Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1937-07-15
Traveller Visits
The Black Hills
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<SOntlnueQ ITOIn rage ~
somewhat hazardous and which
abounds in those dry sections.
Rattlesnakes and Prairie Dogs.
1t seemed queer but undisputed
when we were told at Mandan, N. D.,
that we could take our pick of two
trails to the Black Hills; one where
one travelled 80 miles without seeing
anything but rattlesnakes and prairie
dogs, or one where the road was
under construction. However, having
travelled over some under conStruc-
ton" Dakota highways before, we
chose the 80 miles and rattlers. We
found the rattlers. Each time we
would pass a snake lying dead in
the road we would stop and with the
trusty hunting knife get out to clip
its rattles. However, each time some
one else had preceded us and had
taken the trophy. At last when just
about through the 80 miles, we came
upon one about three feet in length
which still was intact from its head
to rattles. We clipped the rattles and
proudly but nervously retain in pos
session four rattleS as a memoir of
that lonesome trip.
Live on Relief.
Just seeing the curioSitieS of the
west was not, however, our only mis-
sion. We wanted to know how the
people lived and to what they attri-
buted their Stick-to-itiveneSS. We
found a partial but disappointing an
Swer to our inquiry, when l asked a
filling station attendant at Mcintosh,
S. D., how they existed when there
were no crops. He said that they all
existed on relief and much to his
disappointment the eastern news
agencies had played up the good crop
prospects in the west to such an eX-
tent that relief allowances were being
cut. This policy of heralding the
riches of the individual farmer over
an entire area when a comparatively
small section had bright prospects,
seemed foolish to him and almost a
tragedy to us. 1t cannot be stated
truthfully that relief and even an in
creased amount of relief is not needed
in those parched areas of southwest
tern North Dakota and western and
central South Dakota.
One man was asked by the writer
why he didn't move out and he re-
marked that he was too poor and
that it was too far to walk to the near
est water hole"
Snakes Allotted by Tax.
The rattlesnakes and drouth are
aided immensely by the sales tax in
making a living in those sections
unpleasant. The snakes, however,
are being killed by the government,
but the government in turn saps the
life strength of the poor by taxing
the very relief it gives them. In
talking to a hardware merchant in
Spearfish, S. Dan avowed reac-
tionary-we were told that the tax
not only was nuisance to the mer-
chants, but a great drain on the not
too strong purse strings of the peo-
pie. He said they were told before
the enactment of the sales tax there,
that it would be a replacement tax;
that great percentage of the real
estate tax would be cut off, but up
to the present time there was no
noticeable difference in the real es-
tate tax and there was just three cents
more on the dollar for the poor to
pay in sales tax. (Does not that
promise of cutting real estate taxes
sound familiar?)
Yes, the sales tax is as unwelcome
as the snakes but the government
kills the snakes and levieS the sales
tax, and of course can't do anything
about the perennial drouth, except
to keep the relief payments coming.
Not All A Disappointment.
All of the preceding is not meant
to paint tragic picture of the futility
of life in the Dakotas, but it merely
is to show that all is not well every
where in the west. There, however,
are many things to which both the
Dakotas can point with pride
AS one crosses the Red river into
North Dakota, into the Dakota side
of the famous Red River Valley one
@oCOS SslOCiiNS VI ~ Oot'SAiIy. VI SOOl DC
the present crop is like the proven
bial prosperity just around the cor
ner," but there is a prospect of a
bumper crop in much of the section
of eastern North Dakota which ex-
tends to approximately $50 miles
into the state. However, we will not
hazard a guess as to the ultimate
outcome as so many things like rust,
hot winds, grasshoppers, hail, ETC.,
can interfere, but nevertheless the
prospect is there and the season so
far has been ideal with rain coming
about once a week.
Then the same holds true after one
takes swing out into the western
sections and comes again to the VAL
ley near an imaginary line north
and south near Aberdeen and this
way in South Dakota
Progressive States.
When a people in general, after
suffering so many Setbacks can show