Bale Name Jlndsugtrial Markt-us
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Published Daily except Sunday
THy Nome Mine Workers’ Union, No. 240, International Union of Mine,
Mill and Sm elter Workers.
Subscription Price
Tear — _ _ _ _ _ — _ _ _ _ _ -
Months.. __—--- _ —
Month__— _ ___
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Entered an second class matter March 1, 1311, at the poet office at
Some, • AIssks, under the Act of March I, 1171.
All changes In standing advertisements must reach this office at six
•‘dock each evening to Insure Insertion In the following Issue.
Advertising rates made know * on application.
‘To secure to each laborer the whole product ol his labor, or as
neatly as possible, Is a worthy object of any good government.”—
Abraham Lincoln
_ 130.09
_ 110.00
_ I l.oo
Address all Communications to Dally Nome Industrial Worker,
Box 210 Nome, Alaska Phone, Black lit.
Nome, Alaska, August 22, 11)17.
THK Kl'KIi PROBLEM.
There's a well known juggler who
can stir up more trouble over prices
than anything else in the word un
der the system. This is th? well
known law of supply and demand.
Men in various gainful pursuits
know by experience that when they
have a commodity for sale which is
not plentiful in proportion to the
demand they get a bigger price for
it than when it is very plentiful in
proportion to the demand.
This l: w has been responsible foi
the high prices which prevail in al
most every line.
The law enjoys the distinction like
every other law of being subject to
artificial manipulation. N'ot that it
can itself be changed, but the con
ditions arising out of which supply
and demand as ono to the other re
gulate price are frequently mani
pulated.
That is to sr.y while normal pro
duction places one to another in re
gular proportion, the right to own
and control < rtain commodities can
withold them from consumption un
til the demand grows very groat
and with the demand the price also
rises.
Now of late years tins manipula
tion has been particularly marked
and in no other sphere so particu
larly as in the region of coal and
fuel.
.lust forget that the price has
anything to do except indirectly
with the labor costs of production,
and just to show that rs far as coal
is concerned it may he mentioned
th t while cor! cost in labor in
creased about 15 per cent more to
produce at the mine mouth, its
market price within the same per
iod, one short year Mncrcaned one
hundred to four hundred per rent.
The coal that is mined is mined
Tor contract orders or for orders
which are filled upon demand at the
mine mouth. The latter is termed
“spot coal". The contracts amount
to about SO per cent of the total
output of almcst all mines the spot
coal figures around the balance ot
20 per cent. The price of
coni shows two spccii i s i ot
figures: these are of course* that
paid under contract and those paid
for spot coal. The latter is nor
mally the highest and sets tho. price
,or the former.
That may seem strange, but the
operators generally are interested
in making the spot coal set the
price for the rest, because it has
of recent years been showing a
steady increase.
The former eighty per cent shows
o subjection to supply and demand
‘.iherent in itself for it is not for
sale but for consumption and the
soul Is bought by lighting, power,
railroad and industrial plants under
vontracts for so much every year
<or part of a year as the case may
be. Formerly the spot coal was
taken care of by dealers and specu
lators. and today to a very much
'esser extent it still is. These ware
accustomed and the custom still
prevails, to ship this coal to the
markets for consumption and while
■on the way to change the routing
•of the cars here, there and every
where as the market reports ar
rived at the distributors offices, in
dicating where the highest demand
and the greatest shortage and conse
quently heat prices prevailed.
These were accustomed, and the
vustom still prevails, to hold coal
ears fully laden with black dia
monds on sidings near the cities and
keep them there until the coal fa
mine—that is the shortage—Inten
sified the demand and the demand
being Intensified the price also rose.
This continued until the price to be
paid represented a great increase
first to cover the costs of demurrage
and secondly a handsome profit over
and above the amount could have
Obaen earned by at once supplying
the market needs.
These dealers made great profits,
so great that they were gradually
eliminated by the coal companies,
which were and are more often than
not subsidiaries of great railroad
companies. And what the specu
lators have done, now to a great ex
tent the coal companies are doing
themselves.
The fine art of price manipulation
is one of the most delightful fea
tures of the coal business, and little
wonder it is that government has
had to take a hand.
It has been so covert that the
public although it squirmed, did
not know how to explain it, and
even today it has all kinds of people
guessing.
Recalling the fact that this spot
coal was first of all manipulated as
to price by an artificial control ot
the law of supply and demand by
the dealers, now when the dealers;
are to a very large extent eliminat
ed. the coal companies who are do
ing it still blame the middlemen.
