A Fish Story

Progress, Volume XVI, Issue 9, 1 May 1921, Page 211

A Fish Story

Put one hundred men on an island where fish is a staple article of sustenance. Twenty-five of the men catch fish. Twenty-five others clean the fish. Twenty-five cook the fish. Twenty-five hunt fruit and vegetables. The entire company eats what is thus gathered and prepared. So long as everybody works, there is plenty. All hands are happy. Ten of the allotted fish catchers stop catching fish. Ten more dry and hide part of the fish they catch. Five, continue to catch fish, , but only work part of , the day at it. Fewer fish go into the community kitchen. * But the same number of men insist upon having the same amount of food as they had before. The fifty men who formerly cleaned and cooked the fish have less to do owing to the under supply of fish. But they continue to demand fish. Gradually greater burdens are laid upon the fruit and vegetable hunters. These insist upon a larger share of fish in return for their larger efforts and soon twenty of the twenty-five quit gathering fruit and vegetables. But the entire one hundred men continue to insist upon their right to eat. The daily food supply gradually shrinks. The man with two fish demands three bananas in exchange for one of them. The man with two bananas refuses to part with one for fewer than three fish-

Finally, the ten men remaining at work quit in disgust. Everybody continues to eat. The hidden fish are brought to light and consumed. Comes a day when there is no food of any kind. Everybody on the island blames everybody else. What would seem to be the solution? Exactly. We thought you would guess it. For we repeat, that you can’t eat, buy, sell, steal, give away, hoard, wear, use, play with or gamble with what isn't.—Yates' Quality.