Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1913 — ALBANIA FOR THE ALBANIANS [ARTICLE]

ALBANIA FOR THE ALBANIANS

Much of Country Has Been as Independent as Montenegro—People of Native Stock. “Albania for Albanians" may be one outcome of the Balkan war. The Italian duke of the Abruzzi, the intrepid Polar explorer, has been suggested as reigning prince of this brave people. Austria may have other plans. Like the Welsh in Britain and the Basques in Spain, the Albanians are a native stock. They speak the only original Balkan language. The Turks have not permitted the Albanian tongue to be taught in schools. There is no literature, no agreement even as to how it shall be written. Of the few who can write, some use Greek letters some the Roman. The Albanians themselves are nearly all Moslems, but 400,000 Greeks, Serbs, Vlachs and Bulgarians in their land belong to the Greek church. The famous seven highland clans of the north known as the Malissori are Ropjan Catholic. Blood feuds, lack of roads and Turkish misgovernment make the interior the only part of Europe where ordinary travel is unsafe. One-quarter of all the deaths in the country are violent, either in clan warfare or in

clashes with Turks. Much of the country has been as Independent as Montenegro. The Turk never cowed or taxed its rugged hills. The Balkan allies may be willing not to undertake it. Of all fallow and backward races the Albanians have perhaps the greatest possibilities. Haeckel said that they have the best shaped heads in Europe. Their natural ability is great Emigrant Albanians in Greece and Italy have carried with ttfbm thely love of liberty and their valor. If an Independent government could introduce schools and check feuds, there would soon be another wonderful, progressive little nation in the southeast, quite capable of existing for its own sake, and not as a mere catspaw for Italy and Austria.