Moreover the coal companies make
the spot coal the basis of their con
tracts, that eighty per cent produc
tion to which reference has been |
made, and as the railroad and pow- ■
er c ompanies are also largely coal (
men themselves, they are glad!
enough to avoid discrimination
when such discrimination means
j only taking it out of one pocket to
! place it in the other, robbing l’eter
| to pay Paul when Peter and Paul
are the same individual. In this
! way the large contractors who are
| not coal owners have to come
j through as well as the other unfor- j
tur.ate private consumers.
The railroads who are also coal
mine operators aid in throwing dust
in the eyes of the .people. The ope
rators—wliicMi are oftener than not
j the railroads—say lhat they cannot
I get cars to supply the market with
j coal. They point out that they are
J working full blast but cannot get
their goods to market. They put
the blame on the railroads who are
really the operators under another
j name.
The railroads make answer that
| business is so brisk that they have
not cars immediately available, that
it is impossible to justify an in
crease in the purchase of earn, that
they have cars delayed at various
centers when those could be un
loaded and in turn kept in circula
tion.
All of which is to a certain extent
true. But there is intentionally no
system In use of coal cars. Coal cars
are made to carry other lines of
freight which could be carried more
successfully in other cars just be
cause they bring about a car short
age at the mines. Coal cannot be
carried very well in all rolling stock
and the end of an artificial short
age increasing the coal demand is
thus indirectly brought about by
the manipulation that is not obvious
and self evident to the public. It
was considered a remarkable dis
covery when it was made that a coal
order filled for a long railroad haul
was more likely to receive attention
than one which provided only for a
shorter haul. The long haul kept
the car longer out of commission.
It was considered a still greater dis
covery to locate sidings full of coal
cars fully laden, while cities Hear
by clamored for the coal. The
market was being manipulated so
that a coal famine w.iuld repay the
cost of detention, the demurrage,
the necessarily increased prue do
ing all of that. • %
The difficulty w'hich the country
fares in solving the coal situation
in an equitable manner is in still,
following the same train of ideas
that prevailed when the coal and
other industries were separated and
the bold bad middleman was an In
dependent speculator, who found
the position between the upper mill
stone. the operators, and the nether
milltsone, the public, quite the re
verse of the usual experience, for
it was an unusually profitable one.
That condition, although econom
ists and politicians and officials ap
pear to think in terms of it, has dis
appeared for ever.
A few men control the coal in
dustry, just as the same few men
control the railroad and the power
industry. There is an entente cor
diale between them all that makes
the political ■ entente between na
tions as an abode brick is compared
with a solid rock.
The railroad company makes pro
fit from the coal industry in which
it is interested; the coal company
which contracts its eighty per cent
of coal to power and steel and other
great industrial corporations is al
most ceratin to be a subsidiary of
those industries also. And they
point pridefully that little discrimi
nation is given the big fellows any
more than the little fellows, because
they know the public overlooks the
fact that they themselves and the
said big fellows are one and the
same.
It is not without some amuse
men that one will observe how
readily the public falls for the bun
combe when the coal company
blames the railroad for not supply
ing cars, knowing well that the pub
lic will not imagine that the coal
and the railroad company are con
trolled by the same money power,
making a practically identical own
ership for all intents of profits.
Time was indeed when this com
plaint from the smaller companies
in the coal business was not witliou
its tragic note, for it is too true
that it was thereby that the big coal
companies controlled by the rail
roads aslo were enabled to swallow
the smaller independents whose
business failed because of no mar
ket facilities, failing to get cars.
That time is gone. Today the con
solidation and the unification of in
terests ?re complete. But the pub
lic still thinks of industry in the
thoughts of a past age, and the le
gislators just as might be expected,
legislate for present day conditions
in the light of the economic facts
of a past epoch. Today in America
there is a complete inter-connection
in the control of all industries. The
copper magnate will elsewhere be a
coal magnate; the steel magnate
will be a copper, a coal, and a rail
road magnate and all will be united
in certain financial alliances of tre
mendous force# in the controlling
factor: the money trust.
If the people could get away from
thinking that this and that industry
is distinct from these others, they
would make considerable progress
in making ready to meet the situa
tion.
But cars is taken that they will
not know and if there should leak
out some facts as to the truth of the
economic situation they are hurried
ly hidden from sight and quickly
deodorized.
