CAB3AGES AND CCNE TSSARS
b- TED LEITZELL
(This r.rticlc is copied fror.i a
r resent issue of THE AMERICAN
MERCURY. It is inpcssible to
print the entire article this
week,therefore, it will be con
tinued next week, )
Hairier, Alaska,-I have been
sent up here by THE AMERICAN
MERCERY to find out what has
happened to the New Deal’s idea
of transplanting several thousand
Americans from their homes in
tie States to this sub-Artic
wilderness. I find— to put it
bluntly— that collectivism,
following the Soviet pattern with
the utmost fidelity, has cone to
Mat anus ka Valley. Collectivism—
and dismal failure. The experi
ment has been a flop financially,
economically, and sociologically.
From the beginning just one col
onist, and one only, has made a
living farming; and he has done
zo only by refusing to have any
thing to to with collectivism.
He has succeeds'1 because he is
a level-headed, hardworking, old
fashioned American farmer, able
and willin0 to stand on his own
feet.
With tactics warranted to brinp
a nod of approval from Stalin
himself, the other reluctant and
unhappy colonists of Roosovolt’s
Alaskan adventure have been
herded into agreements which leave
them entirely at the mercy of
the local New Deal commissars.
They may not market their own
produce; they must farm the way
they are told; and even after .
they pay.' for their land, they
may be thrown off on thirty-day
notice if they displease the dic
tators in any way. They may not
cron sell their land, nor leave
it to their children when they
die, without the consent of the
all-powerful who plan their daily
livo3 for them. Dependent, for
the very food they eat, the
clothes they wo; r, upon the bureau
cratic whims of the head collect
ivists, the colonists stumble
through a dreary life on the
‘i
Government dole.
All this began, ostensibly, as an
opportunity for drought-stricken
farriers of the Mid-West to wrest
now hones and independence from
the wilderness; but it has become
a species of regimentation that
Ooes much further than the most
elaborate invention of the AAA in
the States, Save only castor oil,
concentration camps, and firing
squads, the settlers have boon
subjected, to almost every form
of coorcion invented by European
lictrtcrs. And for those more
drastic forms cf punishment the
petty tyrants of Hatanuska have
developed their own effective sub
stitutes. '.There Stalin Says," If
you can’t break them, shoot them,
the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation
Corporation Oocs on the theory of,
"If you can’t break them, buy then;
if that doesn’t work, starve them."
This particular piece of Now Deal
strategy has had wide application
throught the States, but nowhere
has it been so successful as among
the unfortunate people who were
transplanted to our last frontier
in search of a mythical promised
land. As I have said, after four
years there is only one farmer
in the entire colony who is earning
a decent living fren his land,
Host of the others are cither de
pendent on the Corporation for at
least part of their living, or
pick up money by running taverns,
restaurants, taxi-caos,ctc., sup
ported by the relatively large
earnings of the docile little col
lectivists who havefull or part
time jobs working for the Corpora
tion.
The one successful farmer in Mat
anuska Valley is Walter Pipple,
formerly from Robinsdalc, Minnesota.
By his own efforts he has made a
much better far:.! than any other
colonist , built a wellhouse,
porches, and good outbuildings;
erected a greenhouse where ho is
growing tomatoes and cucumbers
that cell for fabulous prices;
and developed a market forthe
radishes, turnips, lettuce, beets,
and other truck-farm products which