Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 297, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1912 — SLAVES GET RUBBER [ARTICLE]

SLAVES GET RUBBER

Pitiful Condition of Native Indians Described in Letter. Lured by Promises of High Wages Into a Servitude From Which Only Escape Is Starvation. London. —Revelations concerning the methods of rubber gathering in Peru are made In a remarkable letter in the Times from F. H. Fawcett. It throws a searching light on the situation, showing clearly the huge profits made by the exploiters and their hideous methods of retaining the natives In their service. Here is a summary of how the exploring company which has discovered rubber trees performs its business on returning to civilization: “Agents, half-caste men of straw, with a knowledge of Quichua, were contracted as they still are every year, to secure labor. They are advanced money. They visit Indians on the Altiplanicle, tempt them with the advances of sums unheard of by the poor Indian, highly color the life and profits, make them drunk, perhaps, anyway finally obtain a paper signed, or alleged to have been signed, pledging their miserable possession of a hut, a potato patch and a llama against a contract to gather so many quintals of rubber (a quintal being 100 pounds). "The Indian, on recovery from his debauch, is forcibly dragged away (proceedings at which the law winks) to the rubber estates. “He has to work under half-caste task masters, often mnMl-mnderers, and is required to transport hls own food and rubber (weighing 100 pounds) over trails no reader would care to traverse free from a load:” Men, women and children are bought and sold for personal service. Parents sell daughters; the brutal appreciation of life is such that there is no security In the Peruvian forests for the possession of children. It if a mistake, fie points out, to suppose that it is pnly a degenerate class of Peruvikn who is guilty of abuses. They are perpetuated by foreigners of various nationalities. “Escape for an employe Is very difficult, from many places impossible,” Fawcett says. “They do, however, get away sometimes. “In escaping he abandons everything but life. He can stay and probably! die, knowing he can never be out of debt “For all abuses the owners are responsible, whether they realize how their profits are gained or not The agent on the spot Is not always to blame. His livelihood is bound up in the business. ' “He can, under the guise of honest treatment swindle his ignoranTlsbor force over its accounts and production, and thus keep it in debt and at permanent work.' “Or he can starve it The latter course Is useful when a man’s production does not equal the cost of hls food supply, as it cannot in the rainy season. I have known a force of 300 Indians, who, feeding upon forest leave* died of pure starvation."- .