Repository: UIHistories Project: War Publications - WWI Compilation 1923 - Article 23 [PAGE 3]

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Is it not absolutely necessary for a generation o r t w o that they I* under the control o f s o m e strong a u t h o r i t y w h i c h will reverse the policy O t the l u r k s and which will seek t o d e v e l o p a m o n g t h e m the haUits of and respect upon which free institutions rest niutua But why should we here in America be concerned about these matters? Why not let the governments of Kurope settle these troublesonic problems among their neighbors or, if this can not be done simply keep hands off and permit the various peoples of Asiatic Turkey to work out their own salvation, the more powerful or aggressive forcing • solution according to their ability? Unfortunately perhaps for us, the most favored among nations, the time in the history of the world has passed when we can maintain our splendid isolation. Our commercial and economic interests, as well as the moral obligations growing out of the war, have become too greatly involved to be ignored. Any struggle which originates in Asiatic Turkey and which must necessarily bring in one or another of pAiropean nations will deeply concern the whole world and injure American interests which already are too vast to be thrown away and which tend rapidly to increase rather than to diminish. Americans have a peculiar concern with the affairs of Asiatic Turkey and its future development, not only because the land is full of historic cities and was the birthplace of the great religions of the world, but more especially from the fact that in area, topography, climate, and in engineering and industrial problems, it is similar to our own arid west. There is a strong commercial attraction, as well as a fascination in the land, a call for service, a longing to put to the test in Western Asia some of the experiences acquired on this continent; a desire to show the practicability of American skill and enterprise in reviving the historic places and in putting to the use of mankind the great resources which have lain dormant for centuries under Ottoman rule. Civilization originated or reached its highest development in what we usually consider as arid lands, not in the densely forested and wet regions of Europe, Asia, or Africa, but in thos too for the production of the common food crops. Where life was simple and where the daily needs of food were met by hunting in the forests or by fishing in the streams, man apparently did not advance far beyond the satisfying of these needs: but in the where food

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