T'!l AL4SXA MUST
OFFICIAL ORGAN
ISLAND
Franc: cf LOCAL GLNFSS,
Socialist Party
»
Issued by Socialist Publishing Co. at
Fifth & I.ccv Streets, Fairbanks. Alaska
A. KNOWLES Manager.
Subscription Price : $5.00 per year ; $2.50
for six months ; SI.25 for three months
50 cents for one month ; single copy
2.5 cents, payable in advance.
Published on the Fifteenth and
Thirtieth of each month*
PUBLISHED IN THE INTEREST OF;
THE WORKERS Ob' ALASKA AND .j
ADVOCATING POLITICAL AND ]
IN DUST RIA L A CT ION
F VIS—
MISIG TEE ISSUE
The Fairbanks Times is bothered an'
awful lot over the plight of the Thomas
Memorial library, which it is claimed, is
short of funds. Those that want the lib
rary should maintain it. The Times
stands for private ownership of propertv
but in this instance it stands lor muni
cipal ownership. The reason is apparent.
The Times, as usual, contradicts itself,
and tries to misrepresent the situation.
• On Page 4, cf the issue of Jan. 7th. it
says: “The members of the board are
anxious to have something done, and
would like to see the matter made an
issue at the coining municipal election.
The voters a n <1 taxpayers could decide
then whether or not they wished to bear
the burden of the expense.” In the ed
itorial column o f the same issue the
'I'imes says: “The suggestion that the
city take the institution over seems to us
to be the only solution, and we heartily
endorse the proposal to put the question
before the voters at the coming municip
al election. It will not be an added bur
den to the city. ” Ti e Times admits in
one column that an institution, which
wculd have to be kept up by taxation
would be a burden, and i :i another part
of the same issue it says it would not be
a burden. Ho the capitalist press tries to .
fool its readers. If you want to know
how a city is going to keep up a library
without it being a burden you will have :
to see The Fairbanks Times.
The Times evidently lias a very low'
opinion of the intelligence of the people :
of this community. It says : “There is!
a mistaken idea abroad that the library
is a church institution—that it is held in
trust by the church and maintained b v
. church funds, . . Nothing is farther from '
the truth. ' The Times is very careful to ,
explain the truth so that the voters can
act intelligently. If The Times will give :
the Facts they will draw their own con
clusions as to whether or not it is a
chnrcli institution. How does it come:
that the Res-, of the Kpiscopal is on the
Trustee board and has been for years. Is
not I'ishop Rowe the head of it? Polk’s :
Alaska Directory for 1911-12 on Page 235 j
says : “Thomas George C. Memorial
Library- (St. Matthews Mission).’’ Will
the Times explain what that means ? It
probably doesn’t mean anything. That
would be a good capitalist scheme to get1
the people of the city to keep it up and i
then find a string attached to it and held {
by people v.ho would stock it up with
prayer books. Abe Lincoln said : “You
can fool all the people part of the time,
and you cau foci part of the pf*opie all
the time, hut you can’t foci a?!1 the peo
\ le dll (he time.’’
rows in couiudo
The capitalist press is carrying stories
about outrages alleged to have been com
ruited by miners i n. Colorado against
non- union men. These are charged by
the strikers as being frame-ups.
Congressman Edward Keating, after
visiting the strike region, declared :
“Four out of every five of the outrages
reported from the coal strike district and
attributed to the strikers have been
framed u p by thugs an d gun men em
ployed b y mine operators a s guards. A
few nights ago a number o f shots were
fired near Trinidads Denver papers re
ported that thefe had been a duel be
tween the miners and guards. I was in
Trinidad at the time and I firmly believe
the guards went out and fired their re
volvers into the air to cause talk of a
fight. ’ ’
The strikers among other things are
asking for a check weighman. The state
law provides for such a weighman, but
the mine operators have never furnished
one.-—Ex.
Arthur S. Black of 59 Flint street,
Somervile, was arrested while address
ing a gathering on Boston Common on
“The Evils of Socialism,” charged with
the non-support of Bis wife, according to
the Boston Post, a capitalist newspaper.
Black was in the midst of a violent attack
against Socialism charging that Socialists
would break up the home and destroy
the family when a policeman interrupted
the fiery orator and marched him off to
the Somervile police station. Black is
expected to discuss this subject further
in the police court when Mrs. Black will
appear as the prosecuting witness.—Ex.
A PEOBUCf OF CAPITALISM
The Western Woman’s Outlook has
this to say about the brothel: “The
physicians of our insane asylums say :
‘Forty-one per cent of insanity is due to
diseases contracted in the brothel.’ Other
leading physicians say : ‘Sixty-five per
cent of the diseases of married women
are the diseases contracted bv the male
at the brothel and transmitted’ A leaflet
issued under the authority of the leading
physicians says : ‘Over the doer of everv
immoral resort might truthfully be writ
ten : ‘Incurable insanity maybe con
tracted here.1 Ex.
