Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-19

WIldJ H1ISUJ nave IldppSHSO IL tie AHoA
been allowed to work out Americas destiny.
American civilization might now be centered
In the Iriquois, one of the barbarian groups far
northward of the centers of culture that had
already arisen in the tropics long before 1892.
Prehistoric America had Indian tribes which
may be compared to the intellectual, artistic
Greeks. 1t had powerful, aggressive tribes like
the conquering Romans And it had cruder
tribes in the north like the barbarian tribes
of northern Europe.
The drama in which these Indian groups were
playing their roles cut short when the
white men came adventuring and conquering
into the New World. Consequently the third
act of the great American drama will never
be completed except in imagination.
Until now it has scarcely been worth while
- to speculate because there were few clues
But knowledge of prehistoric America IS ad-
vancing steadily result of excavations into
old Indian sites. 1t begins to be possible to
reconstruct the early acts of the drama and
even to guess at plausible ending.
The Suggestion that ancient America appears
to parallel ancient Europe rather remarkably
was made recently by DR.. A. v. Kidder, archie
ologist of Phillips Academy, Andover, and drec-
cor of archaeological researches for the Carne-
gle Institution of Washington. DIR. K1dder
points out that the Magyar Indians who lived
i'm Central America and Yucatan developed
there the finest culture in America, very much
as the Greek was the highest culture of Eu-
rope.
These Mayas, starting a primitive group
several thousand years before Christ estab-
lished a respondent civilization. BY the first
century A. D. they were building impressive
stone temples and government buildings, around
which the matched huts Of the people spread
lout in great cities. Indian artists adorned the
white limestone and stucco buildings with beau
tiful sculptures and paintings, and engineers
built wide stone highways.
The scientists were clever enough as astron-
omers and mathematician to devise a calendar
system better than the Roman calendar and
almost precise as our own. Their scholars
worked out system of writing in pictures and
symbols so that dates and other important
records could be painted carved Squads of
workmen were kept busy cutting dates into
tall stone monuments, for the MayaS believed
strongly in keeping permanent records. All
this was done without any imported assistance
from Europe, Asia or North America
NORTH of" the Mayas. in the highlands OF
Mexico, were other Indian groups who built
fine stone cities, and among these Dr. Kidder
singles out the AZtecs whom he compares to
the Romans About the time of the Middle
Ages in Europe the Greek-like Mayas had risen
70 their height and had begun to degenerate,
while the AztecS were absorbing from the luck
less Mayas much of their hard-won culture,
gance.
When the Spaniards came to Mexico in the
sixteenth century the Aztecs were the masters
of the land who met CorteZ, but who were
soon reduced to laborers. forced to carry their
own gold to ships which sailed to I'LL the
Spanish treasury. The Spaniards burned Aztec
books, destroyed temples and silenced forever
PRIESTS and scholars who alone held the keys
to the learning of centuries. And this is some
what as If Roman civilization had been cut off
,I,av M ft,a Of he npri0d
DR. Kidder suggests.
The parallel is that republican Rome sue
ceeded In conquering provinces and multiply
ing its slaves and prisoners. But the van
auished people were not brought into the Ro-
man organization as sef-respecting colonials
until the empire So the Aztecs had extended
their sway over many neghboring Indian tribes
in Mexico But they had not made the sub
jugated people a part of a unified empire when
their progress was cut off. If they had organ
lied their subjects they might have beaten back
the small band of Spanish adventures. AS 1t
was however, the Spaniards found it easy
enough to make allies of the tribes who hated
their Aztec masters, and to overrun southern
America.
The parallel between Europe and America
may be carried further. In Europe the course
of migration and the spread of knowledge and
conquest turned northward from the centers
of civilization about the Mediterranean to bar
barian Gaul and Britain. The simpler north
ern tribes of Europe took over as much of the
knowledge of the declining Greek and Roman
world as they could They held their heritage
and transmitted it.
In America the picture is not so clear, but
DR. Kidder and some other Psychologists in
cline to the opinion that the same northward
wave of culture under way in the New
World The theory implies that the people
who are the center of civilization pass on
many of their ideas to people who are living
ON their borders. When the central civilization