The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-24
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on this high plateau of the lS&We3 Andes. d mighty valley which in places is loo miles wide, running north and south from Ecuador to Bo- livia The valley is walled ty snow capped mountains. It has many peaks that are three or four miles above the sea, mighty volcanoes that have poured out ramparts of lava that has con : gealed. as it were. in it's flow. This great valley winds in and out. The most of it is over 12.000 feet above the sea. but there are great depresslons here and there in which the land slopes down to the altitude of 1000 feet, giving it all the crops of the tropics and the temperate zone.
 This plateau is one of the most thickly populated parts of South Amer ica and has some of the strangest peo- pie of the new world. The majority of them are Indians. and several millions are the descendants of the Quichuas, the subjects of slaves of the Incas. The Inca empire extended from beyond Quito to far down into Chile and it's people were in many respects more civ ilized than the Spaniards who con quered and enslaved them. When pizarro came they were numbered by millions and il is said that there were 5000 O00 of them in Peru alone. They were civilized and industrious. They were excellent farmers and they irri- gated vast tracts which under the Spaniards soon went to waste IL is of the descendants of these people that l write you today. By terrible oppres- sion their number has been cut down to at laae frn pf "a the past. but there are still in Peru perhaps 2000000 of them, nearly all of whom live on this high plateau of the mountains
 saw the Quichaus first in the north ern part of the Andes. They populate the high valleys of Ecuador and are still to be found all the way from there south to Bolivia, where the Aymara Indians begin. Right here at Cuzco l am in the heart of their ancient empire. and in the center of the population or today.
 have seen the Quichnas by hundreds in every town at which have stopped and 1 have photographed their little huts. scattered over the pampas; l have seen them toiling along the trails with enormous loads on their backs or go ing barefooted. driving their llamas and donkeys loaded with the crops of
 
 cities. I have watched them as they sat on the stone floors of the plazas with their little stores of vegetables. grain or fruit spread out before them, and have observed them in the streets carrying great barrels of water and other burdens from house to house the servants of the Cholos and whites. These Indians, who were formerly among the most civilized peoples of the world outside of Europe, are now about the most degraded and miserable of any on earth. Since the Spaniards came they have been practically the servants of the whites and the half breeds. Their intelligence has been ground out of them and through gener- ations of abuses and of exploitation on the part of their masters, added to the use of alcohol and coca, they have be come nearer pure animals than any race now borne as burden on the shoulders of white men.
 ~ In the short time l have been in South America l do not pretend to pass judg- ment as to the present status of the lm- chua civilization. The above opinions are gathered from men who have lived in South America for many years. Some of the views come from natives, and some from foreigners. who have been long in the country. Let me give you few of the talks l have had on this subject. The first is from a mining operator who is at the head of the company which in the past decade hal operated quartz mines here in the Andes, yielding more than S1,000,000 in gold. He is man of close observation and large employer of h. uians. He is, moreover. open minded and fair. he really believes what he says. 'The Quichuas of today appear to lack ordinary intelligence. You tell a man 10 fetch you a broom, and he will bring you a shovel. You send him for a hate het, and like as not he will come back with glass of water If you knock him over and make him go back he then may bring what you have asked The shock starts his brain to working and if is only then that he understands 1 believe that the cause of the deteriora. ton of the Quichua is due somewhat tc the oppression he has had on the part o the whites. but morei to the alcohol and coca wits which his brain is soaked from the time he reaches young man hood until the day of his death. The chewing of the coca leaf begins almost al birth, and boys ana girls, young mel and young women. as well as the old must have so much coca per day. The Indians expect to be supplied with { certain amount of coca in addition tC their wages They mix the leaves witt the ashes of a certain tree and chew them The ashes furnish the alkali thai loosens the alkaloid of the coca. givnf them the full effect of the cocaine. Thes' ashes are made up in blocks and are solt in the market. Every Indian carrie: his coca pouch with him and he chew' all the time. When his jaws stop vol see his cud, the size of a walnut bnlging through one of his checks Tn, coca takes away hunger and enables hin 10 endure fatigue. but it also dries III the brain. As to alcohol, both men ant women drink great quantities of aguar ciente or sugar brandy. This has al alcohol grade of about 52 per cent.
 Another American who Is a large mine operator in Bolivia tells me that the In dian boys are bright until the age of i5 Up to that time they have plenty of coca but their brains have not been solder with liquor. One reason for this is tha, their parents want the liquor themselves It is only after 16 when they begin tc work independently of their parents that they can get alcohol in any great quan. tity. After that their brains materially deteriorate. and they are on the dowr grade for the rest of their lives.
 A native Peruvian or Spanish descen said to me: ''The Quichuas have but littl, ambition. and they live from hand {, mouth They seem to have no spirit ant their brains appear to be atrophied."
 As to alcohol, the extent to which 1t il used among the Indians Is beyond con ception You may see drunken men an, women by scores at any feast, and at tn railroad stations, and in every part of tn country, there are Indians who go reel ing along with red faces and bleare, eyes. During my stay in Cuzco I hay gone into some of the alcohol stores, am