Evening star., 1937-11-15

Thin IS the third OF a ssries OF
sBeekly articles interpreting the
present series of educational broad
casts of the Federal O1ice OF Edu-
cation by an instructor OF 'nternn-
.so,tal relations in the American
Uniuersity.)
~ BRENT DOW ALLINSON.
~ AMERICAS dim and an
cient past, veiled in mystery
and legend, lost IN the
~ rugged deserts and snow
sown highlands of the Andes. buried
In the tangled jungles Of Guatemala,
Honduras and Yucatan-"the Pelo-
ponesus of the Caribbean'-or hidden
in the wonderful valleys and high
plAteaus of Mexico-an immense past
OF which We are rs yet hardly aware
the Brave New World" radio pro-
gram Of the Federal once of Educa-
ton will speak tonight at 1890
O'Clock, E, S. T., over the Co.
lumbia network, for the third time.
The clanking "conquistadores" OF
leth-century Spain. unworthy heirs
and self-seeking successors Of that
glorious landfaI of Columbus OF Oc-
tober IL, 1892, did little to study. ap-
preciate or preserve-and very much
to injure, plunder and destroy. Now.
at last, a different approach is yield
ing q truer story. Out of the ancient
sands of golden Peru, out OF the
poisonous low-land valleys of Tehuan-
tepec, and the tropical wilderness
Of Yucatan especially, modern scien-
lists and archeologists are digging up
hints of an astounding story, story
OF "heliolithic man" upon our great
American continents; and vestiges OF
vanished civilizations, Of reli-
xious, governmental and architectural
achievements comparable to those OF
Egypt and Babylonia.
Bit by bit, as the curtains OF oblivion
are parted by the explorations ana
patient researches of such agencies OF
civilization as the Carnegie 1nstltu-
ton Of Washington, the Field Museum
of Chicago, the Museum Of the Amerl-
can Indian in New York City, pano-
rama Of American pre-history opens
before the eyes Of science-facts and
faces of early life and achievement
of remarkable tribes Of men, native
brown~skinned agricultural peoples,
whom we call ndiscriminatingly "In-
dians,"-and who may, or may not,
have been racially and culturally re-
lated to the much earlier civilizations
OF the Orient, of India, China and
Babylonia. Such panorama as that
Of the Magnificent Mayans' OF Yu-
catan, which science is slowly discov-
ering, OF an empire which endured at
least q thousand years, Of the so-called
Christian Era, under an astronomical
priesthood, or theocracy. and which de-
veloped a calendar more accurate than
that Of the Spaniards who conquered
them-may cause us to revise our esti-
mate of our European ancestors and
some Of our contemporary achieve
ments. Out Of the past the present
Is born, for better or for worse. and
the retelling In dramatic form of the
authenticated facts and tragedies
which went to the making Of the
Americas Is Of the greatest service tc
education and democracy-andt to the
understanding Of our neighboring re-
publics to the south. For the character
of nations is determined by the cir
cumstances Of their birth.
Eaten up by the bright cancer OF
gold" the Spanish plunderbund, led
by the Pizarro brothers and their con-
federates, with their conquering cruel.
fixes marching as to war;" ambushed
and strangled the hospitable Inca lord
Of the Quechua Empire of the Sun,
in 1882, in old Peru; and by treachery
and gunpowder proceeded to subjugate
the land, overwhelming it by violence
Looting as they went from city to city
over the flne roads of the Inca Empire
1t is little wonder that they soon fell
to quarreling among themselves ovel
the spoils Of conquest, or that Pizarre
himself was assassinated-who lies to-
day in glass sarcophagus in the Ca
thedral Of Lima, on the central square
the Plaza de ArueS. From the ancient
Indian walled towns of Chan-chan anc
Pachacamac, on the Peruvian coast
they passed inward and upward to the
mountain citadels of Cuzco, the Inca
capital and the hidden retreat ol
Maccu Picciu, recently discovered by
the Bingham expedition, the site Of
the last Stand of the sun worshippers
And what was CuZco? 1t was the