Nature Aided
In Settlement
•
Of America
Earliest Migrants Drove
Towards Coast or Fol
lowed Interior Valleys
Prepared bv National Geographic Society,
Washington, D. C.-WNU Service.
Like most major discover
ies, the finding of America by
its first settlers took place in
easy stages. Shortly after
the retreat of the last great
ice sheet, some venturesome
Asiatic wanderer, a prehis
toric Columbus of name un
known, crossed the narrow
strip of sea between East
Cape, Siberia, and Alaska.
The crossing at that time
could have been made on the
ice, but it might also have
been accomplished in skin
boats or canoes, a feat not in
frequently performed by Es
kimos of today.
The Americas were not populated
by descendants of these first discov
erers. It is likely that through
many centuries Asiatic people, re
sponding to population pressure
from the south and west, found this
natural route into the American con
tinent, Just as successive streams of
European immigration later pene
trated inland from the Atlantic sea
board.
Archeological evidence indicates
that most of these migrants did not
linger long in the far north but
pushed southward along the coasts
in their canoes, or followed the in
terior valleys.
So completely did they establish
themselves that, when the Euro
peans arrived, the two continents,
and practically all of the adjacent
islands as well, were occupied from
the Arctic coast to the extremity of
Teirra del Fuego.
Nature Aids Indians.
From the fur-clad Eskimo of the
frozen Arctic coast, living in his in
genious snow house, to the naked
savage of the steaming tropical jun
gle of the Amazon basin, with his
equally suitable palm - thatched
home, the descendants of these first
American immigrants demonstrated
their adaptability in countless ways.
Thus the wandering bands of
primitive Shoshoni, living in the
ww ®ee mi—i———— mm
Chester Yellow hair, Navajo
Indian youth, is typical of to
day's Arisona Indian. In the
face of generations of pressure
to abandon his Indianship the
Indian is coming hack.
thought and subtle shades of mean
ing. Their vocabularies were as
complete as the experience of the
speakers permitted, and the gram
matical structure intricate and sys
tematic.
The principal linguistic stocks
north of Mexico are the Eskimauan,
which includes the entire Arctic
coast from Alaska to Greenland;
Athapascan, which includes Alaska
and most of the interior of Canada
west of Hudson bay, and reappears
in Arizona, New Mexico, and west
ern Texas; Algonquin, which
stretches across southern Canada
from the Rocky mountains to the
Atlantic, thrusting south of the
Great Lakes to Tennessee; the Iro
quoian, which includes th valley of
the St. Lawrence river and the re
gions around Lake Erie and Lake
Ontario, south to northern Georgia.
The Shoshonean stock includes the
Great Basin region and northern
Texas; the Siouan takes in most of
the Great Plains and parts of the
Carolinas and Virginia.
The Mudkhogean stock covers
most of the states of Mississippi,
Alabama, Georgia, anf Florida.
The varieties in physical type
among the Indians were not so great
nor so strikingly as the cultural dif
ferences.
All American Indians can be clas
sified generally as belonging to the
Mongoloid stock, to which the people
of eastern Asia also belong.
The principal differences are ip
The hulian of today does not tive the nomadic life of his
forebears. Here a group of Santa Clara Pueblo Indians are
making pottery at the doorstep of their home in Neu> Mexico.
The Indian population, according to goi'ernment survey, is
the most rapidly growing group in the country.
parched deserts of the Great Basin,
found food in the sparse and spiny
plants of the region. They knew the
location of the scattered springs and
how to capture edible grasshoppers
and fly larvae from the lakes.
Among these simple bands, the
only recognizable social unit was
the family group.
While these and other primitive
groups were wresting a bare exist
ence, the great civilization of the
Maya developed and flourished for
1,500 years on the mountainous high
lands of Guatemala, the tropical
lowlands of the Motagua river, and
among the thorny scrub of Yucatan.
The equally great Inca culture of
ancient Peru arose on the arid des
ert of the Pacific coast and in the
bare and chilly highlands of the
Andes.
