Careful Measurements
by Layne D. Hansen
Patton Larsen has endured an unimaginable personal tragedy. After suffering through two years of emotional agony, Patton is now headed on a train to a town, built on the Utah-Idaho border, to become one of thirty-thousand Americans to participate in an experimentone that is designed to determine how a society would develop if every person has equal opportunities and economic status. Although he has no idea what to expect, Patton has nothing to loseor so he thinks. As Patton settles into the city without laws or a government, many of his new neighbors work to expand their wealth, while others go bankrupt. Meanwhile, a trio of like-minded participants manipulate their fellow citizens into forming a government, which they quickly gain control of, in order to transform the town into a socialist paradise. Patton leads a group of freedom lovers against the growing influence of the government and its economy-wrecking policies. However, the political conflict becomes violent...