is, but they change
and follow the example of the leaders
of thought and action after q while.
The educated men Of Turkey know
what advantages there are in the daily
association of men and women accord.
ing to the customs Of modern nations,
and they will eventually establish So
ciety in its usual aspects.
ut may be a quarter of century
before Turkey achieves prominence as
an industrial nation, but that is only
q day in her long history. expect
that q start will be made almost i'm
mediately. There will be unusual &C
tivity in agricultural delevopment at
once. We have been raising agricul.
tural products barely sufficient to sup.
ply our own needs, owing to the con.
fiscating taxes upon mems energies,
but with these removed there will be
an impulse to work and achievement,
and men will rise from the masses Of
the people, from poverty and obscurity
to riches and fame, as they do else.
where when ut liberty to work out
their destiny.
an the next few years you will
witness such activity in the fields that
Turkey will he supplying foreign
markets with bread stuff, and in five
years from now, venture to predict,
she will be among the first of the cot.
ton.growiDg countries. We can raise
better cotton than Egypt, which now
is supposed to raise the best, and we
can raise infinitely more Of it. The
possibilities of cotton growing in Mes
opotamia are bounGless, and the new
government will encourage it in every
way. A large company has been for
med in Constantinople to colonize
Mesopotamia for the purpose and the
government has issued $45 ,OOO, 900 Of
bonds and employed an English engi'
neer to establish order.
turkish coffee will find a more
general morket now and it will be
raised in greater abundance. So will
Turkish tobacco. This, with our cot.
ton and cereals, will be the immediate
foundation of Turkish commerce.
Heretofore the revenues of the empire
have gone to support the excuses Of
the palace and an army Of spies and
sordid officials. From now on they
will be applied to the legitimate uses
of the government and to encouraging
the people to increased effort to better
their material condition.
"The new government has come to
stay. 1t comes with a clear and de-
finite purpose and fixed principles
worked out by the able men who sue
ceeded in winning the army and the
people to the new thought. Those
who organized movement for control
of an empire by the people, and an