änily Name Industriktl Max-hier«
Published Daily except bunday
Koine Mine Workers’ Union, No. *40. Western Federation of Miners.
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“To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as
nearly as possible, Is a worthy object of any good government.”—
abraham Lincoln
Address all Communications to Dally Nome Industrial Worker,
Box 210 Nome, Alaska. Phone, Black 184.
All changes In standing advertisements must reach this office at alx
e'clock each evening to Insure insertion in the following issue.
Advertising rates made known on application.
Entered as second class matter March 1. 1811, ai the post office at
(iorae, AlasKa, under the Act of March 8, 1878.
____ 820.08
___110.00
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Nome. Aliiska, September 22, Uilfi.
Tin: KKiHT Horn DAY.
The eight hour day—a general
eight hour day—is the most import
ant issue at the coming election.
The eight hour day is to be voted
upon by each and every person who
casts a ballot next November. It is
practically a referendum. It is a
referendum because some didn t
■want to take the responsibility of
voting for it at the last session of
the legislature, so without offending
those powers which wielded a great
influence over that highly respect
able body. they passed the buck
along to the voters.
They felt that was safer. Because
they knew that not only employers
but friends of employers could be
lined up to oppose it, and they
wanted to face both ways and
straddle two horses, in a typical le
gislative style, with a leg for capi
tal and a leg for labor. It can't be
done, but they think they did' very
well.
In any event the eight hour day
is coming up for consideration, and
there should be no hesitation in vot
ing for it. It affects male and fe
male workers and- it will reduce the
number of unemployed by necessi
tating three shifts.
Shortening the work day is more
important than getting the pay for
the ordinary day increased. Every
boss would rather give a few cents
or a few dimes extra to the man
that will work harder, for that rea
son. during ten hours than would
lie agree to pay pro rata the scale ot
the eight hour day.
Moreover, as far as the workers
are concerned, the wage question
will take care of itself.
There is no reason why there
should not be a general eight hour
day for Alaska. Eight hours is
more than long enough to work.
The man who cannot earn wages
ill eight hours does not exist.
The man who cannot make use
of the increased leisure for his own
benefit and that of the fellow work
ers with whom he is associated
ought to be cruicified.
The boss will tell you that the
eight hour day will put him on the
bum.
If it will, it if. on the bum he
ought to be. And by the same
token we notice none of those who
fought the eight hour day in this
camp rolling in riches.
But, dont forget that the very
same arguments that can be worked
up by the operators or other em
ployers against an eight hour day,
can with just the same force, with
just the same silly fallacy, with just
the same sweet unreasonable reason
ableness be urged against a ten
hour or a twelve hour day as too
short also.
They will tell you the ground is
too poor.
There is ground in this camp
too low grade to be operated at a
profit for ten hours, twelve, thirteen
fifteen or twenty-four hours a day.
But that's no reason why it should
he worked. The man Who has
ground will not pay with the eight
hour day should realize the fact that
he has got no mine, and so for his
own sake and for his own welfare,
quit mining. The same can be said
of other lines of business. The
man that has to hire another helper
to assist him making a fortune by
working over eight hours a day does
not deserve to make a cent. Eight
hours is enough to slave for any
one. There is no good sound reason
why a bank can keep its doors open
only six hours to make a living, and
a mine or other business has to be
operated the round of the clock to
make ends meet.
This, you say is impractical talg.
That’s because it is not to the in
, terest of the business man. But
it Is practical. The eight hour day
affects the Interest of thousands
where a longer day affects only the
profits of a few. And it is the ln
lerpst of the many that should re
ceive attention.
The country that cannot stand an
eight hour day is good for neither
man nor beast. In one breath it is
urged that capital is needed, and
in the next the poor commercial
and industrial interests swear that
business and industry w'ont stand an
eight hour day—the poor country:
That’s a nice sort of argument to
put up to induce capital to invest in
a country, advertising the fact that
it is too poor a land to provide a
shorter work day for the toilers
than the unlimited hours that now
constitute a day's work in most un
dertakings.
There ought to be a good rally to
the eight hour day referendum this
fall. If for no other reason than it
will show us precisely where we
stand. It is one that every voter
ought to support, for the simple
reason that it will bring things to
a show down here.
The workers have been getting
the short end of it ror the past few
years. Hates have gone up, prices
have gone up, but wages have not.
They are still paying out the same
scale. They are still toiling for tilt
same number of hours each day
they are still doing the same drill
for the same old pay that will buy
fifty per cent less than it did ten
years ago.
