Show aa na h el W RION VAT KV pr 0 XU 0 V Z 7 4 VA david Starr jordan noted e d and pacifist tells what has been ouch t h y conflict in the little coun 4 tries of eastern europe A W grave problem stilt american museum fournad fo 4 azat WAS my fortune foit unc not to long ng ago g with three good friends and two soldiers to follow in d a kings automobile along the trail of war mar this was in macedonia the line ine of an ardys march Is not pleasant to look upon even though the people along it had not much to lose the pinch of Fuff buffering erIng is very real even it if ns as in the ballans balkans folk have grown used to il there are two plain marks by which you may recognize the path of war in it a land of farmers fan ners the one Is the charred voiage with its whitewashed stone walls blackened by alre the other Is the presence liere here and there in the plowed plow ed fields of three poles fastened together at the top and from the crotell a baby suspended bonded just high eno enough i g h to baffle inquisitive dogs or goats somewhere in the field anywhere ln in the balkan valleys in may you will see one woman driving or leading a bullock or a b buffalo while an another oilier behind her holdt the plow the men are arc in the army br or else they were there th the memory membry I 1 ahall longest hold of montenegro Is 13 a picture taken 6 by my guide antonio of Ws this land of stony graves graveson of the resolute people of the limestone crags who have never done llo homage m ag a to ithe the turks nor to any other outside P power 0 it will be remembered that all these balkan f folk a al k were for years under the dominion a of f the turk and that none of them have been free for half a century the turk was most acceptable when lie he was asleep when he was vas awake he had his ayn own I 1 ideas of union and progress union meant uniformity for mity 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 as the actual turks were few in numb iler er ruling over an empire of slavs greeks italians jews albanians kura kurds B egyptians fians moors and aad arabs it demanded eternal vigilance ilance to keep them all in a state of union and progress sj th these eq e people have had constantly before them the choice of cf revolt conversion assimilation banishment and massacre and at one time or another some of each race have chosen each one of thie these often two or r three of them at once meanwhile while following the tha wicked bricked lead of bismarck and europe eurof has kept the turk alive because from financiers in each nation the ottoman sultan has bor borroel roea considerable sums of money macedonia lies along the southern slopes of the balkan peninsula it Is a fertile region crossed by chains of rounded mountains with green valleys and nd swift i streams in physical conditions not unlike alke the south of fr france ance it has square miles of territory js Is about as large barge as the state of maine with a population nearly two thirds that of the city of new yo york rk and before the war of liber liberation atlon it had about people the ma these were were Mul bulgarian garlan in blood and they were allowed to haye their own churches and schools As to tile the campaigns which have desolated desolate j macedonia in the last few years we need say only IRL a word ord the history of the two balkan wars is given with accuracy and justice in the monumental report of the itic balkan commission of the carnegie endowment endowment a document of especial value in any y study of the conditions preceding the third balkan war which today lias has sot set the world lu in flames flamer the first balkan war was altruistic as far as any war can be its purpose mastbe was alie relief of a distressed people suffering for cent uiles from the of turkish rule abw always nys incompetent ind and everywhere unscrupulous and on the other band continuously overrun by the outlaw patriots which kept the land in incessant turmoil the balkan alliance was a Itus russian inspiration it was planned by ITar twig Itus russian minister at belgrade alie ithe evil genius of the barkans Baj kans it ended eadel in 14 the treaty of london where tile the blind intermeddling ter of the powers baffled by b austrian intrigue intermeddling inter agreed on only ly anthe on the I 1 kingdom of alb Atha anin leaving the states to tight fight it t out to so far as macedonia was concerned tills this broughton the second balkan war lu in which bulgarian diplomacy made nil all the mistakes it had a chance to make the treaty of bucharest letl lefts crossed rg r W by boundaries the effect of intolerance worst in greece bad enough everywhere to drive out of each nation all who belonged to the wrong language or religion I 1 do not say race for they are all of the lie same general stock even tile the bulk bulb of the turks and greeks this has filled the region with refugees mea me and women whose fault Is that they lived on tre tle wrong side ot of the boundaries made fo for r them them in the treaty of bucharest passing down the long highway which lends leads over miles from sofia to and in old bulgaria then across the border of macedonia down the river past Dzu