The Aztecs, shortly before the
coming of the Spaniards, had suc
ceeded in building up a mighty mili
tary nation in the temperate Valley
of Mexico.
Wherever the early white explor
ers went, they found diversity in cul
ture, adaptability to environment
This variation is illustrated most
strikingly by languages. North of
Mexico alone, at the time of the con
quest, there were more than 50 un
related linguistic stocks, and 700 dis
tinct dialects. These dialects dif
fered from one another as English
differs from German or French, and
the linguistic stocks have nothing in
common in vocabulary or grammat
ical structure.
It is evident, therefore, that
numerous peoples of different origin
had been isolated for long periods.
Since phonetic writing was never
developed in the New world, these
was no means of stabilizing and
holding together a language for any
considerable time.
Vocabularies Are Complete.
All these native American lan
guages were capable of expressing
physiognomy, head form, and stat
ure. The Indians of the eastern
United States and of the Great
Plains area were usually tall and
stalwart in build, frequently exhibit
ing the aquiline nose which we so
commonly associate with the typ
ical Indian face. Indians of this
type also prevail in western and
southern South America.
Southern Indians Shorter.
On the other hand, the Indians of
Mexico, Central America, and the
Amazon basin were considerably
shorter in stature and darker in
complexion, with broad and flatter
noses.
Ethnologists estimate the total
population of this area at approxi
mately 1,150.000. Of this number
846,000 were within the limits of the
present United States, 220,000 were
in Canada, 72,000 in Alaska, and 10,
000 in Greenland.
Norse Describe Indians.
After these enterprising people
had discovered America, populated
it, and developed their interesting
and diverse cultures, it remained
for the Europeans to discover the
Indians.
When Norsemen visited the New
England coast during the first two
decades of the Eleventh century,
their all too brief descriptions of the
savages, or "skraellings,” indicate
that the latter were an Algonquin
people whose customs changed but
little during the next few centuries.
They were clad in skin clothing,
armed with bows and arrows, and
used stone axes. They navigated
the rivers in birchbark canoes and
eagerly traded their furs for strips
of red flannels to bind about their
heads.
The Norsemen also described
"self-sown wheat fields,” but it is
impossible to say whether these
were fields of cultivated maize or
of wild rice.
NATIONAL
AFFAIRS
Reviewed by
CARTER FIELD
Hopkins will be con
firmed, but there will be
considerable pelting first...
Barkley, senate leader, in
somctvhat of a dilemma . . .
Presidential politics likely
to complicate national de
fense situation.
WASHINGTON.—Individual sena
tors and representatives, and for
that matter congress as a whole,
would like to throw the White House
rubber stamp in the wastebasket,
this session, but the Democratic
majorities—still large in both house
and senate despite the slaughter on
last election day—do not want to
throw away with it the key to
continuance in power, and to patron
age.
The real question is just how
many White House recommend a
tlons Capitol Hill
can kick arouna
without upsetting
the applecarts of in
dividual house and
senate members in
their own renomina
tion and re-election
campaigns. It will
be rather a nice
question of judg
ment. in manv in
stances, particularly
Harry for the large south*
Hopkins ern conservative
bloc, and for northern and western
Democrats who for one reason or
another do not like Franklin D.
Roosevelt, or the New Deal, or the
particular New Dealers who are
close to the throne.
The hearings that are to come on
the confirmation of Harry L. Hop
kins will be rather revealing in this
connection. Hopkins has not too
many friends on Capitol Hill. And
some of his best friends and warm
est supporters may not be inclined
to get their fingers burned too badly
in defending him. Not that there
is any real question, at the mo
ment, of Hopkins’ being confirmed.
He will be. But there will be con
siderable pelting first.
For instance, consider the dilem
ma that will confront the Demo
cratic leader of the senate, Alben
Barkley, who fought to the death on '
the floor of the senate last spring
to prevent any hamstringing of the
political activities of the WPA un
der Hopkins, and who benefited by
the political support of WPA in his
fight for renomination probably
more than any other candidate in
11938.
Barkley Was Hurt Pretty
Badly by WPA Business
But the consensus is that Barkley
was hurt pretty badly—as far as
his reputation outside Kentucky is
concerned—by that WPA business.