The man who buys a package in a
store that costs two bits four or five
years ago is lucky today if he gets
it for fifty cents. What cost two
bits a year ago and still has the
price marked on the wrapper, is
now thirty-five cents. Ten cents
whacked on for freight! Figure it
out and see who gets the best of it!
It is about time, then, that this
eight hour day proposition should
receive some attention. Whether
the legislature obeys the electoral
mandate or not, or whether as a
law it is enforced or not, the work
ers should support it just as an ex
pression of opinion. And then if
the officials from one cause or an
other let it lie a dead letter and re
main unenforced as has been the
case with the eight hours under
ground, we still have educated our
selves to the state when we know
and know clearly that some stouter
force is needed than mere ballot
casting.
The eight hour day will appear on
the regular ballot. When it comes
to casting a vote on it place an X
opposite the eight hour day demand.
Goodness knows it is wanted.
Goodness knows it is a pitiable state
when those who do want it have
not the moral courage to organize
to demand it. But since we have
got to do the thing on a higher plane
without risking the job, it is worth
while trying thet.higher plane once
in a while.
They have kind of stacked the
cards against it. It is political free
dom to allow those who are not cm
ployees and don’t expect to be, but
hope to make money through their
j interests which employers, to vote
] upon the question also. If the
! workers got together in one, union
j they could enforce a general eight
hour day in Alaska without any vot
ing. They would declare their in
tention to work eight hours and no
more. Without organization they
cannot do that. But they can, in the
absence of that economic might, just
vo'e upon it.
The eight hour day gives an im
portance to the baliot which it
might otherwise lack for In tne
estimation of not a few, it is really
more important than the candidates.
Like other measures which tend
merely to reform conditions, the
eight hour day is no solution of the
working class problem. Far from
that. But it helps some; even helps
not a little. It gives us what we all
need, more leisure.
The man or woman who works
eight hours instead of ten or twelve
will, having more time to recuper
ate, live better, feel better and re
ally be better. For the most of us
whether we will or not, our work
is not fascinating. Especially in the
harder lines when the sweat begins
to'respond to the effort of manual
,,‘xertion, .it is as often drudgery as
not, and it is the drudgery that
kills. The eight hour day helps to
make it less drudgery and in doing
so makes it better for everyone.
The eight hour day from the em
ployers point of view will be fought
as too costly. But it is a remark
able thing that employers finally
discover that they can stand it
better than they believed possible.
They discover that the employee
slackens up in his work after the
eight hours, and it is not so prolific
in profit as the longer day seemed.
In no place can this be seen more
clearly than in Nome. When the
union sought shorter hours under
ground, prior to the passage of the
law, the eight hour day was opposed
by some “operators". They got their
scabs all right, and took out their
dump and tney cut. while employing
strike-breakers, quite a swath. They
were the socially ambitious. One
man joined so many orders he
hadn’t room on his coat for the
badges. He kept a team of racing
dogs and he swaggered through the
community using scabs, and went
broke so that he was glad and hap
py when he could get a job himself
and that at the eight hour day that
he affected to despise. He isn’t
cutting much of a shine now. May
be he still pays dues to two or three
lodges, but he does it out of wages
made working for someone else at
eight hours a day, and he’s glad of
it.
On the other hand we observe
that those operators who employed
their men eight hours underground
are still doing business. They are
still in the operating class, and can
still pay their men without any
trouble and by a bank check that is
not dishonored when it is turned
into the bank.
We dont know how that is. We
will not offer an explanation. It is
not our immediate concern. It is
stated as a fact which is undeni
able and very signicant.
There is not a man living or a
woman for that matter wrould not
rather work for a shorter than a
longer day. It is true when first
the eight hour day was broached, *
some dredge employees circulated a 9
petition against it. But they did 0
that because they thought it would a
solidify themselves with the boss, j
We observe just now that some of 9
the men who signed that petition n
are still in our midst. And though [
they have worked for their twelve I
hour day, and had the pleasure of £
holding down a job, they are still I
perambulating the streets of this |
city with hardly clothes enough to S
flag a hand car, and no more home i
than a jack rabbit. jj
So their service to the boss has s
helped them but little. Every work- J
ing man in any community who is |
worth while who has to work for ‘
wages is a union man and stands ir
revocably committed to the shorter
work day. He knows. He has tried
it all. And he knows and everyone
else knows that the town or camp
where the eight hour day is the !
rule, that is the prosperous camp .
and the flourishing town. It is when
the town or the camp is on the
j down grade the long face-pujlers de
■ clare that the ten hours, twelve
hour or twenty-four hour day is a
necessity.
