Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1916-09-05
Courtesy American Museum, JountaU

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EsS=6&EGACEY with three good friends and two
8: !: 5: !: 8: :: ): !:
EE41 EIS5SH soldiers to follow in kings
E3s15ST ESAHSSg automobile along the trail of
Ey2SS3 kSESI4j war. This in Macedonia.
H2G9d kEf?aS9 The line Of an army's march is
RGNESS4ySA &yA not pleasant to look upon even
SaSSE0EpEEGEl though the people along il had
not much to lose. The pinch of
suffering is very real even if, as in the Balkans,
folk have grown used to it. There are two plain
marks by which you may recognize the path of
war in a land of farmers. The one is the charred
village, with its whitewashed stone walls black
ened by fire. The other is the presence here and
there in the plOwed fields of three poles fastened
together at the top and from the crotch baby
suspended Just high enough to battle inquisitive
dogs or goats. Somewhere in the field, anywhere
IN the Balkan valleys in May you will
woman driving or leading a bullock or a buffalo,
while another behind her holds the pillow. The
men are in the army-Or else they were there.
The memory l shall longest hold of Montenegro
Is picture taken by my guide, Antonio Reinwein
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 was most acceptable when he
was asleep. When he was awake, he had his own
ideas of Union and Progress" Union meant uni
fOrmity. nation should have ruler one flag,
one religion one language Progress his way
of bringing about this condition. This was by mas
scarce. And as the actual Turks were few in num-
Der, ruling over an empire of Slavs Greeks, ItaI-
ians, Jews, Armenians, Albanans Kurds Egyp-
tians, MOOrs and Arabs, it demanded eternal Wig
lance to keep them all In state of union and
progress.
These people have had constantly before them
the choice eff revolt conversion, assimilation BAN
ishment and massacre. And at time or an
other, some of each race have chosen each one of
these, often two three of them at once. Mean
while, following the wicked lead of Bismarck and
DsraeH. Europe has kept the Turk alive, because
from tinanciers in each nation, the Ottoman sultan
has borrowed considerable of money.
Macedonia lies along the southern slopes of the
Balkan peninsula. 1t is a 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 $4,000 square
miles of territory is about large the state of
Maine, with Il population nearly twO-thirdS that
of the city of New York, and before the war of
liberation it had about 2,2500O0 people. The
jorty of these were Bulgarian in blood and they
allowed to have their 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, a 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 war altruStic as far as
any be- Its purpose the relief of a
distressed people, suffering for centuries from the
laxitieS of Turkish rule. always incompetent and
everywhere INSCRIPTIONS and the other band
continuously Overrun by the outlaw patriots which
kept the land in inceSsant turmoil.
The Balkan alliance n Russian inspiration
1t planned by Hartwig, Russian minister at
Belgrade. the evil genius of the Balkans" Ii
ended in the treaty of London, where the blind in
termeddng of the powers. baffled by Austrian in
trigue, agreed only the kingdom of Albania
leaving the states to fight it out so far as Mace
donna was concerned. This brought the second
Balkan war. in which Bulgarian diplomacy made
all the mistakes it had u chance TO make.
The treaty of Bucharest left Macedonia crossed