The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1936-09-25

Inc 1SldIlO V1S1C6Q III CIlS TAR
western seas was rich in opulent
splendor, a veritable garden of
Eden. All the humans wish for
flourshied in abundance-grains,
fruits, vegetables and trees Of
many kinds; also cattle and sheep
and other livestock, up to their
knees in grass. slick and fat, dot
ted every hillside. There was more
than enough for the inhabitants eff
this favored island to live in COM
fort-even luxury.
But I noticed that only Is per
cent Of the people lived in com
Portable homes and were well fed
and satisfied. The other rs percent
were destitute, under-fed and IN
der-privileged.
Filled with curiosity I common
ced to ask why there should be
starvation and want in the midst
of overwhelming plenty. A very
intelligent citizen explained to me
that poverty existed because three
fcurths of the people had few or no
bears claws. He went on to state
that bears claws were the only
medium, recognized as legal ten
der, that the people could ex-
change for food, clothing and
shelter; and, inasmuch as Is per
cent of the people owned and con-
trolled most of the bears claws,
the other rs per cent had little or
no purchasing power and therefore
suffered for the necessities of life.
occasionally" he volunteered,
zone of the lucky citizens killed a
bear far in the interior, stripped
off the claws, and then he and his
family could eat, and also buy a
comfortable home. But bears were
getting scarcer each succeeding
year, because everybody hunted
them on account of the high value
Of their claws"
When I suggested that bears
might be tanned and raised in
abundance so that there would be
plenty of their claws to exchange
for needed goods and food, he pur-
pied in the face in his efforts to
explain. "Oh," he said, "you are
a foreigner. You don't understand
our laws. Domesticated bears
claws are counterfeit. It is against
the laws to raise bears. Anyone
caught doing so would be arres-
ted"
WELL" l said, at seems to me
that the temptation, among the
poorer citizens, to smuggle in a
quantity of bears claws would be
pretty acute" EYES," he admitted,
cit is but the government keeps
a pretty sharp lookout against
counterfeit or bootleg b arsI
claws"
When asked him what was done
with all the grain and fruit and
sheep and cattle that could not be
purchased and consumed because
of the lack of bears claws, he led
me to q great incinerator where
the livestock was slaughtered on
highly electrified copper platforms
and burned up. Then he pointed
to a great tranlwav built into the
sea where the surplus wheat and
corn and vegetables and fruit
We're taken out and dumped. When
| timidly suggested that it was
too bad that so much food was
destroyed when rs percent of the
people on the island were under
fed. he looked at me. surprised
at the depth of nv abysmal ig-
ncrance and said, "why, stupid,
what else can we Go with this
food when the people haven't any
bears claws with which to pur-
chase it,"
He also told me of a great
drought that had swept over the
entire island a few years back.
Cattle and sheep had perished nv
the thousands. The fields had pro-
duced little grain; vegetables had
LARGELY whitehead In tho fin,oo 49,