TO ALASKA SOCIALIST:
I;i the first
issue of The Alaska Socialist, under
the heading “There’s a reason for the
Alaska Socialist”, I notice some coram
nmications, sent by people living in the
outlying precincts of the Fourth Div
ision, urging tlxe publication of a soc
ialist paper in Fairbanks. It appears
strange that they are the first to real
ize the necessity of having a Socialist
class-conscious paper published in Fair
banks. But I suppose in order to see
the full grandeur of. a mountain or a
building we should stand at some dis
tance a\yay from it.
Now I would like to ask, are there
not many reasons for The Alaska Soc
ialist?
If the voice c-f the workers of the
Tanatia Valley is to be heard, or their
cause honestly advocated,- it can be
done otlv through the columns of a
paper devoted entirely to their interests.
Now, have we at present got such a ;
journal? The thoughtful worker will !
readily answer, no. The politician and!
‘.he wirepuller will answer, why, yes, !
all .the papers are devoted to the inter- :
'.•st of the workingmen, and only glad j
to lend them assistance at any time. J
But they are always very carefull to j
conceal just what kind of workingmen :
thev have reference to. The horsethief I
?
or the burglar might claim to be a wo- i
rkingmau. They work their victims, in ;
about the same mauncr that the gang i
in and around Fairbanks have worked j
tin: toiling masses of Xanana Valley, j
Work the workers has always been the j
game of the gang, and they have been ]
ably assisted by the kept press of Fair- j
tanks whose motto has always been, if!
von can’t boost, don’t knock. The l a- •
ir banks newspapers have done their,
share of the boosting and the result is
‘.hat the great majority of the inhabit
ints of Tauan.t Valley are busted, as j
i ' «
evidenced by the number of idle mining
claims upon the different creeks, the !
number of empty business houses it: ]
Fairbanks and outlying places ; tlie j
number of people leaving for the
outside by steamboat and- overland j
trail completely busted to return no j
more; and a knowledge of tffie tin-;
t.noial condition of thps.$ that remain. ;
Strange that the newspapers of Fair- !
hanks f ill to notice or mention wljat is 1
going on under their own eves. An.d 1
comment upon the effect of it. They :
stiil continue to boost, but according to]
lyibiieal lore: “The ass was the figst to i
sec the angel.” It Is high time to dis- ;
continue the boosting and deal more i
* ■ * i
with actual facts. Facts will be more 5
instructive to our people. We have had j
entirely too much of the booster, some- ]
thing akin to “too much Johnson."
It may be a good Christian idea to
sing Glory, Hallelujah when the ship i
is sinking. But it is much more sen
sible to scramble for the lifeboats.
When the workers of Tanaua ared'rj
ven out, or starved out the booster will
soon follow. The newspapers of Fair
banks have decoyed many people into
this country from the outside by mis
leading reports, but they are powerless
to do it any longer. The people on the
outside are onto their game. Flow long
before the people at heme catch on?
It is always well to advertise the re
sources of Alaska, but it should be ad
vertised as it is, and then it will stand
investigation.
There is an, extensive field in. journ
alism to filled by The Alaska Soc
ialist without in, any way infringing on
the (domain of the capitalist press of
Alaska. It is reasonable to expect
that they will continue, as heretofore,
to serve their masters —tire corporations
and grafters generally.
The merchants of Fairbanks are be
ginning to find out that they are adver
tising to a community that has little
money to buy with. Merchants seldom
tul where the people have utoucy to
>*• » ■«■■■ » ■■■■■ II ■■■■—■ I ■»
buy their wares. Merchants must of
necessity fail where the people have
nothing to buy with, and such is the
condition of a majority of the workers
in *Tn liana Valley to-day., upon whom
the merchant and businessman must al
ways depend. Our newspapers have
not yet discovered the fact. All will
know it before work is resumed new'
season.
If a patient is ailing and goes to a
doctor for treatmeut the first thing a
skillfull physician will do, will be to
make a careful diagnosis of the condit
ion of the patient to determine the en
act nature of the ailment. Having de
termined the- cause he then can provide
a remedy. Our community is now eco
nomically ailing, and it it is the dr.tv'
of the public press t,o make a thorough
investigation of our condition that we
may provide, a remedy, for we are
about as economically sick as we can
be and survive. There is no doubt but
that all investigations into the economic
ills of the workers in this district will
be left to The Alaska Socialist. It will
be conceeded the entire field, and from
the looks of it will be equal to the occ
asion. It is much better Ip be posted ■
on conditions at home, than things far
away. It is very evident from the
makeup of the capitalist papers
in Fairbanks that Alaska readers
are not much interested in outside
news as it generally requires from four
to six inches of large headlines to draw
the attention of the reading public to
a half-inch dispatch.
