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Show rp3 Aziz f f ,x ft " - . . V : . ? , fry 4 - 1 Pyramid Temple of Chichen Itza. (Prepared by the National Geographic Society, So-ciety, Washington, D. C.) Archeology, modern transportation and radical government experiments have been made bedfellows by the opening of a new automobile road by the socialist government of the state of Yucatan, Mexico, leading from Merlda, the capital, to the wonderful ruins of Chichen Itza, which might be termed America's Thebes. One of the world's most interesting remains of our ancient civilization is thus made accessible to students and tourists as a by-product to a radical government's plan to make work for laborers during an economic depression by pushing road construction. In the hot, rather dry Yucatan peninsula, penin-sula, which today is little visited by outsiders, civilization reached Its highest high-est point on the North American continent con-tinent in the years before the coming of Europeans. After the finding of savages by Columbus and his Immediate Immedi-ate followers, both on the Wrest Indian islands and on parts of the mainland, the discovery a little later In Yucatan of structures built of stone, and built well, and of artistic carvings, came as a great surprise to the Spaniards. While some of the structures were in use at the time of the Spanish conquest, con-quest, a number of once great cities had been abandoned and swallowed up by the Jungle. Some mysterious fate had overtaken this people, the Mayas, and only a somewhat degenerate remnant rem-nant was clinging to the works of their more illustrious ancestors. The wholly new regime resulted In the final extinguishment extin-guishment of their culture. Temples and palaces, prisons, "convents," "con-vents," arenas for games, astronomical observatories and monuments, all accurately ac-curately built of masonry and decorated decorat-ed with artistic carvings and hieroglyphics, hiero-glyphics, are some of the sign posts pointing to the achievements of the Mayas and their development of culture. cul-ture. Archeologists state that at the time of their mysterious decline they were at the threshold of a true civilization. civili-zation. Indeed, In some ways they had surpassed In intellectual achievements the civilization of the Egyptians and the Babylonians. Their Writing and Architecture. In their system of writing, the Mayas had reached a most interesting point, found among no other existing people in the world, the transition point between be-tween picture writing, which the Chinese Chi-nese have never passed beyond, and phonetic writing by means of an alphabet alpha-bet such as that we use. The architectural types of the Mayas and their decorative designs have features fea-tures so similar to some of those of the old world that the earlier students of the American ruined cities believed that their builders had been influenced by Egyptians, Babylonians or Hindus. The types of arches and certain sculptured sculp-tured designs were compared especially especial-ly to those found In the great Hindu temple of Boro-Budur In Java. It is the more general opinion now, however, how-ever, that the works of the Mayas were the result if a culture born on this continent and acquired by this people In their toilsome way upward from savagery and through barbarism. The story of Yucatan in recent times Is the story of henequen fiber. Orrnand, that doesn't seem- to affect the average American to any gTeat extent. ex-tent. But it does affect him every time he buys a loaf of bread. The story might be framed like that of the house that Jack built. Henequln means reasonably rea-sonably cheap and plentiful binder twine; binder twine makes possible the use of harvesting machines; harvesters -hesvoen grain production; cheap grain means cheap bread : and so henequln, and arid Yucatan, play important parts In feeding America and the world. The other side of the story the rapid development of the henequen Industry In-dustry and the pouring of wealth Into Yucatan chiefly from the grain belt of North America undoubtedly played Its part in swinging the p tical pendulum pen-dulum from extreme feudalism to socialism. so-cialism. Henequen. which Is a sort of cactus not unlike the century plant or the "pulque cactur" in appearance, had been grown In Tucatan since prehis toric times and its fiber was used In local plantation and village industries. But there was no outside market of considerable magnitude for the fiber until the Increasing use of harvesting machinery In the United States created a demand for large quantities of binder bind-er twine. Once a Feudal State, Before what may be called "the henequen era" in Yucatan a traveler in the country might have imagined with a few concessions to race and climate that he was In the heurt of Europe's old feudalism. Some of the principal land owners had truly baronial baro-nial estates through which one could travel for days. On the most extensive estates were scattered half a dozen or more great stone castle-like haciendas in the care of major domos. In these sumptuous dwellings members f the owner's family might not spend a night a year, for they lived for the most part In state in the capital, Merlda, Merl-da, or spent their time traveling in Europe Eu-rope or the United States. In those days cattle raising was the chief industry in-dustry in Yucatan and prosperity never reached below the few members of the propertied class. Climate and physical conditions gave Yucatan its feudalism. The surface of the country consists of only the thinnest thin-nest of soil, and underneath is porous limestone. The climate is dry and hot half the year, but there is a reasonable amount of rainfall during the other six months. Yucatan Is one of the few areas in which there is an appreciable rainfall, but no streams or even stream beds. As fast as the rain falls during the rainy season It seeps through the thin soil and soaks into the limestone. The lack of surface water, and the fact that hardly any food crops can be grown on much of Yucatnn's poor soil, made it practically Impossible for the peons to exist except under the wings of the great landholders. The latter constructed capacious reservoirs at their haciendas, in which enough water was stored during the rainy season to supply all their retainers retain-ers through the six months' dry period. The situation was helped out, too, by the cenotes, the unique water holes of Yucatan, apparently formed by a falling fall-ing in of the roofs of subterranean lakes. In most cases these queer natural reservoirs were owned by the landed proprietors. Laborers Now in Control. Toward the close of the Nineteenth century henequen production shouldered shoul-dered out cattle production from the place of first Importance, and before many years the fiber dominated the life of the country. The old feudal system remained largely unchanged, however, and the landowners became extremely wealthy. But some of the prosperity inevitably filtered down to a growing middle class, and even to the plantation planta-tion laborers, and soon Yucatan gave Indications of a political turbulence unknown in the older feudal days. When the World war came prosperity prosper-ity reached Its peak in Yucatan, with henequen fiber selling for as much as 19 cents a pound. The few landowners were no longer able to dominate the state government and the laborers and their friends, who gained control, reshaped re-shaped the entire scheme of things. Wages of workers were fixed by legislation legis-lation at ?o.25 to $24 (in United States money) for each eight hours. After the armistice the pi Ice of henequen fell sharply, and by 1D21 It had fallen to 4 cents, and In 1922 it reached Its lowest point, 3 cents. The wage lawi remained re-mained unchanged and many of the plantations, carefully tended for years, were abandoned to wild growth. The country then experienced what was probably its greatest economic crisis. Henequen production was greatly reduced re-duced and conditions have Improved somewhat with the fiber now at 4V, cents a pound. Yucatan Is the thumb, which, with the finger of Florida, almost encloses the Gulf of Mexico. It is for the most part a flat plain, Its highest hills being measured In only hundreds of feet. It Is one of the first lands to which the world-faring gulf striata gives lu warmth |