ALUMNI NEWS - eCommons@Cornell - Cornell University

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Gerald White '37, and Franklin W.
Carney '47. In recognition of the leading
role played by Cornell in American
higher education and scientific research,
the mayor of Cambridge, Thomas W.
McNamara, proclaimed March 21 as
"Cornell Day in Cambridge."
Intelligence
THROUGH the thoughtfulness of Frederick
B. Wipperman Ί3 5
who, travelling
in South America, sent the
τ τ
. . ALUMNI NEWS a two-page
HeίpsTeJu illustrated s P r e a d from a
Sunday section of La
Prensa, of Lima, Peru, we
have a native testimonial of how the
Cornell-Vicos Project has progressed in,
and is regarded by the host country. The
article, in Spanish, is by Sebastian Salazar
Bondy. It is headed, "Vicos: Social
Democracy in Action," with the subtitle,
"The Peru-Cornell Applied Anthropology
Project has demonstrated
that it is possible to give a just and efficacious
solution to the so-called 'indigenous
problem 5 ." It mentions appreciatively
Professor Allan R. Holmberg,
Sociology & Anthropology, in charge for
Cornell, and his Peruvian counterpart,
Professor Mario Vasquez.
Frequently mentioned in the NEWS,
the aim of the Vicos Project is to study
the impact of modern civilization on
backward peoples and how best the
transition can be made. Part of a larger
study, including Southeast Asia and our
own Navajo Indians, supported by the
Carnegie Corp. of New York, the Peruvian
hamlet of Vicos was chosen because
it was so isolated in a valley way up in
the Andes that it had been almost literally
untouched by whites. It was a homogeneous
Quechua-speaking community.
What white contact there had been
was to exploit it. The article says, "The
immense majority didn't even comprehend
what Peru was . . . nor even, at the
beginning, did they believe that lightskinned
people, or the government itself,
had an intention of pulling them out of
their misery."
# # #
A detailed account of the project in
the ten years since its initiation is impos-
"Liberation
from
Slavery"
sible in this column. First
there was a period of study
and winning the confidence
of the people. Then
came schools and the introduction
of better seeds and demonstration
of better farming practices. Indians
April 15, 1959
were stirred to undertake representative
leadership in all lines of community life,
not merely in presiding at religious fiestas.
They built a new school, with presently
180 children and nine teachers, to
replace one with 10 to 15 pupils and one
teacher, from which "never emerged a
single student who knew how to read
and write. Ίndios brutos 3 was the favorite
expression of the 'educator' in
charge of that docent center." They
have instruction also in farming, carpentry,
and blacksmithing, and in the
afternoon a well-attended section for
adujt illiterates. "With the Peru-Cornell
Project, learning has reached Vicos, and
learning has been received by the inhabitants,
liberated from slavery, like a factor
of redemption." Along with it went
education in health and sanitation. The
expression "voluntary delousing" struck
my eye vividly. I remember seeing an Indian
woman in the Southern Peruvian
Andean town of Juliaca in 1919 with
her little daughter's head between her
knees, going through her hair with practiced
ringers; what fascinated us was
that she was wasting no meat: first, one
went into her own mouth, the next into
the child's. Countless times have I heard
the expression "Indio bruto" in Peru
and Bolivia, nor did it sound inappropriate
when looking at the sodden face
of a coca-leaf-chewing (cocaine comes
from coca leaves) native. Contrariwise,
I often marveled at the strength and resistance
of the native porters, probably a
testimonial to the survival-of-the-fittest
theory.
One picture shows some old-style potatoes,
about the size of birds' eggs,
alongside the kind they now get, infinitely
larger, and the article says that
where they used to get 2000 per hectare,
they now harvest 8000 of the larger ones,
or even more. The men who used to earn
20 centavos (a little more than nothing)
a day have shown themselves worthy of
bank credit and are able and willing to
buy land.
The most beautiful part of the whole
thing is its small cost. Forgetting the
American expenditures, which are oneshot
and need not be repeated, the expense
to Peru over the last six years has
been only 600,000 soles, one sol today
being about four cents. The Peruvian
writer is ecstatic about the "miracle of
Vicos" and its example to pull the millions
of Indians out of their misery and
into authentic productive democracy.
It's an appealing thought that Cornell
should blaze the trail for a new Peru.
There are still hurdles to conquer: the
Indians may backslide or the enthusiasm
of the government people may peter out
in inefficiency or graft. But I have reasonable
confidence that the movement
will not lose momentum. It is certainly
a good start.
Alumni Represent Cornell
OFFICIAL DELEGATE of the University at
the academic convocation observing the
sesquicentennial year of Saint Joseph
College in Emmitsburg, Md., March 14,
was Mrs. Karl E. Pfeiffer (Anne Bullivant)
'12 of Baltimore.
J. Boone Wilson '29 of Burlington,
Vt, represented Cornell at the inauguration
of John T. Fey as president of
University of Vermont in Turlington,
April 4.
Herbert Gussman '33 of Tulsa, Okla.
will represent Cornell at the inauguration
of Ben G. Henneke as president of
University of Tulsa, April 16.
Robert M. Gorrell '36 will be the
Cornell delegate at the inauguration of
Charles J. Armstrong as president of
University of Nevada in Reno, April 19.
Professor Gorrell is a member of the
English department there.
Three college presidents will be inaugurated
April 21, with Cornellians
representing the University at the ceremonies.
Delegates are Alumni Trustee
Mrs. Thomas T. Mackie (HelenHolme)
'26 at inauguration of Vincent B. Coffin
as chancellor of University of Hartford,
Conn.; Mrs. Frank H. Heck (Edna
Drill), PhD '45, at inauguration of
Thomas A. Spragens as president of
Centre College in Danville, Ky. and
William B. White '08 at inauguration of
President Leslie S. Wright of Howard
College, Birmingham, Ala.
Oldest Alumni Dies
FREDERIC J. WHITON '79, the oldest
Cornellian, died March 27, 1959, at his
home in New York City. He was 101
years old last September 26.
Born in Brooklyn in 1857, Whiton entered
the Arts Course in 1875 and received
the AB in 1880. He received the
LLB at Columbia in 1882 and then returned
to Ithaca to practice law. He was
the last surviving original incorporating.
officer, director, and stockholder of the
Ithaca Trust Co. He remained a director
of the company's successor, the Tompkins
County Trust Co., retiring in 1955.
Whiton was a member of the Glee Club
and Kappa Alpha. In 1955, the fraternity
awarded him its Patriarch's Key.
He had arranged annuities with the
University that will bring several thousand
dollars, principally for the Cornell
Plantations and Cornell United Religious
Work.
As far as is known, the oldest Cornellian
is now Whiton's only surviving
Classmate, Henry Marx '79, who
reached the age of 100 last June 22. He
received the BME in 1879, is a member
of Theta Delta Chi, and at last reports
was chairman of the board of G. A.
Gray Co., builders of machine tools in
Cincinnati, Ohio. Associated with him
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