SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8,1963 THE MICHIGAN DAILY U A W «r 'M w i Z PAGETHRE Peace Corps Faces Indian Problems in Peru By JOHN M. HIGHTOWER Associated Press News Analyst LIMA-Mrs. Leone Jackson, a peace corpsman, is one of hun- dreds of North Americans work- ing here on the problem of the Indians, trying to tring them peacefully from the stone age to the jet age in a generation. This is one of the great human and political problems of South America. The way it is solved can make or break modern Peru. A few mornings ago Mrs. Jack- son showed up as usual at 7 a.m. to help supervise the feeding of 1,000 school children from a sprawling hillside slum, the bar- riada of El Agustino. The black- eyed boys and girls, some scrubbed and some with grimy cheeks, lined up under a shed beside the El Agustino Public School. Hot wheat gruel, milk and rolls were doled out by a committee of the Indian mothers. Mrs. Jackson and other Peace Corps volunteers watched, made an occasional suggestion and talked with some of the children to ease their shyness with strangers. At 69 Mrs. Jackson is the oldest woman in the Peace Corps in Peru. No Hope, "The terrible thing about the Barriadas," she said, "is just this. A boy who lives in one of these places finds nothing to make him think he can ever get out of it." But the schools, where they exist, and the free breakfasts from United States food surpluses -giving contact with the outside world--do offer some hope of es- cape, and the children as they get older seem to grasp at that hope. Mrs. Jackson said they learn well. What they do not have is a good start at home in the huts of il- literate parents, in their play in the filthy streets. Another thing they are unsure of as they grow older is what they will do with the education they get. Divided Country Peru is a strangely split up country. The narrow coastal strip in the Pacific is well developed, industrialized, productive. In this strip a fourth of the population of 100 million produces well over 50 per cent of all that Peru makes. The workers are mixed Indian and white: they fare reasonably well. Far more than half the people of Peru live in the mountains and they are almost entirely Indian. Their agriculture is extremely in- efficient. The productive wealth of the region is found in such minerals as copper, zinc and gold. The Indians are left over from the ancient empire of the Incas which was smashed by the Span- ish 400 years ago. They have lived in poverty, frequently in serfdom, ever since. They are illiterate. White Control Agriculture, business, commerce and politics are controlled by Peru's white population, which in turn is dominated by a relatively few extremely wealthy families. About two per cent of the people of the country own 75 per cent ofj the resources, including most of the good soil. The great haciendas in the back lands are measured not in acres but in square miles. While the government operates on a balanced budget and foreign trade is balanced, the internal economy is very uneven. Per cap- ita income for Lima is $600 a year. That for Cuzco, an impor- tant mountain city, is $40. An Indian day laborer in Puno de- partment can earn at most eight or nine soles (about 35 cents) a day., If he has a small pot of hacienda land, he must work on the hacienda three or four days without cash earnings just to pay the rent. Thus the cards are stacked against the Indian in sev- eral ways but there are signs of a new deal to come, peacefully or violently.' Missionaries, reformers, auto- mobiles, Communist agitators, transistor radios, Peruvian politi- cians have awakened the Indian to his plight the last few years. The slowly expanding road system and the airpldne also are spurring his emergence from the dark past., Land Invasions One reaction by the Indian has been to step up land invasions. The Indians have always claimed the lands really belonged to them, not to the white man. Sometimes there are violent clashes with, police. Another Indian reaction has been to migrate to the city, seek- ing work at higher wages. This is what creates the 'barriadas. Even when the. Indians get jobs-even when they have learned skills and gotten better jobs in the second generation - they usually can't find decent housing. The problem is not discrimination; the housing simply doesn't exist. Many groups are working with the Indians, in the mountains and in the barriadas. President Fer- nando Belaunde Terry, the United States - trained architect who heads Peru's new reform govern- ment, has projected broad scale- and costly-programs for radical change. Millions of dollars worth of United States assistance are going into farm improvement and road construction projects. Robert Culbertson, the respected United States aid chief in Lima, spends much of his time on the Indian problem. Unique Venture But the role of the Peace Corps is unique. For, as in the case of Mrs. Jackson and the