War For The Turk.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 5, 1912:
The Only Arbitrament He Knows, Prof. Pupin Says.
To the Editor of The New York Times:
    In his letter to The Times my colleague, Prof. Gottheil of Columbia University, deplores the fact that The Hague tribunal is not heard from to-day, and that, in place of arbitration, we have in the Balkans a barbarous war. Knowing Prof. Gottheil's pro-Turkish sympathies as I do, I wonder what he would say if the unspeakable Turk had been more successful by the barbarous methods employed to-day in deciding the fate of some 7,000,000 or 8,000,000 Christians who have been enslaved for over 500 years.
    Prof. Gottheil begs that you "enlighten his poor and failing mind," but I am afraid that his particular mental malady is hopeless, otherwise he could easily see that the Balkan revolution could not possibly be arbitrated out of existence. This revolution is a struggle for the inalienable rights of man, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuits of happiness.
    Does Prof. Gottheil believe for one moment that these rights could be obtained from the unspeakable Turk by arbitration?
    Who can compel the feudal Moslem lords to give their Christian tenants, the enslaved rayahs, the enjoyment of the inalienable rights of man? Certainly not The Hague tribunal, nor the decree of any conference of European powers, nor even the Sultan himself with all his Cabinets of pashas and grand viziers. The power of Turkey was always in its army, the only institution in which the Turk believes, and the army is in the hands of the privileged Moslem landowners. The sword and the barbarous methods of modern warfare, which Prof. Gottheil deplores, are the only means by which the feudal Moslem landlords in Turkey and their fanatical army can be destroyed.
    Without their destruction there is no hope for the enslaved Christian rayah. This is the very task of the allied Balkan kingdoms, and everybody who believes in the inalienable rights of man wishes them success and will bless them for ridding Europe of a filthy pest which menaced the life of modern civilization for 500 years.
                M. I. PUPIN.
                Columbia University, Nov. 2, 1912.