The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-08

Mayor. at right angles to the great cathe- dral that was founded by Figaro in l52o. The palace itself was built about the same time, and it has all the features of the spanish architecture of the days of Co., lumbus. It covers a whole city block, and its ground floor area must be six or eight acres. It was two stories and it consists of large rooms with wide mar ble stairways leading to the second floor. The building runs around patios, and In these are royal palms and tropical flow CTS On my way in I was shown fig tree that was planted by Plzarro. It is more than 300 years old and Is still bear ing fruit.
 My audience with the president was ar ranged by the American minister 10 Peru, Mir Benton McMillin. and we went to the palace together Passing the sol diers at the entrance, we walked through the hall in which Plzarro was killed. and sscended a marble stairway to the second floor. Here we met MT Cisneros the secretary of the President. and d moment later were shaking the hands of the man whom l might call the Theodore koose- welt of Peru
 President Billinghurst Is an aggressive and progressive ruler. He is a fighter, B man of the people and he believes In the masses. Like MT. Roosevelt, he has had military career, and has won his spurs on the battlefield. He Is not afraid He told metthat the danger of revolutions as far as Peru is concerned is over, and that even should there be trouble he had something like 25O,oO0 hard-isted men who would come to the support of the ad- Ininistratlon The President told me that he was elected without applying for the office. He did not want to be President and was about to retire from active busi- ness. His support was so strong, how ever. that he was induced to head the presidential ticket, and he is now put ting in IA hours of hard labor each day in serving his country. He is a progress sive President, and has under way re- forms which include the building up of the national credit and the development of Reru along modern lines
 President Billinghurst is, judge, about DO years old. He Is of medium height and weighs perhaps 160 pounds. His head is large and his face full, with high fore head and twinkling black eyes. He
 
 sation was carried on in that tongue. The first subject was the present condi- ton of Peru. The President said
 One of the gerat troubles of Peru is that 1t is coveted by the countries about her. We have an enormous territory. Our country is one-sixth the size of all Europe, and parts of it are exceedingly rich We have about us smaller coun- tries, the most of which look with long ing eyes upon our possessions We are in fact, In the same position as the rich man versus the poor man. The rich man has many lawsuits His neighbors covet his possessions and dispute his titles to them. That is the condition of Peru We have had trouble with Ecuador, Co- lombia, Brazil, Bolivia and Chile as to our boundaries, and in many of these cases the exact territory of each country is still unsettled. Nearly every country is trying oclai msomething that we think Is our own and we have been kept so busy in trying to hold to our rights that We have not had the opportunity to de- velop our resources"
 We are willing to arbitrate matters with Ecuador. but the Ecuadorans seem afraid to risk such decision. Our records indicate that our boundaries extend al- most to Quito and they fear the result The Colombians hold much the same
  ing disputes as to Bolivia and have had some with Brazil. If we could only agree upon some middle ground as our perma- nent boundaries and allow the balance of the territory to be subject to arbitra- ton. we might be free from some of our complications and in the end be better off What we need is peace and surety of possession. We only want suuare deal and we are willing to submit the questions to fair judges. Some of the countries have proposed that it be left to the pope. I would not agree to that; for just now, you know, Peru has thrown off the dictaton of the church and has declared religious liberty throughout the whole country. l will not say that that was wise thing 10 do at this present time. We had religious liberty before in reality. although not nominally so. At any rate 1t does not seem to be the psy- chological moment to ask the pope to pass upon questions of such vital rela- ton to us.''
 "But have you really much good ter ritory. MT. President?" I asked.
 We have an empire. The greater part or the republic is susceptible of develop ment. This is so of the coastal zone and of the high plateau in the mountains and also of the slopes to the east which go down to the Amazon valley. Right here on the coast we might have three times as much cultivated land as we now have, and We expect to secure this by irriga- ton. We have more than 50 stream that now flow down from the Andes and cross the desert on their way to the sea There are tracts of cultivated territory along each of these streams and wher- ever water can be got to the soil it pro- duces like the Nile valley. We have had surveys made and We believe that we can treble the irrigated area The matter is already well under way and Congress has authorized me to issue s10,00 600 worth of bonds, the proceeds from which are to be used for that purpose. This money will soon be available and we shall begin work at once"
 "Does this mean that you will turn the water out over the desert plains or the pampas?"
 ''No. Some of my people believe that advisable, but ] am in favor of using the valleys until we have made every acre of them into plantations, We know the soil there, and when that has been re- claimed there will be time enough to consider the pampas."
 .aTell me about your plans for the high valleys between the ranges of the An des. MT. President"
 "There is another enormous field for development. We have uplands there that are much like the high valleys of Switzerland. We have plateaus upheld by the mountains, and those plateaus are already covered with sod We have vast herds of cattle and millions of sheep in the Andes. They feed upon the plateaus. and we believe athat these pastures can be greatly improved. We are trying to