The most important investigation
from the point of view of political
economy every carried on was the
Pujo money trust investigation. That
showed the public how complete the
United States is owned by a hand
ful of men through interlocking di
rectorates and a real ownership at
that. The very name of Pujo is
forgotten and if the average man
was asked who he was it is likely
as not he would answer a Japanese
Admiral or an island in the Phillip
pine archipelago. That was done
in the stone age of profiteering and
when those interesting essays on
the New Freedom were ungnawed
by the tooth of time. But it can be
said emphatically that it will be ut
terly impossible to understatnd
United States history and the con
ditions of the people today unless
this investigation is familiar in the
mind as household words.
It is wearisome and tedious in the
extreme to note the manner in
which the old time middleman is ac
cused of causing all this havoc in
the increase in prices. Such as re
peat this easy and superficial gossip
must bo unaware of the extent to
which the middleman has been eli
minated by the great industrial con
cerns called the trusts for the past
few years. Do they think that the
fact that in 1915 alone, and it was
a very favorable year, not less than
twenty thousand such concerns went
out of business, has no significance
in the scheme of economic distribu
bution? Do they imagine that their
places were just obliterated and the
functions they filled are no longer
performed?
The fact is that this process has
been proceeding with merciless se
verity and production and distribu
tion are now in the same controll
ing hands. More over it is to be
observed that not alone is the pro
duction and distribution in one in
dustry controlled but it is controlled
in all and by approximately the
same great and very few financial
Interests which control everything
that tlie people use and consume.
It will be very interesting to
watch the process of control which
the Federal Trade Commission pro
poses in the matter of the coal in
dustry. It will be relatively easy
to control the food industry. The
farmers were through co-operation
beginning to shake loose the rail
road control and it is much easier
to control the farmers than the coal
men who are the railroad men. who
are the steel men, who are the
power men, who are the lumber
men. the munition men, the money
trust men.
WK CAN DO IT.
For first class work and prnn pi ;
delivery pli *ne Main |rt| «nd tin
People’s Steam Laundry w'il e» I
and get your laundry.
W. J. WILLIAMSON Pros j
Why worry
About wash day
THAT’S OUIt BUSINESS.
Satisfaction Guaranteed.
BOSTON
STEAM LAUNDRY
444 Front St. Phone Main r»3
I
BOARD OFTRADE
Restaurant
and
LUNCH ROOM
George Modini,
Proprietor
TO THE PUBLIC
|
Commencing Today,
AUGUST 11,
The Price of Bread will
be 10c. a loaf straight.
Other Goods raise in
price in proportion.
Signed:
North Pole Bakery
Anvil Bakery
, Nome Bakery
Arctic Bakery
ALASKA STEAMSHIP CO.
S. S. VICTORIA
LEAVE SEATTLE: LEAVE NOME:
Via Seward, Valdez and Cordova
Without Additional Charge.
SEPTEMBER 2 SEPTEMBER 14.
OCTOBER 0. OCTOBER 22.
SAILING SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.
R. A. Carroll, Agent, Nome
From Nome
August31th.
g\From Seattle
August 18th.
SEPTEMBER 28.
OCTOBER 25.
SEPTEMBER 15.
OCTOBER 13.
RIGHT RESERVED TO CHANGE THIS SCHEDULE.
PACIFIC STEAMSHIP GO.
ALASKA L. & C. CO.
AGENTS
At Dock.
F. J. O’CONNOR.
Commercial Agent.
Front St. and Steadman Are.
Charles L. Ross
Milling, Lumber, Contractor
HAVING TAKEN OVER THE FREIGHTING & TRANSFER
BUSINESS OF \V. STEIGELMAIER AND OF LEO KENT,
FREIGHT ORDERS AND TRANSFER CONTRACTS WILL RE
CEIVE PROMPT ATTENTION.
3RD AND B STREET. PHONE BLACK 162.
S. S. Standard
Sails every SIX DAYS to
DIME AM) WAY POINTS
weather permitting
From Snake River.
CHAS WECKMAX.
INDEPENDENT
MEAT MARKET
W. H. Webb prop. Phone M.18
CHANGE IX COAL PRICES.
On Aug. 10th, Wellington Coal will he $23.00 |>er ton in yard.
On and after Septemlier 25th, Wellington Coal will he $25.00 pr
ton in yard. Briquets will continue at $18.00 per ton in yard.
, We me experiencing great ditticulty in securing anthracite
coal for winter use and cannot guarantee having any quantity
on hand.
Alaska Lighterage Comercial Co.
IDE NOME INDUSTRIAL IB
is prepared to handle
all kinds of
JOB PRINTING
Let us figure on your
work. Call up Black
134 or call at
THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER OFFICE