The Path To Peace.

New York Times 100 years ago today, December 8, 1912:
    When the delegates of the Balkan allies and Turkey meet on Friday one subject of their discussion will give rise to anxiety — the attitude that Servia still asserts as to Albania and an Adriatic port. Over this matter it is plain that all the Chancelleries are extremely anxious, because it may involve action by Austria-Hungary and Russia, and open the way to a general conflict. Such a conflict would turn on the ambitions and interests of the great Powers, and the extreme difficulty of adjusting these is the basis of apprehension as to the outcome. The desire for a station under the Servian flag on the Adriatic is natural. The determination of the two Adriatic powers, Austria and Italy, to resist this is equally natural. The wish of Russia to obtain free access to the Mediterranean from her vast territory on the shores of the land-locked Black Sea is explained on the same ground. And back of these immediate forces lie the powerful motives that make the allies of Austria and the friends of Russia jealous, sensitive, and suspicious. In the negotiations now going on, or in the conference of Ambassadors which England has secured, the satisfaction of these varying desires, the remaking of the map of Southeastern Europe, the allotment of shares to all concerned must prove a vexatious and perilous task.
    There are indications that the worst difficulties may be not met but flanked, and that the representatives of the several Governments may try to devise a plan that will make of the nations joint tenants in a common benefit instead of separate possessors of exclusive advantage. In the dispatches from Sofia last week mention was made of a suggestion from Austria of an agreement with Servia and with her allies for a commercial union, securing to all freedom of trade within the Balkan Peninsula and at the ports of the Adriatic and the Aegean. From Berlin and from London a like suggestion has been made, including Constantinople and the Dardanelles. In harmony with this, but of wider scope, is the idea attributed to the President of the Bulgarian Chamber of Deputies that a federation might be feasible embracing, in addition to the four Balkan allies, Turkey and Rumania, reinforced and, so to speak, insured by the assent of the European Powers.
    The application of this principle would, if it proved feasible, have incalculable advantages. It would necessarily involve provisions for the maintenance of peace and order, but this would be greatly easier if the various Powers were bound to common action instead of watching with jealous and unfriendly gaze each the action of all the others. And the main motive of discord would gradually be removed if it were found, as surely it would be, that under freedom of commerce each of the peoples concerned would steadily advance in prosperity. The Balkan territory is rich in undeveloped resources. Despite the ruinous disorder that has prevailed for Centuries, its production and trade have increased.
    If the energies that have been expended in raising the armies so recently in savage conflict were employed in industry the wealth of the land would rapidly advance.
    Nor can the statesmen of the great European Powers be blind, if they will but consider it, to the fact that, with general peace assured, every one of the nations would get all the benefits — and infinitely more — than now they are severally striving for. If the representatives of the Powers meet only to strive still for these several benefits, they invite, they may be said to compel, failure. If they meet with the determination to secure the greatest possible common benefits, they will turn aside the unspeakable disaster of war and will confer on their peoples a lasting blessing, as fruitful as war would be destructive.