The Washington herald., 1912-10-20
BALKAN STRIFE BATTHE OF TWO
CIVILIZATIONS, SAYS HISTORIAN
Four Little Nations Upset Peace Europe and More Enlightened
Countries Look On with Dbapprova Over Whom Struggle
Carried On Not High in Scale Of Enlightenment

temefgence from centuries Of baFbaYigm.
while the mercantile class. numerous In
the cities and composed Of Jews. Greeks.
and Europeans. stand between the, two
great forces in conflict without taking
part too openly either In favor Of ono
or the other.
Therefore. the contest which threatens
to rage In the BALKANS % not one BE-
tween barbarism and civilization, but Q
struggle between two civilizations, one
aged and the other nascsnt: Therefore.
It ~ q much more implacahls and ter
r!ble light than would be between CIV
tii1ations and any form Of true bar
barism. The American who does not
understand this point. viii. I am afraid.
be unable to understand the Eastern
crisis. Its origins and delsvopmsnts.
II living in the center Of Q continent
henceforward entirefy dominated By
some civilization. the richer and more
c:vflised peoples must remember at this
moment that Of all struggles between
peoples. the most violent, most bloody,
most inevitable. are those arising from
different principles Of civilization. The
mind Of man II Infinitely ingenious and
fertile with reference to family and
state fundamental principles Of morals
and social order. How many different
conceptions have not arisen from CEN
tury to century. from place to place!
DN0A1 so~o8y buO kuou ~uO BOc0
Europe to Asia sees the world change its
appearance entirely before the eyes OF
man and what II permitted on one con-
tinent becomes unlawful on the other.
and vice versa
Be the Judgment what It may, the d.
versity Of the criteria by which men
solve the greatest problems Of life 10 .
fact. as In also . fact that each people
and century thinkA that II has dis
envoHAA. fhA yHApHoNH VnAAol ~ -hAH
should and should not be done in honor
of morals and justice.
Dispute OF Civilization.
. How many disputes. how many hates
and discords and how many struggles
have arisen and will arise among men
from this perpetual illusion In which
each century. each people. each religion
believes in having found the most per-
feet solution Of the great enigma Of life.
Hence. too. arises the necessity OF war.
II war seems to be internal in the world;
II war plays q great part In history, II
II because there are no other means of
deciding from time to time those dis
cords and contests when they become
too entangied than by decisive cut
which settles them in one place for q
long time in favor Of one or another
Of these opposed principles. 1t u really
this great drama Of war. of which civil
lied Europe no longer understands the
tragic solemnity. which In about to re-
peat itself In the Balkana
Posted on confines Of an old decadsnt I
civilization which springs from pyin- !
ciples divergent from and irfeconoilable i
with those Of their own civilizat tons the |
peoples are compelled to take up arma
Even this time again the dispute could |
be settled. bat the crisis would only |
be postponed.
One day or another the Balkan nations |
called the ordeal Of peoples to put to |
the test Of war. their faith. their moral. !
political and philosophical IDEAS their |
civilized institution the whole Of their |
in order that the bloody |
ordeal they could be compared with the I
faith. the ideas and the institutions of |
the Mussulman. with what still remains |
standing and living Of the ancient Islamic |
partly reinvieorated and
partly rebarbarixed by the military |
energy Of the Ottomans.
And II will be an ordeal Of God, in /
which indirectly America and Europe
will also be involved and all countries |
which have created or accepted that |
by which the Balkan peoples
are compelled to take up arms.
1t will likewise be terrible trial both
for the small Balkan peoples and for \
the Turks whose hardness will come
out moro clearly when the differences
Of the two civilizations are more fully
known.