Let the Alaska Socialist be what its
name implies an Alaska paper, devoted
to the interest and wcllfare of the
working class of Alaska.
DAN McCABE,
YAULT, ALASKA,
Fairbanks, Alaska,
Oct. 8th, 1913.
Alaska Socialist:
Would you call
yourself a, socialist because you wear
a red button and shout for Socialism in
| a loud voice, and then when election
time conies allow the Republican and
• Democrat shark to lead you around
| by the nose like sonic of you did
i at last municipal and school election?
j If that is the kind- of Socialism
you are advocating in Fairbanks the
• charter should be taken away frem the
' Fairbanks local by the National Organ
| ization, for you are nothing but a band
of capitalist, tools.
I am,
I
Yours for real-Socialism,
O. BREN.
The Alaska Socialist has r.p connect
: ion with the Fairbanks local of the
; Socialist Party, nor is it affiliated,in any
I
i way with the baud, of capitalist tools to
i which O. Bren refers. The littjle deal
! that O. Bren has reference to came off
■ last spring a;id will be told in detail in
| an early issue. The working class is
1 waking up and, they are refusing to be
exploited, not only by, the capitalist
.class, but also bv those who “put cut
ha red button and shout for Socialism in
| a load voice and then be let} around by
i the Republican, and Democrat shark.’1
i
I __
Slaves beg frprn their masters, but
; freemen demand their rights.
| _‘
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After the discussion on tliej Recall oi
Judges is finished we will rut anothei
1 j
oh the Recall of Judicial Dee -iou, -
i
He Is Now. A
Used To Work
The Comrades
(Continued from 1)
libel that had been headed upon him
by an editor -.vho did not grasp the
magnitude of the wonderland resources
of his (Wilnhire’s) {nines in California
and his rubber (robber) industry in So
uth America.
The exposure of the magazine stopped
the flow of money to the coffers of
Wilshire, and this exposure started an
investigation that forced the millionaire
socialist to ‘ ‘pull his freight” across
vatic to escape the federal auth
or... : Wilshire is now operating a
measly rag in London, England.
The ‘‘millionaire socialist” who once,
challenged Aryan and offered to. give
him 510,000 to debate socialism with
him on a public rostrum, has abandoned
socialism, and is now upholding syn
dicalism as the salvation of the work
ing class.
Syndicalism has about as much merit
in giving economic liberty to laboring
humanity as Wilshire’s mines in Cal
ifornia had in yielding fabulous divid
ends to the Rubes, who have mourned
their losses.
Wilshire may have another mine or
■ another rubber (robber; plant and by
advocating syndicalism he may work
off some stock on the syndicalists of
Europe.
READ THE DISCUSSION ON
I THE RECALL OF JUDGES AND
FIND OUT WHY THE LAWYERS
| ARE OPPOSED" TO THE RECALL.
;
1 ,
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It you are a worker you need
THE ALASKA SOCLALIST
subscribe for it $5.00 per year
I
I
!
! Renien^ber that next fall the Qetpo
; crats will count the votes and you don’t
! thipk they will take any the worst of it.
j Meyer London was, elected to Com
i press fro:;; one of the New York dis
tricts, but the Tammany heelers count
! ed him out. The workers will always be
■ counted out until they back up their po
j iitical votp,with the INDUSTRIAL vote
| for as Mrs. Branstetter puts it in, her
i letter in another part of this issue, the
! ballot is but a child’s bauble without the
; means to enforce it. The means to en
| force it is, the: Industrial vote, and re
•i member that the Democrats count the
j votes next fall, “and Brutus was an
; honorable man.”
i _
j “The man whose living :s so high
That he grows fat and sleek
j Thinks any common working girl
Can live on eight per week.’’
