The Omaha guide., 1936-12-05

mac Ueen cues I'LL the cowboys
built them) they have been digging
up one ancient layer Of eiviliza-
ton after another. In New Mex
leo the same story. In New York
State and North Carolina and
Georgia new and disconcerting dis
covties are popping up. And in
Yucatan, the Maya tombs are civ
ing up o and more evidence Of
astronomy, art and literature as
enjoyed by Indians there thousands
of years before the United Fruit
Company decided to civilize them
(by overwork and underpay on ban
n plantations).
Ag -iculture Basis of Civilization
Without well-developed agricul-
ture, no civilization is possible. A
very high form of Culture is pos
sible but civilization, which mere
ly mean the living together of large
numbers of people in communities,
depends upon a staple foor supply.
Grain and vegetables must be rails
ed in large quantities to provide
enough food for a city of people.
Meat is ia too perishable and diff
ficult to obtain (before the refiger-
ated era especially for great num-
bers of people ever to have lived on
it entirely. This does not mean that
grain is superior to meat as a food.
1t is by all scientific experiment.
definitely inferior to both meat and
vegetables. Civilization, because il
depends by necessity upon a less
vital protecting source of food,
has always bred disease which
hunting folk never contracts. But
the fact remains, hose folk who
first cultivated, first built cities
MAY | disgress here o say that
cities are probably the worlds
greatest blight. They have given
us Arts and Sciences but they and
their g~rain-raising supporters
have already made great parts of
the eerth sterile. The grain-raisers
of our Middle-West have in one
century destroyed the fertility of
one-third of the United States.)
American Plants Oldest
Dr.. E. D. Merrill, professor of
Botany at Harvard university, has
made a study of original American
plants. He finds that corn, "Irish"
potato, all varieties of beans, TOM
alto, pepper, sunflower "Jerusa-
lem" artichoke, squash, pumpkin,
a 1rowroot, peanuts, tobacco, pine
apple, avocado, and a score more
Of tropical fruits all originated in
the Americas and were never
known elsewhere until after the
so-called discovery" of America
by Columbus. The Irish potato is
really the inca" potato and was
aiken from Peru by the Spaniards
to Ireland where it was so well
like that it became the staple food
of the Isle and was named for it.
The most amazing thing about
all this is that corn, tobacco and
beans are botanical orphans"
They cannot be found anywhere in
q wild, uncultivated state. This
means that they've been cultivated
for SO many milIenmiums that all
trace of their wild ancestors has
disappeared. To have developed
them into the size and quality
which the Spaniards found on land
ing here, required, we now find,
many more thousands Of years than
we had thought Indian Civilization
had lasted. The irony of this is
that wheat, barley and rice which
he other solder" continents cultivat-
ed can be found in a wild state still
and their evolution reveals that hui
man cultivation of them is not as
old as that of the American plants.
So our scientists conclude that ci-
vilization first started in America
which leaves traditional European
history high AMI dry.
First American; Not an Indian
The finding Of a human skeleton
in New Mexico beside that of a
mammoth which had been wounded
with IN arrowpoint, upsets the
theory of the first American being
Mongolian. The mammoth lived
here before the Ice Age and the
shape of the human skull found
indicates an indigenous American.
Mongolians probably came here
later and mixed with this original
stock. Probably also, Africans
crossed to South America mote
how close they are and recall the
daring, s~ea-faring West Coast
Krus). Afric9E never crossed to
Brazil in great numbers because