Dzuri malato iala to we found everywhere the Bul bulgarian garlan refugees from the district in greek macedonia these have been roughly estimated at in number some of these have hen been given farms or houses abandoned in macedonia by turks who followed the turkish army away others received farms left by greeks when the ahe greek army wont went back after the treaty of bucharest the government grants each person some a day same some find work york but after the war there are few employers the cost cost of living has doubled the means of living has fallen at Petrit cb near the present boundary of greece there were hundreds of these waiting about on the stone sidewalks felde walks day by day they were waiting tor for the powers to revise the tha treaty of bucharest and glye them back their homes in the region above some local journal had said that this revision was coming soon it wits waa my duty to assure them that it would never come the phrase tn in sofia europe exists rio do more Is the truth so far as ball ballan balkan an affairs are concerned the reason for that Is clearer now europe was paralyzed by the the great grat terror which has since mince coi come 0 on aln it in an unthinkable able catastrophe there were some in th the concert of powers who were striving to io bring on this catastrophe the war of steel and gold avas was about to give place to real war which would end they hoped in speedy vie tory mud aud world power it has not ended in that way it has not nt at all but those who most looked forward to war were the ones who had least con conception eption certain consequences ip the whole wable length of the valley in western anacko macedonia nia clowns bowns have h ave liven been bained bu bernrd ined ln in who whole leor or part by the greek rj army which pursued the bulgarians Bulga rians ns as far as the old border of bulgaria in greek macedonia nt at the hands bands of one or nil all of ibe he three successive arale 5 tu turkish i B bulgarian ul garlan and greek most of the towns between and drai drama na have suffered the same fate each of these towns owns lias has now its share of Greek refa refugees gees from turkish thrace these have been beau estimated by greek authorities as numbering ak aoa they have come by railway from Adria nople in box cirs ars belonging to the greek governal these cars are left at the various barlous stations a dozen or more at each in these the people keep their bedding and their scanty effects the government of greece allows them two or three sous i i IRY day with rice which they cook on fires of thistles whistles es and other weeds in a turkish journal vigorous complaint was made against the albanian refugees in thrace as more proficient with the mauser than with the plow and only as cattle thieves A plea was made for bringing back the bulgarian farmers as far more moie desirable neighbors the bulgarian tire are now our friends in the bie larger towns as Salo nikl and KlI kush the refugees are ranged in tent cities ten thousand or more in one encampment there were perhaps greek refugees a little more than a year ago along the road from drama to Salo nikl when I 1 was at Salo nikl the turks were leaving in great numbers took steerage passage for stamboul in one month Sal Salo nikl thessa honike lo nike beautifully situated in full face ace of mount olympus and with a noble harbor should be one ot of the great cities of the world in the nf aftermath of the second balkan war it lost half it its 8 population it Is no better off today than in the times when st paul called out for help in macedonia harsh and often terribly brutal operations in serbia and greece result from the unchecked operations of the military element the soldier as such considers neither nelt lier economic conditions nor the soul of enn it was claimed that the two wise ministers in belgrade and venizelos in athens were both opposed to the policy of repression both would if they could have proclaimed religious linguistic tolerance in those parts of macedonia turned over to them by the treaty of bucharest but the fact of victory lectory and especially victory over their sister state bulgaria intoxicates intoxicated the military tary and fills tile the mob with the east wind in such times the civil authority cannot hold its own against the 1 bulgaria recognized better the value of tolerance A greek church rind and school stand undisturbed in solia sofia in the bulgarian national assen bly there are about a dozen turkish deputies representing thrace these turks supporters sill fill of the king hold the balance of power liewer against the combined democrats rind socialists the group opposed to all war the spirit of hate Is still very strong among the people of bulgaria they hate roumania mania ns is the robber state who has done them the boht harm they hate greece there can never be settled quiet in the east until tho the balkans belong to tho the balkans until civil everywhere dominates the military mill tary arid until customs unions and ether unions causa these people to realize that one fate befalls them all and that tho the welfare of cacti state Is bound up to ln that af p its neleh bor |