If Barkley were not, in his own
heart, a candidate for the presi
dency in 1940, he could afford a
renewal of the scandal. But as
it stands Barkley would like the
country to forget how, on the floor
of the senate, he defended the use
of WPA in politics because it was
necessary to meet the use of state
employees on the other side.
It will be found, unless a good
many minds change between now
and then, that few stones will be
put in the path of those who wish
to do a lot of dirty linen washing
over Hopkins’ confirmation. At
least few stones will be put there
by senators. The White House, of
course, and Hopkins’ host of friends
in the left wing of the New Deal,
will try to move heaven and earth.
However, there is no indication that
anyone around the senate will pay
much attention to efforts that Har
old Ickes, Tommy Corcoran and Ben
Cohen may make to protect their
friend.
Even the senators who are still
for the President do not all like
his left wing lieutenants. There is
the question of believing the best
Democratic stragegy, looking to
ward 1940, is for a slight turn to
the right, as predicted by Gen. Hugh
S. Johnson. There is the old fact of
human nature that loyalty lies to
the king, but not to the king’s min
j isters.
! Alcohol as Substitute
For Gasoline Is Up Again
Agitation tor substitution of alco
hol—in part—for gasoline, and thus
providing a largely increased mar
ket for corn, is with us again, but
is not likely to get anywhere.
On the surface the idea is very
appealing. Farmers could turn from
other crops to corn, thus relieving
not only the corn-hog surplus, but
also the surplus in the other crops
from which the farmers would turn
to corn. It is easy to figure out,
from department of agriculture fig*
j ures, that virtually all the overpro
duction of farm crops in the coun
try would thus be ended.
This would eliminate the $400,
000.000 a year now being paid farm
ers not to raise specific crops.
According to the bureau of chem
istry and soils, and this finding is
supported by an impartial survey
which is soon to be published in de
tail, the idea is not so sound eco
nomically as might be expected.
In the first place, the survey es
tablishes, to its own satisfaction at
least, that blending the proposed
quantity of corn-produced alcohol
with gasoline would make the cost
of this mixture two cents a gallon
more than gasoline. This, it is esti
mated, would cost $440,000,000 a
year, which might be financed either
by increasing the price of gasoline
to consumers or by the govern
ment’s subsidizing the whole move
in the interest of agriculture.
Assuming the latter, the govern
ment would be only $40,000,000 in
the red by the operation as com
pared with present farm subsidies.
But that is only part of the pic
ture. In the first place the govern
ment might have to come to the
relief of the oil industry.
Motor-'Car and Truck Usera
Would Let Out Big Howl
Again, the idle capacity of the al
cohol industry, which is about 250,
000,000 gallons a year, is only one
tenth of what would be necessary to
supply a 10 per cent blend of alco
hol and gasoline for the motorists.
So a capital investment of some
$300,000,000 would be required to
provide the necessary facilities.
Then it would seem likely that
the motor-car and truck users of the
nation would let out plenty of com
plaints if the proposed blend were
forced on them by government fiat.
A road test was conducted this year
by the American Automobile asso
ciation, in co-operation with the U.
S. bureau of standards. This re
vealed that the proposed 10 per cent
alcohol blend would be nearly 5
per cent less efficient than straight
aasoline.
What the big trucking companies
would have to say about this can
be imagined, and it so happens
that for some time they have been
organized, politically, and needless
to say would make their views
known on Capitol Hill.
Politics May Complicate
National Defense Problem
Presidential politics promises to
complicate the national defense sit
uation amazingly. Actually the fight
will be led on the one side by Louis
A. Johnson, assistant secretary of
war, and on the other by Sen. Ben
nett' Champ Clark of Missouri.
Johnson will fight for prodigious
appropriations and authorizations.
For example, he wants 10,000 air
planes—for the army alone. Of these
he figures about 3,500 will be neces
sary for training, so that the 10,000
would yield a net of only 6,500 fight
ing planes.
