Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-04-24
European Politics
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llttle more elevated than is that of
the native Mexican. His house is a
mud hut with flooring, he owns prac-
tlcally no furniture. a mattress and
blanket in which the Turk rolls up at
night suffice for his bedding. The
entire movable possessions Of the
entire family can be packed in a
boX which has about seventy two
cublc teet. By cultivating a little
topaccp. grain. or fruits, and by
working in the rug factories he earns
ABOUT twenty-five cents a day, and
with this he seems content. His in
tellectual and artistic achievements
represents correspondence low
level. He has almost no schools.
less than fifteen per cent of his peo-
pie can read or write; he knows
nothing OF sanitation, modern agri-
cultural methods, or of the technique
or twentieth century industry. Prac-
tically everything that is fine in Tur-
key today is the creation of the races.
.Gfeek, Armenian, Arab, and Jew
that the Turk SO despises. There is
no Turkish literature or Turkish
science: his system of writing is not
Turkish but Arabic. There is no
Turkish architecture: practically all
Turkish mosques We're formerly
Christian churches, the railroads that
Iu&iey has are the creation of fore
igners. The Turk has no aptitude
IN business; the bankers, the mer-
chants and leaders of commerce are
Armcnians. Jews. and Greeks. AS q
warrior. the Turk has had his day
Of splendor; in all that makes for
progress and civilized living. he is
now as he has been for five hundred
wears. merely a to
lie has lived on the country" in
peace as well as in war: and the
wasted and dcvastcd provinces that
comprise the Osman Empire today
arc the result
1t is not necessary for me to re =
call all the historical causes of this
phenomenon; or the reasons why, de-
spite his essential barbarism. the
TURK has succeeded in maintaining
himself at the Bosphorous for so long
q time; | assume that most of YOU
are familiar with this sordid story of
European jcalousios and ambitions.
The development Of modern military
methods. the use Of machinery for
making. war by the so-called Great
Powers of Europe rendered PRACTICAL
~ helpless the Turkish military pow
or; any time within the last one hun
dred and fifty years these great ma
ti"ns could with united effort have
expelled the Turk from Europe and
given protection to the minorities
that would remain in the Turkish
domains. That this was not done
has long been a blot on European
craftsmanship. The consequences
appeared in all their immortality and
horror in the world war. Germany
retained the Turk as an ally and at n
dreadful cost; for tho Kaiser was
forced to give the Sultan n free hand
with the subject populations. the
consequences being the greatest and
most frightful massacres in world
history. But at the end of the war
1t seemed that the enlightened peo-
pies Of Europe and America had at
last learned their lesson Whatever
else might result from that mighty
struggle. in one point at least there
was general agreement: the Turk
must go. No longer was this race to
be permitted to murder. ravage. and
resist non-Moslem populations. Turk
lsh diplomacy for hundred years
had been duel between moral sem
tlment and national advantage Was
it the business of European govern
mcnts to protect the non Moslem
populations Of Turkey against their
ferocious masters. or was it their
business to seek their own national
and economic advantage? It was a
clear moral issue; but morality WIS
then conceived Of as having no par
ticular connection with statesman
shin. The great crises at which this
question was presented IN it's most
acute form We're in 1856 and 1873
at the end Of the Crimean and the
Turco- Russian wars. At both times
there was n strong sentiment in Eng
land which advocated the solution Of