Must Face
The issue
For sdjne time there has beijn consid
erable comment in the .Socialist press
relative to the shrinkage in the mem
bership of the Socialist party. There
have been various causes assigned for
the loss of membership and some of the
comments should arouse the real Soc
ialists to take such action as will remove
the causes that have caused thousands of
men and women to cease paying dues
into a n organization, some o f whose
prominent members have lost the con
fidence of that element who believe in
keeping the party clean and who believe
in the solidarity of the workers econom
ically and politically.
The Socialist party has permitted :t
sylf to became a pasture upon which the
Industrial Workers of the World have
fe.d for the past several years. Men who
were members of the Industrial Workers
of the World were likewise members of
the Socialist party, and these members
used all their efforts to make the Social
ist party the tail of the I. W. W. kite.
The members of the Socialist party
who ceased to pay dues to the organiz
ation did not withdraw because the Soc
ialist party was raising funds to fight
the battles of labor, but because some of
those funds were utilized for other pur
poses than to feed starving men, wom
en and children who were involved in a
battle against heartless greed. The
funds that were raised for the free-spee
ch fiascos at Spokane and San Diego
and the revelations that were made con
cerning the manner in which those
funds were misappropriated by the- fin
ancial jugglers of the I. \V. W. ; the
manner in which funds were unaccount
lOV at Lawrence and other places, where
professional parishes of the I. W. W.
selected themselves as custodians of the
war chest, have brought feelings of dis
vjnst to thousands of Socialists who have
madg up their minds that their dues
shall no longer be paid to the Socialist
party until such action is taken as will
the workless vagrants who mask their
treachery behind the pretext that they
are fighting a battle for the victims of
wage-slavery.
The Socialist party must be clean and
"hew to the line ; let the chips fall
where they may.’’ As long as the "Soc
ialist party permits advocates of sabot
rge and direct action to yell: ‘ ‘Hit the
ballot box with an axe,’’ and at the
same time make it possible for these
howling loafers and fanatics to use the
Socialist paaty as an agency to raise
funds to be juggled by crooks and dead
I.beats, there need be no surprise when
i earnest iiic-n and women refuse to pay
their dues and remain members qi the
Socialist party.
The party has a duty to perform and
must face the issue—Miners Magazine.
At Harmonic; Kail on Oct. 1st., Lena
Morrow Lewis, who is supposed to be
in Alaska on her o.vu business and the
business of some one else, gave an add
ress, in honor of August Bebel, the gre
at Marxian Socialist, who died recently
in Switzerland, which would have been
a good address had she not mixed up
religion with it and told of a new kind
of socialism—socialism for the farmer.
c '
As stated in the first issue of the Alas
ks Socialist, all sides of [he question of
; Socialism would be discussed. The fr.r
| mers of the middle states, who formerly
; belonged to the Populist party, which
; was gobbled tip by the Democratic party
• are held by the throat and are at the
mercy of the rar roads and can get no
relief from the t-,yo old parties, which
are owned by the railroads, wherever
they are in power. Since the Populist
party passed away there is only one
other party that looks, to the farmer, as
'
! if they were going to get into office and
that is the Socialist party. The farmer
I sees in Socialism The abolition of Wage
slavery which does not concern him a.-he
simply wants to advance his glass inter
I ests ard exploit the class beneath him.
The Socialist politicians in that part
; of the country where the farmer vote is
' strong arc- very willing that the exploit
ation of the farm wage slaves.'shall con
: titiue, so that they can get into office,
hence, socialism for the farmer.
' “Socialism for the farmer” is a den
: iai of tin- class struggle ; a betrayal of
I the workers, and is altogether a politic
i ian's scheme. Here is what Marx’ co
worker, Frederick ifngels says about it’
By urging more and- more the conver
sion of the large, already socialized rrt
! a ns of production into Suite property, it
j [capitalism] points the path for the acc
omplishment of this tiig [Socialist] re
| volution. The proletariat seizes the
; machinery of the State and converts the
| means of production first into State pro
I perty. But, by so'doing, it extinguishes
: all class distinctions and claSscpntrasts;
land along with them, the State as such.
-p vb y,. ; ;.
| There May Be Others
if |
In The Grocery
3 Business, But No
i ' I
1 Place Like
•?
ift
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Wholesale and Retail Bread,- Cadres and Pies
ICE CREAM PARLORS IN CONNECTION.
Creek Orders Promptly Filled
HOT BBEKI> FOB DINNEfi \
SECOND AVENUE Next Orphenm Theater PHONE! So
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