RELIABLE TAILOR SHOP.
Front St. 3 doors west of Alaska
Bank.
We do the best
CLEANING
PRESSING
ALTERING &
REPAIRING
Ladies and Gerttlemens Clothes.
CITY BATH HOUSE,
Moonlight Spring Water. (BoU
Ing Hot).
M. O. SOLBERG.
For Correctly
Fitting gjjj
EVE |
GLASSES J
Go to
I
Segerstrom ac riagen
Jewelers and Optician*.
Milo's
Cafe
OPEN DAY AND NIGHT
Next dour to Pacific Gold
Storage.
LOMEN BROS.
Prescription Drugists
and
Drug Sundries
«BBiBaa»gaBaaBiai^^
aaBBBKBBBBBIgBIMi!
HEINZ
57 Varieties have arrived at
Mollers Grocery
211 FRONT STREET PHONE, MAIN 8tt>
Steamer Arctic
will sail for St. Michaels and all way points including Solomon,
Blurt1 and Cliinlk, August 24.
For information call up Al-aska Lighterage A Com. C*>. or 1
U. S. Mercantile Co.
WMBiaiBIBgfBfagfBIBIglBItMBiBIgiiMPiBfiMiifiMiMBMi tfEfgfafgfBfafiMgfgfBRfgm
LADIES
Going Outside
SHOULD SEE OUR LINE OF
Toilet F^olls
Rubber Lined
Just received. They are almost, a necessity .travelling and
Certainly very Convenient.
HILLS PHARMACY
We Deliver The Geode.
nWBWBWBBBBBBBBBBBBBHBigWaail
“S. S. UMATILLA”
For Seattle Direct
SAILING FROM
NOME
OCTOBER 3
OCTOBER 23.
SAILING FROM
SEATTLE.
SEPTEMBER 20.
OCTOBER 12.
SCHEDULES SUBJECT TO OHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.
F. J. O’CONNOR,
Commercial Agent,
Front St. and Steadman Are.
ALASKA L. * O. OO.
AGENTS
At Dock.
■MBaanacWBBPBBWW uapcicinnnnnnnnnnnnruncuacir
ALASKA STEAMSHIP CO.
S. S. VICTORIA
LEAVE SEATTLE:
SEPTEMBER 29.
OCTOBER 15.
LEAVE NOME.
OCTOBER 10.
OCTOBER 29.
R. A. Carroll, Agent, Nome
iraaeftiajgfBjaawaafiyaaJBfBra
For
Mackinaw Coats
1AIGGERS SHIRTS, STETSON HATS, FLORESHEIM SHOES,
FLANNELL SHIRTS AND A GOOD SELECTION OF UNDER
WEAR. LATEST VICTOR RECORDS AT
Cheap John Store
Tel. Main 48. ONE PRICE TO AUL
raaaaaaBKKiafBiwaaaBra^
Kent Transfer Co.
General Transfer 6t Freighting
Qoal & QW
Phone Main 139.
MR. MINER
, I HAVE PURCHASED WHILE OUTSIDE THE BEST LINK
OF FURNISHINGS AND WINTER SUPPLIES TO BE HAD, AND
AM DETERMINED TO MAKE THIS STORE THE BEST PLACE
IN ALASKA TO TRADE.
PHIL MURPHY
MURPHY HAS THE HOOBS
GET THE NEWS RIGHT. READ Anything In the line of Job work
THE WOWKER. t Satisfaction assured.
JL A «J»_t- A -f
*2* *2* *2* *S* *S* *S*
MINERS
RESTAURANT
Opposite Industrial Worker.
FIRST CLASS MEALS.
Served in
FIRST CLASS STYLE.
Under New Management
OPEN ALL NIGHT.
Phone Main 153.
S. H. SIMEON
ill ill A A A A A A A A A A A A A
•4* + + + + + + + + 4,t + +•+<
TTTTTTTTTf’PTT
♦
U. 8. MAIL BOAT ^
“Silver Wave”%
*
Making scheduled tripe be. 4*
tween St. Michaels »«fl »n ^
way points, including Bluff, ^
Solomon, Nome, Teller, York, ^
♦
Tin City, Deering, Candle and ^
Kotzebue. ♦
+
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