Imperial Valley press., 1914-06-22
Hhite Poems in South America.


Under the heading, "A Warning"
the South-American specialist, John
H. Harris, tells us that in the out
of f-the-way places of southern Mexico,
Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, or Central Afri-
ca, the white peon or slave lives.
moves, and hes his being. as your
brother, cousin, or former schoolmate
q peon in some distant region?" he
asks in the London Morning Chron-
icle, and adds that if you do not
know, find out, and you may yet save
him from a tragic end" He quotes
Mr.. Fuller, an American consul, as
explaining the art of "baiting the
peon" and "the way of capturing white
peons." He says that the employer
makes it his chief object to keep the
peon in his debt and to initiate it by
compound interest and fines until
there is no way of escape either for
the peon, his wife, his children, Or
even his children's children. And he
makes the following quotation from
letter recently received by him from
a British subject who had been for
tunate enough to escape from the
tolls of white peonage:
81 was a peon. From this day on,
my life was living hell, and it must
not bc wondered at that for while
lost all hope of ever becoming de-
cent member of society again. Others
are not so fortunate and are today
still held in debt bondage, while 9TH
ers again have ended their lives un-
der tragic circumstances"
The method of capturing the white
poems is thus detailed.
"But by what bait are these young
men caught and ultimately drawn into
the web of the unscrupulous exploit
er of the tropics? The gaudy blankets
those pots, pans, and cutlasses which
attract the simple Indians have their
parallel in the seductive advertise
ments of the European and American
capitals Offers of high wages, rapid
advancement coupled with oil and rub
ber 'hooms,' are dangled before the
eyes of youths who, pulsating for ad-
venture, greedily respond. All unsus-
pecting, they sign away their freedom
never counting the cost of living and
travel in countries where protective
duties change the value of six
penny tin of salmon to half crown,
and three-guinea suit of clothes
to three times that sum. The history
and accounts of certain of these young
men have come into my possession;
here is the story Of one-a Britisher.
"a Lancashire man of some thirty
summers, married to a charming wife,
sees an advertisement of a position
which he rightly guesses he is emin-
entity fitted to occupy. His application
is favorably received; he is interview
ed, approved, and offered the post at
a comfortable salary rising in three
years to nearly double that upon which
he and his wife are then living SO
happily, if carefully. The employer,
who rad, of course, advanced passage
and outfit, inserted a clause that in
the event of any breach of contract
or other untoward circumstance, the
employee must refund all money ex-
pended. Three months later the heal
thy young Britisher reaches his des-
tinaticn in the Amazonian valley, al,
ready weakened in health by travel
and fever, heavily in debt to his em-
ployers, with supply of provisions,
so inadequate and unpalatabIe' that
he is plunged still deeper into debt
by purchasing the food and clothing
necessary to keep body and soul to-
gether. Escape is impossible, for he
has no means to pay his return pas
sage, and his nearest friends are s.,
900 miles away--as we'll cry to the
moon for succor."