Free Macedonia, Says C. R. Crane.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 13, 1912:
Bulgarians and Albanians Ready for Self-Government, He Thinks.
YOUNG TURKS WERE TYRANTS
Extinguished Popular Education — Bulgarians Have American Point of View.
Special to The New York Times.
    CHICAGO, Nov. 12.— Charles R. Crane of this city, millionaire manufacturer, philanthropist, traveler, and student of anthropology and ethnology, who is considered the greatest American authority on the conditions now prevailing in the Balkan States, was asked to-day by a staff correspondent of The New York Times to give an exposition, of his views as to the wisdom of giving self-government to the inhabitants of Macedonia and Albania.
    "The request of The New York Times," said Mr. Crane, as he gazed reflectively over the wide expanse of Lake Michigan from the upper floor of a large office building in Michigan Boulevard, "carries my memory back to the time when I was in Constantinople, and there witnessed scenes similar to those now being enacted. To get down to the gist of the inquiry, it is therefore necessary to go back thirty-four years.
    "At that time, during the armistice of San Stefano, in 1878, two Professors of Anthropography were sent into the Balkans, and there made a survey covering actual Bulgarian villages, preparatory to making what was called a larger Bulgaria, of ethnological rather than geographical boundaries. These included a large part of Macedonia. This proposal went before the Congress of Berlin in the Summer of 1878, and through the jealousy of the alleged great powers only the northern part of Bulgaria — about one-third — was held to be free. Eastern Roumelia and Macedonia were put back once more under the fearful Turkish Government. If the proposal for a larger Bulgaria had been accepted, all these thirty-four years of massacre and pillage would have been avoided, and there would have been permanent peace in the Balkans. Several years after Bulgaria had been established, Eastern Roumelia revoked and joined Bulgaria, doubling the size and population. That, however, left Macedonia, which is probably inhabited by the finest of the Bulgarians, inside of Turkey. The Macedonian Bulgarians always had a prominent part in the government of Bulgaria. It has been exceedingly difficult to hold the Bulgarians through all these years, with their brethren subject to every kind of terrorism just across their frontier.
    "The Young Turks in this respect have been even worse than the old Turks. The first thing the Young Turks did on assuming office was to extinguish every school in Macedonia. These schools had been built up with the greatest suffering. The schoolmaster was always a marked man, and liable to be killed at any moment. The year before last the Young Turks resorted to torture throughout Macedonia.
    "The rise of Bulgaria since 1878 has been quite as remarkable as the rise of Japan. Coming out of 500 years of the most frightful misgovernment in the world, she has become a first-class young republic, surrounded by powerful neighbors who have not wanted to see her succeed and have menaced her every minute. The Bulgarians have fully justified their experiment in self-government. They are excellent merchants, the best of market gardeners; they are good soldiers, good diplomats, and good administrators. They have universal education, and their point of view is entirely American.
    "The men who have directed Bulgaria from the beginning are practically all Robert College men. Their wives are almost always graduates of the American School for Girls in Constantinople. They all speak English with an American accent. Their houses, their clothes, and their libraries are American, and they could come directly into American society without any one suspecting that they were not Americans. There is not a nobler race anywhere.
    "The Servians are right in the middle of the Balkans, cut off from the Adriatic by Austria and in economic subjection to her. Austria holds Servia absolutely at her mercy, and when she wants to bring any pressure on Servia she boycotts her goods. Of course, this is an intolerable position, and it is a life and death matter for Servia to get a port to bring her territory up to the Mediterranean for the disposal of her meat products. It is inconceivable that the great powers in Europe can get into a great war to help Austria to hinder Servia from getting economic independence.
    "The Albanians are a strong, forceful, and able people, very anxious to have independence. There are about 4,000,000 of them. They are perfectly homogeneous in nationality, whether Orthodox, Catholic, or Moslem in religion. They are finely situated in one of the richest and most beautiful countries on the eastern side of the Adriatic, with several fine ports. Although the Albanians were the foremost in securing independence in the Young Turks movement, the first thing the Young Turks did was to extinguish all of their schools and in every way to interfere with their national aspirations, and all this time they have been perpetrating the most brutal outrages. If the Albanians should receive their freedom they would probably advance as rapidly as the Bulgarians.
    "It is really remarkable how all of these young States have advanced on getting rid of the Turkish yoke. The Turkish people in European Turkey are only 20 per cent. of the population, and it is a fearful outrage for them to have been kept by the Christian powers in domination over these splendid races."