Well for Jim Larkin, the ' ‘flerv cross’ ’
that has leaped out of the Dublin pro
letarian camp. His denunciation o f the
British labor-leaders in a n d out of Par
liament hits the nail on the head : ‘ ‘They
have forgotton that they worked a t the
bench o r in the factory, o n the dock o r
in the stockhole. They seem to think
that round-table conferences with nice
language and beautiful phrases that fall
trippingly from the tongue, and concil
iation boards and agreements are the be
all and end all of life.”
Whether Larkin have ballast enough
to keep him steady, and from plunging,
to the delight o f the master class, into
Anarchy, i s matter o f secondary consid
eration. The good he is doing he can
never undo.—Weekly People.
The official figures from the office of
the Secretary of State of New Jersey at
Trenton give John C. Butterwortli, Soc
ialist Labor Party candidate in the last
election, 2,460 votes. A year ago Reimer
for President, received 1,321. This makes
again of 1,139 pretty near double the
vote of last year.--The Weekly People.
! ■" ; i
i I would like to be able to impress
j the minds of all the fair-minded Christ
i ian citizens, or at least those that pre
: tend to be Christians, in this community,
| that scientific Socialism does not i n the
j least deal with religion, for this great
political and economic movement of the
| world would greatly hamper its pro
i gress by bothering with the religious
ideas of the individual. There are too
. many already who have judged the niov
j ement altogether wrongly b y hearing
j some anti-religious fanatic get up in a
| Socialist gathering and emit an eruption
of villification against religion with such
vehement passion a s t o fi 11 any intell
igent person with disgust and utter con
tempt. I have often doubted the sincer
ity of such an individual that will viol
ate the platform and constitution of the
| party by such railings against religion. 1
often think they must be under the pay
roll of the old parties or very densely
ignorant ii they think to help any polit
ical movement by unloading the blame
! for the crimes and injustices of the cap
! italist system off on the back of religion.
; For my part, I believe, and can see far
j enough into the future to know that
through the great social change of soc
I iety that comes with the practice of Soc
| ialism in its entirety, and will make it
| possible for every man, woman and
j child t o be true Christians i n deeds and
| not in words, if they wish to. That will
i be one of the greatest of many blessings
I that will accrue from the great social
j change.
We are internationally united in our
! hope and endeavor to make it a blood
i
less revolution. And we hope to have all
| or the majority of the best and well
wishing citizens to unite with us so as to
I be able to peaceably overthrow Dollarism
! which, when accomplished, will give the
i whole human race the opportunity to
; enjoy the great blessings of the co-oper
ative commonwealth.
• fraternally,
W. K. WAUGII.
| THE BUM ON THE RODS J
W. E* Jones
One rides on the re Is beneath the car
And one oti a cushioned chair,
| The one is clad in poverty’s rags,
! The other doth broadcloth wear.
I One eats a back door charity lunch,
j For lack of the price to pay,
The other is served by a waiter skilled
j In an up-to-date cafe.
| The one sneaks into a concert dive
I For an hour’s cheap fun and laughter, 1
1 The. other a box at the opera has,
With wine and women after;
J One sleeps in the hay, or as best one may
Who has no place to dwell,
The other has a suite of rooms
i
In the citv’s best hotel.
The bum on the rods is hunted down
| As an enemy of mankind,
| The other is driven around to the club
And feted and wined and dined.
And those who curse the bum on the rods
.
As the essence of all that’s bad.
' Meet the bunf on the plush with a syc- '
©pliant's smile,
And extend the hand sc glad.
■
The bum on the rods is a social flea
That gets an occasional bite,
♦
The bum on the plush is a social leech, j
Blood-sucking by day and night ;
The bum on the rods is a load so light t
That his weight we scarcely feel.
But it takes the labor of dozens of men
To furnish the other a meal.
So long as you sanction the bum o n the
plush,
The other will always be there;
But rid yourself of the bum on the plush
And the other will disappear.
Then make an intelligent, organized kick
And throw off the weights that crush; j
Don't vary about the bum on the rods
Get rid of the bum on the plush.
—COMING NATION, j
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: Wholesale and Retail Bread, Cakes and Pies i
> ICE CREAM PARLORS IN CONNECTION. !
> „ J
l Creek Orders Promptly Filled ;
[ HOT BREAD FOR DINNER j
l SECOND AVENUE Next Orpheum Theater PHONE ISO ;
A
I Where you get the finest
Wines, Liquors & Cigars
Old Eagle Saloon stand
| JOE O'CONNOR Manage?.
Fairbanks Alaska
■
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Thoroughly renovated and rebuilt |
First Class Baths, Furnished Rooms, Lunches. I
Reading Room and Writing "materials
Electric light end a!5 accomodations. The worker's home
FRONT STREET FAIRBANKS, ALASKA. ]
Hotel
JOHNSON AMD BARBETTINE
TELEPHONE POX OTY7 ALASKA
WINES, LIQUORS AND QQMS
ROOMS AND BONKS GOOD WARM STABLE
ftr- - :■—
' CHATANIKA
NEWLY FURNISHED ROOMS
WARM BARKS AKD BCG HOUSES
A FINE STOCK OF
WINES, LIQUORS AND CIGARS
FGOL AKD BILLIARD TABLES
BROOKER’S RESTAURANT IN CONNECTION
J, C. SMYSER, Prop.