El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-05-30

- UGO, Peru, May so write Of
the debt slaves Of the Andes
- They are numbered by the hun
dreds of thousands and the most OF
them are in the direst of bondage. Ihls
mighty plateau, between the Two
ranges of mountains, is divided into
farms or hasiendas, owned by the
whites, the descendants Of the Span
iards. or by the ChOlos, 2 mixture
or Spaniards and indians These es-
tates are large. You may ride all day
across many of them and not come TO
the end Of the property Each OF
them has a large number OF indians
upon IL and these indians are pract-
caliy the debt slaves Of the owners
They line in villages or in nuts. scat
tered over the property The land
belongs TO the haciendas and the in
dams have their huts and small pieces
Of land. which are leased to them IN
ce- certain conditions one OF these
IS that the indian must work part
OF each week for his master. The
haciendas make such advances TO the
indian as keep him in a state Of debt
slavery, and this state is transmitted
10 his children The conditions are
different in the different provinces
and in some places they are milder
than in others But all over the pla-
teau they are such that the red man
has practically no chance Of accumu-
lating property or Of advancing in
the state of civilization.
have just had a long talk with a
hacienda, who lives here in Cuzco. He
owns 2SS,000 acres Of land at Cusipata,
in the province Of PaucartandO. but he
goes there only during a part OF the
summer, and spends his money abroad.
He has a house here in CuzcO, and his
indians bring the crops here to mar
ket- This mans estate represents
about the worst Of the conditions on
the high Andes He was very free in
talking about them. and he seems to
have no shame in the part he is tax
ing in them shall give our CONVEX
satiOn as It occurred said he
Land here is cheap. The estate at
Cusipata cost US only about 4 cents an
acre We got the whole, including the
stock. which consisted Of a large num-
Der Of cattle, alpacas and sheep, for
20 900 soles, or about $4,000. I think
we would sell IL for twice that amount
today. Much Of the land is high, run
ming up to 5000 feet above the sea
This is fitted only for pasture. We
have also some which is as low as
10000 feet, upon which barley, pota-
toes. quinua and other crops can be
grown. We have big flacks of alpacas.
and altogether about 5000 sheep. We
have also cattle and horses and Ilamas
and dOnkeys-
Indians Furnish Labor.
The most important possession OF
the farm. however. is our indians. Our
lands are valuable not according to
their area. but according TO the num-
Der OF families Of indians who have
homes upon them and are therefore
obliged to work for the owners. The
great trouble here is labor II we do
not have the indians on the estates
We can get no one to work them.
we hold them bv keeDing
them more or less in debt to US We
advance money for their expenses, and
also for the purchase Of the cattle.
Llamas. alpacas and other stock that
they own This is done from time to
time until they are so deep in our
debt they cannot get out We want
TO keep them in debt, for this is the
only way We can be sure Of holding
them 10 the land The indian seldom
pays his debts. He has been accus-
toned for generations to our system.
and the only way he could pay would