free break- fasts, the Peace Corps volunteers work directly with the Indians and often live in their communi- ties. Take the case of the new school for the barriada of El Ermitano. The Indians petitioned the Peace Corps to put up a building for them, saying the ministry of edu- cation would then provide a teach- er. Peace Corps director Frank Mankiwicz declined to build the school, but made a counteroffer. His people would help with a de- sign and with advice on methods if the Indians would act on their own. The Indians agreed. The joint effort produced a mud block building with a thatched roof, and the Indians, having learned to profit by committee action, then kept after the minis- try of education until it assigned a teacher. The school runs grades one through five and the sign on the wall outside says "Avnida Pro- gresso" (Avenue of Progress). Rugged Conditions Rugged as are conditions in the barriadas, Peace Corps volunteers live well by comparison with the 100 young men and women of the Peace Corps who share the com- munity lives of the Indians in the mountains. But Mankiewicz says none of his 369 volunteers is both- ered by hardship. Some, however, are bothered by the inability to get things done, and occasionally become so frustrated they have to be sent home. Mankiewicz estimates about 20 have been sent home "for all kinds of reasons" mostly related to frustration. The Peace Corps in Peru is the second largest in the world-the group in the Phil- ippines being larger. Members here teach school, work on adult education, but most of all, they try to help the Indians solve prac- tical problems while learning the importance of cooperative action. Back in the moutnains are Ku- yochico and Kuyogrande. Both needed water for drinking and ir- rigation. The Indians themselves organized a work group to dig a ditch from a water supply about two miles away at a higher alti- tude. Project Lags The diggers worked more or less faithfully and the Peace Corps worked with them until they came to an outcropping of stone 500 yards across. Discouraged they let the work lag and were about to abandon it. At that point, Mankiewicz ob- tained $700 from a special United States foreign aid fund author- ized for unusual projects. He spent the money on a second-hand pow- er hammer. The hammer cut holes for dynamiting the rock barrier, the diggers got back to work, and the two towns are now close to completing their project. The leaders are talking about raising money for a small dam and elec- tric generator since their canal has a steep gradient. "Nobody will ever sell those people anti-gringoism," Mankiew- icz said. The history of the Peace Corps and United States aid missions here are full of such incidents which are slowly helping to change the ways of thie Indians, reduce their misery, and prepare them for more productive lives in the expanding Peruvian economy. Whether the change will come fast enough to head off major violence, however, is anybody's guess at this point. U CONSTITUTION: Legislature May Alter .Terms (EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second in a four-part series on the implementation of the new Michi- gan Constitution.) By THOMAS COPI One of the major issues facing the second special session of the Legislature is the proposed ex- tending of terms of elected county officials. The proposal includes a mora- torium on elections for such coun- ty officials and clerk and auditor until 1966. The major reason for House Debates Ballot .Forms By The Associated Press LANSING - The old political controversy over incumbency des- ignations on the ballot came back to haunt the Legislature Friday. Rep. Albert R. Horrigan (D- Flint) objected to one of the bills implementing the new constitu- tion because it limited the incum- bency designation to "any elected incumbent judge." Horrigan objected because it failed to include appointed judges coming up for election for the first time. But later, warned that Re- publican Gov. George Romney had appointed about 20 judges, Horri- gan withdrew his objection, only to have it raised by GOP floor' leader Robert Waldron (R-Grosse Pointe). 71 Under the auspices of its Faculty group H ILLEL announces a lecture by this is to avoid having a "bed- sheet" ballot in presidential elec- tion years. The new constitution states that county officials must be elected for four year terms, which would make their elections fall on na- tional election years. Extension of Terms Gov. George Romney has said that he would prefer "some differ- ent approach" than the proposed extension of terms and that he does not oppose the election of county officials in national elec- tion years. Another portion of the consti- tution which will have great af- fect on the state, although it in- volves little controversy, is the abo-' lition of statewide spring elections, held in odd-numbered years. This abolition comes mainly through a re - definement of ''spring elections,' where