The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-02
WORLD SMILES Al TURKO1TAL|AN WAR Carnegie's Influence Has
 Not Spread to East NEW YORK TURK Tk.Y Says His Country Has Been Torn By Internal Dissension But Be-
 lieves Present War Will Re-
 unite His People
NEW YORK TURK TA.aZ--. , ,
By EDWARD MARSHALL

By EDWARD MARSHALL
 New York, October 1.-In these days when there is so much talk of a world peace the news from Turkey makes the cynic smile.
 Italy made no more bones of unex- pectedly declaring war than Japan did. There was no tendency to wait for argu- ment, and diplomatic confab. Carnegie's the Mediterranean. I know an eminent Turk. He said to me this evening:
 "Of course we cannot hope to win a war with Italy for Tripoli, our last strong hold on the north African coast. but we can fight and will fight. Our nation has been torn by internal dissensions. The young Turkish movement, which drove out Abdul Hamid, reached its zenith quickly and began on its decllne and that, to my mind, is unfortunate in view of what is happening now. That Italy is acting under a secret agreement of the powers, and merely taking, as she grabs for Tripoli, the slice of Africa which has been genially allotted to her, no Turk has any doubt. In the event that my poor country should arise in her potential might and smite the invader, as she could if she were organized and as she may; if war heals our internal differences, as war sometimes does the internal differences of nations, no one can tell what may occur; but, even the most hopeful of us have but little real hope for that.
 we have a navy but it is not a great navy nor is it well equipped and manned, l fear, by crews of questioned loyalty, although there Is a chance, of course, that a common foe may reconcile the malcontents to real forgetfulness of Turk ish politics and eanble them to fight as their fathers would have fought. But that we cannot tell about. The present situation, really, is an outgrowth of our own mistakes.
 "I consider an attack on us at this time the gravest of injustices, but we are now much weaker than we ever have been in the past through our own foolishness, and 1t is, therefore, an ideal and logical time for anybody to smite us. The young Turks have wrecked the nation, when they should have saved it, and had de- clared that they would save it; they have wasted our resources; they have fought their friends and their blood kin in their attacks on the Albanians, the Yemenites in Arabia and the Druses in Horan. The subjugation of these provinces, which was not necessary in the least, or even just, cost millions which might have been much better spent in bringing up the Turkish army to a plane of real efficiency and in constructing warships and equippins them and manning them. It is sad but true that of the few ships which We have the crews are so dissatisfied that nothing but the most exalted patriotism will compel them to fight we'll and the young Turk movement has not, really, preserved that patriotism as it should. If the young Turks had not wasted money wildly on small wars, we might have had navy and not borne a tax one centime greater than the one which has been forced from us without re- turn of any value.
 Fighting. thus, among ourselves ami mated. as too many of our leaders have been, by the most grossly selfish motives we have laid our nation open to the spoil ation of the greedy. The United States alone among the nations has not made an effort to share in the loot of our dis memberment, and there are Turks of brains and influence who consider her the only sincere friend which Turkey has in the world. l, myself, am hopeful that she may offer her good offices to the warning nations as she did to Russia and Japan. That was a voluntary act
 
 opportunity In the present situation for President Taft to win as great distinc- ton as your other President, Roosevelt, did, on that occasion.''
 I asked him if he thought the danger to the few Americans in Turkey to he great.
 Not if they are known to be Ameri- cans," he answered. Turkish sentiment Is very friendly to Americans as I have GliI, hut mt Americans may claim to be, in case of riot against foreigners and when have mobs stopped carefully to figure out the truth of claims at such times? Englishmen cannot expect much mercy, logically, at the hands of Turkish mobs, inflamed by the belief that England Is the friend of Italy, and, possibly, her packer in this vicious blow at Turkey. How could a Turkish mob be expected to distinguish Englishmen from Americans? The danger is that Americans may be victims through mistakes. A Mohammedan mob is, pos sibly, the hardest in the world to hold in check.
 But to thoughtful students of events the danger to the foreign residents of Turkey is one of the least serious mat ters to be considered in the present sit uation. A great war. involving all south- eastern Europe and who knows how much more might easily result from Italy's aggressive action of the last few days. These recent years have seen . great nation take step against a weaker one quite parallel to Italy's att tack on Turkey. Japan crippled some of
 Russias torpedo fleet in Port Arthur without formal declaration of hostilties, but both nations were prepared for war and had been expecting 1t for months. Italy began war without warning, when no one expected 1t. The whole world Is puzzled by the situation. No one knows,