Miners Lien Law
Important Measure
CALLAHAN SEEKS TO REPRESENT
THE SPECIAL INTERESTS
The most important thing to a man or
woman who works for wages is, next to
getting a job, to be able to collect the
wages due them. .Various {1 ms and sug
gestions have been offered by different
candidates for office (all of them sound
ed fine) since the days of the first elec
tion in Alaska, to tempt the mine-work
er voter and pretending to solve the
question and secure his wages.
There are now on th® different statute
books applicable to Alaska several lien
laws and parts of lien laws much of
which is meaningless and unintelligable
The only law that is simple enough for
a laborer in a mine to understand,, and
which he can, if he can read and write
English, get satisfaction from, without
consulting an attorney, is what is known
as the Wickersham Lien Law. It reads
as follows:
Section 164 compii.kd i.aw.s of Alas
ka, “Every miner or other laborer who
shall labor in or upon any mine or min
ing ground for another in the Territory
of Alaska in digging or thawing, con
veying, hoisting or piling, cleaning up,
or any other kind of work in producing
any mineral- bearing sands, gravels,
earth, or rock, gold or gold dust, or
other minerals, or shall aid or assist
therin by his labor as cook, engineer,
fireman, or in cutting and delivering
wood used in said work, or in work in
any like capacity in producing the dump
shall, where his labor directly aided in
such production, have a lien upon the
dump or mass of mineral-bearing sands
gravels, earth, or rocks, and all gold
and gold and gold dust, or other miner
als therin, and all gold and gold dust
extracted therefrom, for the full a
mount of wages for all the time which
he was so employed as such laborer in
The Alaska Socialist explains things.
Subscribe for it and get the explanation
producing the said dump, within one
year next preceeding his ceasing to la
bor thereon; and to the extent of the
i said miner or other laborer actually em
ployed or expended thereon, within one
year next prior to ceasing to labor
thereon, the said lien shall be prior to
and preferred over any deed, whether
the same was made or given prior to
such labor or not;
provided, That this preference shall
not apply to any such deed, mortgage,
bill of sale, attachment, conveyance, or
other claim given in good faith and for
value prior to the approval of tins act.”
The lien law passed by the Alaska
legislature is so contradictory that no
body knows what it means, therefore it
is useless.
You will see by reading the Wicfcer
sham law that it gives labor a prior lien
on the dump. Comes now Dan Callahan
an(j advocates a lien law to protect both
miner and merchant. He wants to pro
tect the tradi n g corporations in tlieir
speculative enterprises and secure them
against loss. It is not known what kind
of a bill the attorney’s who are behind
him would draw up for him to present
to the legislature, in case he was elected
but it can be surmised that it would be
something like the following: “Fifty or
sixty per cent of the layman's interest
in the dump, and forty or fifty per cent
to the trading corporation.” Some of
»
the low grade now being mined, under
Callahanism would pa v probably I or
1.50 per day and board. If the working
men elect Callahan and lie gets his lien
law passed they will have no one to
blame but themselves if they get paid
off, after working on the dump, at a
dollar or so- a day.
■
If making money was as easy as mak
ing love, we’d all be millionaires.
GRAND OPENING of
The FAIR
at its New Quarters opposite Orpheum
On Or About Monday Oct, 19.
We carry all kinds of Fancy Rngs, Cut Glass
Fancy China, Pianos, Piano Players, Edison & Vic
tor Phonographs & Phonograph Records.
The Fair
Second Avenue Opposite Orpheum Theatre
_
Who is coaching Callalian for Senator?
Who marie the proposition to him to
advocate a lien law to protect “both
miner and merchant ?”
Callahan denies tljat he is a member
of the Democrat club.
Who paid his expenses to go to Skag
way to attend the Democrat convention
held there ? __
He is reported to have said, when.ask
ed, “That ‘Huerta’ paid them. ”
'
We are willing to believe the state
ment.
______
Probably it is “Huerta” who put the
lien law scheme about protecting the
trading corporations into his head.
He will probably be able to draw on
“Huerta” again.
i »
It cost several hundred dollars to go
from Fairbanks to Skagwav and back.
“Pluerta” seems to be verv much in
"
■ terested in legislation in the Fourth
' Division of Alaska.
i Some people regard.a public office as
1 a private'snap. Like Huerta.
I __
It is rumored that near election day
the same “Huerta” who staked Calla
: han to go to Skagway will withdraw
! either him or McGowan and throw’ his.
!
j support to the other.
