able. Ancient States
are ponderous and slow-moving bodies. Their course can be deflected and
their character be altered only by gradual evolution, by slow and
almost imperceptible changes spread over a long space of time.
Democracy, like a tree, is a thing of slow growth, and it requires a
congenial soil. It can not be created over night in Turkey, Persia, or
China. The attempt to convert an ancient Eastern despotism, firmly
established on a theocratic basis, a country in which the Koran and the
Multeka are the law of the land, into a Western democracy based on the
secular speculations of Rousseau, Montesquieu, Bentham, Mill, and
Spencer was ridiculous. The revolution effected only an outward change.
It introduced some Western innovations, but altered neither the
character of the Government nor that of the people. Turkish
Parliamentarism became a sham and a make-believe. The cruel absolutism
of Abdul Hamid was speedily followed by the scarcely less cruel
absolutism of a secret committee.

The new rulers of the country were mostly very young men, who were
conspicuous for their enthusiasm and their daring but not for their
judgment and experience. They had picked upon the boulevards and in the
Quartier Latin of Paris and in Geneva the sonorous phrases of Western
democracy and demagogy, and with these they impressed, not only their
fellow citizens, but also the onlookers in Europe. Having obtained
power, they embarked upon a campaign of nationalization. However,
instead of trying to nationalize the non-Turkish millions slowly and
gradually by kind and just treatment coupled with a moderate amount of
nationalizing pressure, they began ruthlessly to make war upon the
language, and to suppress the churches, schools, and other institutions
of the non-Turkish citizens, whom they disarmed and deprived of their
ancient rights. The complaints and remonstrances of the persecuted were
answered with redoubled persecution, with violence, and with massacre,
and soon serious revolts broke out in all parts of the Empire. The
Young Turks followed faithfully in Abdul Hamid's footsteps. However,
Abdul Hamid was clever enough always to play off one nationality or
race against the other. In his Balkan policy, for instance, he
encouraged Greek Christians to slay Christian Bulgarians and Servians,
and allowed Bulgarian bands to make war upon Servians and Greeks,
supporting, on principle, one nationality against the other. But the
Young Turks p