the law is made to read "spring elections means the local election to be held in the spring." The new constitution includes as requirements for electors that they be 21 years old and have lived in Michigan for six months, leaving all other specifics to the legislators for implementation. MaJor Difference This section illustrates one of the reasons thenew constitution was drafted, and one of the ma- jor differences between the new and the old constitutions: in the new, the section on requirements for electors is 60 words long, whereas the similar section in the 1908 constitution is 580 words long. One reason the new constitution was drawn up was to take out specifics and use laws in place of constitutional detail. Thesection on elections in the new constitution also limits voting rights to property holders and their spouses on "ad valorem tax assessment rate increases" (mill- age rate increases). Also under "elections" in the 1963 constitution are definitions and explanations of procedure for initiative and referendum. Al- though the new constitution does not differ to a great degree from; the old here, it does state that1 much of the detail is to be im-I plemented by the Legislature, and that any law adopted under the1 initiative may be amended or re-] pealed by a three-fourths vote of the members "elected to and serv-I World News Roundup By The Associated Press j LA PAZ, Bolivia-Three United States government, a Peace Corps1 volunteer, 16 Bolivian technicians and one German were seized at dawn yesterday by anti-govern- ment miners and are being held asI hostages for the release of three Communist labor leaders., BERLIN-The East German re- gime rejected last night a West German offer to negotiate issuance1 of passes to West Berliners want- ing to visit relatives and friends in the eastern sector during the holidays.1 ROME-The Italian left-leaning1 coalition of Premier Aldo Moro I held its first cabinet meeting last | night while the Communist party | vowed to fight the new govern- ment. ing in" each house of the Legisla- ture. Judicial Branch In the section on the judicial branch of the state government the number of supreme court jus- tices is fixed at seven. Although there was no number set in the 1908 constitution, eight are pre- scribed by law. However, the num- ber will not decrease to seven un- til a vacancy occurs. Also in the "judicial" section a new intermediate court of appeals is set up. The appellate court will have nine judges, but the number can be increased by law. The jurisdiction of the court of appeals has to be decided by the Legislature in their present spe- cial session, although the court's practice and procedure will be de- cided by the supreme court. Must Be LicensedE Requirements for judges set up in the new constitution include the precept that all judges must be licensed to practice law in Michigan, whereas under the old constitution, this was required only of supreme court and circuit court judges. Also, the offices of circuit court commissioner and justice of the peace are to be abolished five years after the new constitution goes into effect, although they can be abolished before this time by law. Until they are abolished, the jurisdiction, compensation and powers of the offices will remain as provided by law. Fauri Claims Aid Not Used Dismay that less than one-third of the states have in operation an Aid to Dependent Children of the Unemployed (ADC-U) pro- gram was voiced recently by Dean Fedele F. Fauri of the social work school. "It is an indictment of legis- latures in states with depressed areas that they are not willing to provide at least three dollars a month in state and local funds to obtain $14 in federal funds for each dependent child and needy parent in families where the wage earner cannot obtain employ- ment," he said. Dean Fauri spoke to the Ameri- can Public Welfare Association in Washington. He said that state inaction would be acceptable only "if the states had constructive general assistance programs" of their own. He hailed the 1962 Federal Pub- lic Welfare amendments-extend- ing the ADC-U program and in- creasing federal participation in community work and training pro- grams - as a "significant mile- stone." But most state legislatures have not taken the necessary steps to implement fully the provisions of the amendments. Dean Fauri said that the Mich- igan legislature "passed a bill earlier this year, but it was held to be out of conformity with, fed- eral requirements because of its discriminatory provisions." He explained that the Michigan bill "fails to provide equal treat- ment to needy families in exactly the same circumstances, living in the same community. It would set up two classes of needy individuals and provide payments only to -those already receiving benefits for 26 weeks." by the makers of Swirl Whst to wear / when you're iny/1 , the dornm !. 7-2eate. 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