A person w ho runs lor pijlilic office
unbidden except by a 1 e wr professional
politicians appears on the political stage
in the role of a martyr.
i
___
I'
A primary law would put a lot of mar
tyrs out of business.
The N. C. Co. is a merchant. If Cal
lahan is elected and gets his lien law
passed, the N. C. Co or other merchants
will get the gold dust in the dump and
the miner will get the experience.
But, Callahan will tell you, the miner
and merchant will share pro rata.
Certainly! The merchant could fix
prices to suit himself so that if he got
his pro rata he would still get the reg
ular price of liis provisions. The wages
of the miner is fixed.
The N. C. Company can safely with
draw’ McGowan aud give their support
to Callahan. Probably the only reason
they do not do this is on account of
McGowan’s superior ability. *
Burns, the Western Federation agitat
or, has become Burns, tile X. C. polit
ician, but Burns, the labor fakir is still
Burns, the labor fakir.
If we remember rightly, he got two
votes at Eldorado, his home town, and
two at Vault.
Front St,
Xext to Germania Restaurant.
In November
j »
$
Democratic Policy has Fail
ed to Bring Prosperity
to the Country.
A correspondent writes as follows:
“The Democrats, after putting their j
reforms into effect, are busy reviewing ;
their handiwork throughout the country |
and are apparently amazed at the failure j
of their administration to 1 ring prosper
ity to the masses of the people. ‘‘Row
i
ering the tariff,” ‘‘Reforming the Cur
rency,” ‘‘Electing U. S. Senators by
^ popular vote,” are political reforms and
have no bearing whatever on the labor
question. The purchasing power of the
wage earner’s income can not be in
creased by lowering the tariff. The
price ot labor is regulated by the supply
and demand in the market and the pol
iticians of the Democrat party are be
ginning to realize that they cannot rem
edy this bjr reforming the currency, or
voting direct for U. S. Senators, even
though they vote ten times a day. Re
publicans and Socialists are taking ad
vantage of the bad conditions that pre
vail throughout the country, a n d it is
the general opinion that there will be a
Democrat defeat in the Lower House in
November. ’ ’
Social!
Lww Town, Wash.
Sept. 14th, 1914.
The Alaska Socialist,
Fairbanks, Alaska,
Dear Conirrde:
As I have been think
ing of going to Alaska next spring I
wish to get all the information possible
about that country, and as I happened
to get the name of your paper and am a
Socialist and have been so since the or
ganization of that party in this country,
I herewith take the liberty of writing
you. I came to this state, Washington,
about ten years ago from \\ yomiug, and
took up a homestead here in the cen
tral part of the state in the fall of 1905,
proved up the liomstead, 160 acres, in
the fall of 1910, have livfd^n this land
and tried to farm it, but it is. dry prairie
land all around here, and it is hard to
raise a crop, and for the last two years
the wheat has been a total failure, nay
means has about gene and I cannot see
my way through here very mncli longer.
So 1 have since last spring been think
ing of Alaska. But I have no friends or
acquaintances there that I knew cf to
write to and get information from. Now
would you be kind enough to give me
some information about working con
ditions as you may know them and a
bout flic proposed government railroad,
where you think or probably know'
where it is going to be located or built,
also about farming and farm land along
the coast and in the interior.
Now, will you write me soon and
: ive me all particulars you know of a
bout your country and I may come up
there next spring and probably make
my future home in Alaska.
Yours for Socialism,
Adolph Lofton.
London Times Finally Ends One
Hundred-year Strike,
Away back in 1814 the printing press
men employed on the London Times
objected to the use of an improved
steam press, and the organization to
which they belonged ordered a strike, i
The presses came to stav, but there was
no longer employment for union work
men in the production of the Loudon
The Expert Tailor
Next to Meat Market
Just received for the fall, Silk
Velvet Collars, and Overcoat
and Fur-coat Lining.
Also, Pressing and Cleaning,
First Class Work Guaranteed.
Times. It came to be a tradition with
the owners of the paper that it slicuib
keep away from organized labor.
Recently t h e London Times decided
to reduce the price at which it was sold
on the streets, and make general changes
in the policy of the paper. A letter was.
published in other London daily papers,
suggesting to the Times that it might be
a good time to also unionize the paper.
Followed several discussions with the?
Society of Printers, and an agreement
was reached ICO years after Die paper
had parted company with union help'
—The Chronicle.
If yea are a worZer you need
THE ALASKA SOCIALIST
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