Clark will lead the fight against
any such heavy appropriations. He
will demand: Why are they neces
sary? What good will thqy be after
a couple of years when they are
obsolete? And so on down the line.
The interesting part of the situa
tion is that neither of the two men
who will thus be
limelighted, before
January is over, as
the champions of
the two sides are
President Roose
velt’s own choice for
his successor in the
White House, and
yet both will use this
fight as the stepping
stone toward that
big job
ena or Shrewd observers
figure that no mat
ter how important Harry L. Hopkins
may make his job as secretary of
commerce it will be completely
blanketed, as far as publicity is con
cerned, by national defense. In fact,
some point out, the better job Hop
kins does as secretary of commerce,
the less publicity he will get. It
isn’t a page-one story to do some
thing to smooth the path of busi
ness, or to lighten its load. But it’s
a first-page story to scare the coun
try about the possibility of the dic
tators coming over here, from John
son’s angle, and it’s also a first
page story to attack the munitions
makers as inspiring all the bally
hoo for national defense, heavier
taxes, and endangering getting this
country into war—especially the lat
ter. And that will be Clark’s bid for
the spotight.
Widespread Feeling for
More National Defense
On the whole, congress is willing
to go very far with the President
on national defense. It doesn’t think
very much of the contention that
this would provide employment, and
therefore, lighten the relief burden.
In fact congress will be told that
the chief limit on the amount of
money that can be spent for na
tional defense is the scarcity ol
skilled mechanics. Unemployed,
more or less shiftless individuals
can be of little use in an arma
ment program. And actually the
shipyards, the gun plants, and the
airplane factories are all reporting
that they are having the greatest
difficulty in getting the men they
need right now.
As a matter of fact, it is common
knowledge in Washington that the ;
navy would like to put a great many
more men to work immediately in
its gun factory, but iimply cannot
get properly trained men.
But congress on the whole is for
more national defense. More sec
tions of the country are aroused
than ever before. Congressmen will
be found voting for big defense ap
propriations who a few years ago
were regarded as staunch little navy
men, if not pacifists. The reason
is simple. Their districts have
changed, and they are voting in
accord with the new sentiment.
9 Bel1 Syndicate.—WNU Service. I
Sugar Cane Harvesting Is Modernized
Pretty Jeanette Peltier, Cajun miss of the Bayou Teche in the Evangeline country, Louisiana, helps her
father get his sugar cane to the warehouse. In sharp contrast to the old manner of harvesting cane h) the
new Thomson machine. Screws straighten the cane so that rotating knives can lop off the tops. It then
cuts the cane with a three-inch spaced blade saw at its bottom. The tops of the cane are sent through the
chute. The harvester cuts about 20 tons per hour.
Officials Find Victims of Careless Sportsmen
Harry Armstrong, left, member of the New Jersey board of fish and game commissioners, together with
Deputy Game Warden M. M. Barrien of Trenton, are shown a number of does and deer shot in one day near
Pasadena, N. J. All of these were killed illegally and abandoned in the woods by hunters.
BR-R-R, IT’S COLD
n in i r ini mi— m— inn ...
A sudden midwest cold wave
didn’t catch this newsboy unpre*
pared. He foiled the wintry blasts
with a makeshift stove and a couple
of gunny sacks. He also added a
couple of sweaters to his ensemble.
INVENTOR
Professor Peter Kapitza, retained
by the Soviet government, has per
fected a new method of liquefying
gases, only a few details of which
are known. His discovery will have
great scientific and industrial im
portance.
One Hit—No Runs—No Errors
■ —i-v j .mi—iN—wmmm——■—MBfiaMatgSSi
Teammates on the baseball field and hunting companions in the field
are Roy Johnson, left, veteran coach of the Chicago Cubs, and Larry
French, one of the team’s pitchers. They are untying a wild boar shot
on Santa Catalina island, where the Cubs hold their pre-season training.
French Family Wins 20,000 Francs
A prize of 20,000 francs was awarded Adrien-Jules Sandrin of Bourg
Lm Heine, France, for their large family. The winners of the Cognacq
Jay prize are seen here with 11 of their 12 children.
