Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1916-09-01


not much to lose. The pinch of
suffering is very real e$en it, as in the Balkans,
folk have gSown used to it. There are two plain
marks by which you may recognize the path OF
war in land of farmers The one is the charred
village, with it's WhitewaShed stone walls black
ened by fire. The other is the presence here and
there in the plowed fields of three poles fastened
I together at the top, and from the crotch baby
suspended just high enough to battle inqusitive
dogs goats Somewhere in the field, anywhere
In the Balkan valleys in May, you will see one
woman driving or leading bullock or buffalo,
while another behind her holds the pillow. The
men are in the army-or else they were there.
The memory / shall longest hold of Montenegro
is picture taken by my guide, Antonio Reinwen,
of this land of stony graves of the resolute people
of the limestone cragS who have never done hon.
age to the Turks nor to any other outside power.
1t will be remembered that all these Balkan folk
were for years under the dominion of the Turk,
and that none of them have been free for half a
century. The Turk most acceptable when he
was asleep. When he was awake, he had his own
ideas of Union and Progress" Union meant uni
formity. A nation should have one ruler, one flag,
one religion one language Progress was his way
of bringing about this condition. This was by mas
scarce. And the actual Turks were few in num-
ber ruling empire of Slavs Greeks, Ital-
ians, Jews, Armenians, Albanians Kurds Egyp-
tians, Moors and Arabs, it demanded eternal Wig
ilance to keep them all in state of union and
progress.
These people have had constantly before them
the choice CT revolt conversion assimilation ban
iShment and massacre. And at one time an
other some of each race have chosen each one Of
these often two or three of them at once. Mean
while, following the wicked lead of Bismarck and
Disraeli Europe has kept the Turk alive, because
from financierS in each nation, the Ottoman sultan
has borrowed considerable sums of money.
Macedonia lies along the southern slopes of the
Balkan peninsula. It is fertile region crossed by
chains of rounded mountains, with green valleys
and swift streams in physical conditions not I'M
like the south of France 1t has 10000 square
miles of territory, is about large the state OF
Maine, with population nearly two-thirds that
of the city of New York, and before the war OF
liberation it had about 2250,OOO people, The ma
iority of these were Bulgarian in blood and they
were allowed to have their own churches and
schools.
AS to the campaigns which have desolated
Macedonia in the last few years need say only
a word The history of the two Balkan wars is
given with accuracy and justice in the monumental
report of the Balkan commission of the Carnegie
endowment document of especial value in any
study of the conditions preceding the "third Bal
kan war" which today has set the world in flames.
The first Balkan altruistic as far as
any can be. It's purpose was the relief OF a
distressed people, suffering for centuries from the
laxitfes of Turkish rule always incompetent and
everywhere INSCRIPTIONS, and on the other hand
continuously overrun by the outlaw patriots which
kept the land in incessant turmoil. - 49,,
The Balkan alliance was Russian inspiration.
It was planned by Hartwig, Russian minister at
Belgrade, "the evil genius of the Balkans" 1t
ended in the treaty of London, where the blind in
termeddling of the powers, baf1ed by Austrian in
trigue, agreed only on the kingdom of Albania,
leaving the states to fight it out so far as Mace
Aonia was concerned. This brought on the second
Balkan war in which Bulgarian diplomacy made
su the mistakes it had chance to make
TIE treaty Of Bucharest left Macedonia crossed