Great freedom to the work of the press was given in the earlier days, all of which has changed during the last thirty years. While the Turks were never favorable to it, they tolerated it under a silent protest. Gradually the opposition became more and more open and violent. Undoubtedly all this originated among the Roman Catholics and the Jesuits, who even in the early days of the mission fought against the circulation of the Bible and Protestant books. They did much to stir up opposition to Protestant books, among the Greeks first and later among the Armenians, always assuming that the Bible is a Protestant book. There is no doubt that this hostility was helped on also by the representatives at the Porte from Russia. The Turks were not so much concerned with what they regarded as squabbles between the various Christian sects.
About 1878 Dr. Wheeler, President of Euphrates College, imported a printing-press into Harpoot, where he set it up and ran it with great industry for several years. Only a local work was done there, while the general publication operations of the missions were carried on at Beirut and Constantinople. In the eighties the Turkish government began to put severe restrictions upon the press. The one at Harpoot was silenced and has so remained to this day.[1] Strict rules were promulgated to restrict printing in the empire. Formal permission must be procured in order to own a printing outfit, and strict rules were formulated for its conduct. All matter to be printed must first be submitted to a royal censor whose stamp of approval upon every article is necessary before it is put upon the press. The same stamp of approval which carries with it the sanction of the sultan must be printed upon the first page of every book, otherwise its issue, circulation, or even possession by a subject of the empire constitutes a crime. This approval must be obtained for every edition of the same book. It is almost as difficult to secure permission to-day to print a new edition of the Bible as it was after the appointment of the first censorship to print the first edition. Permission to print a book like the Bible carries with it no authority to print separately any part of the same. These rules have greatly hampered the work of the press, but have not by any means been able to stop the constant output of useful books and periodicals in the leading languages of the country.
There is no department of missionary effort which has done more to open the eyes of the people and stir in them new desires and ambitions than this work of publication, taken in connection with the general educational operations. Many English books and periodicals find their way into these schools and are included in the libraries of the teachers and students. These too are subject to all the restrictive laws which hamper the press. The tendency is more and more to exclude all foreign books and periodicals and to have it almost a crime for a subject of Turkey to have in his possession a library of any kind. Many an Armenian has been arrested and thrown into prison for no other crime than the possession of a few harmless English books. No one has yet been bold enough to confiscate from the libraries of the missionaries the books which they possess, but this step has been repeatedly threatened. The officials, however, intercept many books in the mails or in transit by freight.
In all work of reform which marks the history of missions in that country this agency has been supremely potent. Undoubtedly to-day there is no more vitalizing force in the empire affecting the intellectual and religious life of the Moslems than that which is exerted not only through the Bible and especially prepared literature, but through books on science. These contain startling revelations to the old-school Moslem, since modern science runs counter to nearly every teaching of the Koran. He cannot deny their truth forever, and when he yields he has already met with a mighty intellectual and religious evolution.
[1] This press began operations again in September, 1908.
XIX. MODERN MEDICINE
In the Turkish empire a remarkable impetus has been given to the material development of Asia Minor and Syria, which may be largely traced to the quickening influences of American missions. Mission converts are proverbially men of affairs, alert and progressive, and in full sympathy with modern ideals of progress. The change in their personal environment, and in the temper and spirit of their lives, testifies to new impulses, higher ambitions, and an enlarged and increasing sympathy with modern progress. As long ago as 1881, an incident of commercial significance was reported in The Missionary Herald. It was announced that through missionaries at Harpoot nearly five hundred sets of irons for fanning-mills had been ordered from the United States, native carpenters having been taught to make the necessary woodwork which would render them available. Since then the introduction of American agricultural machines has increased, in spite of the difficulties and heavy cost of transportation. The German government has interested itself in securing concessions for a railway through Asia Minor to Bagdad and Busrah, with the evident expectation that German trade will find in those regions a profitable field of exploitation. If it should prove true that Mesopotamia may become a source of supply for the grain which Europe needs, there is good reason to expect that American agricultural implements will find a new market in Asiatic Turkey. Owing to the large emigration of Armenians to the United States, and the long residence of American missionaries in Turkey, no foreign country is better known or more admiringly regarded by the entire Christian element of Armenia than the United States. Mr. Charles M. Dickinson, Consul-General of the United States at Constantinople, regards even the material returns of American mission work in Turkey as justifying in large measure the outlay. His opinion is expressed in the following paragraph: