Wonder Of War Is Alliance Itself.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 9, 1912:
Old Residents in Salonica Marvel at Bulgarians Fighting Beside Greeks.
YOUNG TURKS ARE BLAMED
Dr. J. Henry House and Dr. M. I. Pupin Tell Patria Club of Conditions Which Caused Sultan's Defeat.
    The Rev. Dr. J. Henry House, President of the Thessalonica Agricultural and Industrial Institute at Salonika, Turkey, and Dr. Michael I. Pupin, Professor of Electro-Mechanics in Columbia University, spoke last night on the results that would follow the triumph of the Balkan allies in their present war with Turkey. They spoke before the Patria Club in the Hotel Manhattan, and both agreed that the triumph of the allied Balkan States was a foregone conclusion, and that the day of the Turk as a factor in European affairs was nearing an end.
    Dr. House, who has lived in the near East for forty years, said that the war was due to the lack of wisdom on the part of the great powers of Europe, who had failed to make the Turk observe the provisions of the Treaty of Berlin. In this particular Dr. Pupin disagreed with Dr. House, and said he was convinced it was not due to a lack of wisdom, but to greed and heartlessness.
    "I do not wish to be understood as saying there are no fine men in Turkey, for there are, and likewise there are gallant and valorous soldiers among them," said Dr. House. "Forty years ago I went to Turkey, and even at that time the coming of this conflict was indicated plainly. We are witnessing more or less of a religious war, although I do not like to refer to it as such. Many things might have happened to prevent it. Had the treaty of San Stefano been carried out, it probably would have prevented this struggle. The war is the outcome of a thirty-four years' prayer on the part of Bulgarians and Macedonians for justice.
    "Was it strange that after thirty-four years of beseeching for the enforcement of the Twenty-third Article in the Treaty of Berlin they told the powers that it was too late, and that they wanted something besides promises?
    "The wonderful mobilization of these armies was not an easy matter. It was ordered Sept. 30, and within twenty-four hours all Bulgaria was on the move. It was said it would take six months to get to Constantinople. To-day the allies are at the gates of Constantinople. It has called for an awful slaughter, but there was no other way.
    "What have been some of the surprises of this war? First, the forming of the alliance. I almost agree with what a priest said in Bulgaria when he referred to it as a miracle. We who have lived in that country saw how the Greeks hated the Bulgarians and how the Bulgarians hated the Greeks. The adjustment of those differences was one of the wonders of this age. Another surprise has been the Turkish reverses.
    "But after all the Turk is a lovable fellow, and I ask you — can a starving man fight? A man who goes without bread for three days cannot be expected to be much of a warrior."
    The greatest danger, Dr. House said, that might follow the ending of the war would come if the allies began to quarrel among themselves. Then he called attention to the danger of a conflict among the great powers, and referred to the horrors of a war that might involve on one side Germany, Austria, and Italy, and England, Russia, and France on the other.
    "After all, I think the Turk's place is in Asia," concluded Dr. House, "and when the war ends, if there are no outside conflicts, a great progress should mark the development of that beautiful land of Thrace and Macedonia and Old Servia."
    Dr. Pupin followed Dr. House.
    "This war," he said, "is not really a Balkan war, but a Balkan revolution. Those people are not fighting for territory. They are fighting for the rights of man, among them the rights of life and liberty.
    "The Turkish system of to-day is the iniquitous feudal system of the Middle Ages. There can be no reforms in Turkey that do not suit the army. The Christian pays taxes on the trees and the fruits of the trees, and for the privilege of walking on the Sultan's land. The Turks won by the sword and they shall lose by the sword.
    "How do you explain the melting away of the professional Turkish soldier before the Christian soldiers of the allied armies. The cause was the Young Turks. Their coming into power brought a lack of discipline, and out of it came the present inefficient fighting force of the Sultan. The Turkish artillery is of no service. The modern cannon is a piece of delicate mechanism and cannot be handled by 'duffers.' The Turks cannot use their hands, for they hate work. Why, a few days ago Turkish artillery was driven from a hill that five Yankees would have held indefinitely with two or three Gatling guns. Yet the allies captured it along with 3,500 Turkish artillerymen and all their guns."
    Dr. Pupin said that no country had been of greater service in the development of the present efficient fighting forces of the allies than had America. He told of the immigrants who, having come to America from Macedonia and other Christian parts of Turkey, learned for the first time that there was such a thing as liberty and justice, and, having gained a pocketbook full of money, went back and told their fellow-countrymen of the wonderful land beyond the Atlantic. The Servian, too, and the Montenegrin, he said, had come to America and learned and gone back to his native land better equipped for the job he had in hand.
    "This war is the pent-up indignation of five centuries," said Dr. Pupin.
    Concluding, Dr. Pupin said that Servia would demand an Adriatic port, and that if Austria objected he believed the 2,500,000 Serbs and the 25,000,000 friendly Slavs in Austria would back up the demands of the Servians.