WAUMWI
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*4y Nome Mine Workers’ Union. Mo. ■«(). Western fnirrMiuii »f Miner*.
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"To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as
•early as possible, la a worthy object of any rood government.”—
anranam Lincoln
Address all Communications to Dally Nome Industrial Worker,
Box 210 Nome, Alaska. Phone, Black 134
AH changes In standing advertisements must reach this office at six
• clock each evening to Insure Insertion In the following issue. '
Advertising rates made known on application.
Entered as second class matter March 1. 1911, al the post office at
Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 8, 1879.
Nome. Alaska., April (>, 1010.
The possibility that iho Senate
may smother th immigration bill j
.tould not occasion much grief.
Although this bill in framed up by |
1 ■cdora of ‘he American Federation1
of Labor it is not a. very sensibleI
policy. As far is its oeing equitable
at all, that is far from being the
c-se.
It is truo that the hi!! provides
for : literacy test, but it also very
positively takes away tho right of
asylum for political refugees in tht
Vnitad States, and when therefore a
man struggles for the very prin
ciples that animated the libertarians
of any time in hi:; land and seeks a
refuge in the United States nga'nst
tho rapacity of the powers of oppres
sion which he struggled against, he
finds the admission ho hr.e hoped in
this asylum denied him. Hut apr. t
from this, it is a useless:; polcy.
t Granted in brief that it in not very
difficult to realise that cheap labor
can easily ho introduced into Amer
ica and being introduced used as a
club to force down wages in this
country. That is self evident, but
it is also evident that the remedy
for this is not in shutting the door
on fellow workers of other national
ities, but in getting them organized,
as fellow workers with those who
are here to struggle, in the same
struggle for better conditions. Labor
men should have a larger than a
merely national view o£. the move
ment, and it's only a pettifogging
policy to close the door agaiust
alien workers in the nope that there
by those who are here will better
their condition in the absence of
competition.
It may he admitted that immi
gration. free and unrestricted ha
reduced wages in many lines of in
dustry. But none of this immigra
tion lias really been as effective iu
reducing wages or so accentuated
labor's struggle for improved stand
ards of living as the continual in
ventions and improvements in tic
mechanism of production. And ar
we to take the stand that because
this is so. labor must fight there
fore all mechanical improvements,
all labor saving devices and all
those things make for industrial ad
vancement and technical progress'.'
That used to be lie v.c. pul for
ward, but is so no longer. Men
realize that the real direction ot
advancement lies not in an opposition
to toelmical improvements and labor
saving devices in industry. They
know that they must accept this in
evitable tendency and make the best
of it.
Human*beings all the world over
are always and ever seeking where
they can get the highest possible re
muneration for their labor. They
are subjects of the human instinct
common to all existence, the instinct
to live. That’s the main driving
force in society and it is that driv
ing force which keeps up a perpe
tual flow of immigration to the
shores of America.
If men have faith in the labor
movement they ought at least to be
lieve that the labor movement cosld
take care of all increased immigra
tion and if it cannot, then in the
name of Heaven it is high time that
it began asking itself the question
why not.
If this or that organization fails
downs and fails to organize the
workers as they come into any in
dustry, there must be a reason, and
that is nearly always to be found in
the organization itself.
Wo know very well that immi
gration brings into this country
many who can neither read nor
write, who are possessed for the
greater part df an nnsublimcd ani
mal instinct to live as well as they
possibly can, whose notion of mat
ters of economics are hazy and un
certain and who know little else buv
how to work hard, to eat and sleep
—brothers to the ox.
That situation Is not impoved by
labor men throwing up their hands
in despair. That situation is not
to bo saved by labor men rushing
with legal doors to stem the now
that insists upon entering. That si
tuation is to be saved only by or
ganisation offering them the right
hand of fellowship as brothers in
toil and exploitation, with common
interests and common aims.
It’s wofully shortsighted too to
imagine that by closing the door to
these immigrant workers they are
thereby saving themselves from
coming into competition-therewith.
That's only an economic fallacy
The men in Europe or in Asia are
employed in International industries
fer international markets, in indus
tries which will meet the industries
of America in those morlsets and
with which American trade i3 to
be forced to compete.
If American trade is to -progress
in China, American trade will come
in direct competition with Chinese
labor. That’s inevitable and ail the
immigration restriction in the wrrld
will not prevent that condition. If
we turn to the articles In papers
and magazines and journals devoted
I to trades, we see significant re
marks about the increased competi
tion which American industry and
commerce will face after the war
because of the intensified exploita
tion to which European labor will
he subject. Does any reasonable
|person affect to believe -that with
I American industry seeking fresh
fields always and apreadnig out with
an imperialist ambition, that Am
erican labor will not b ? called upon
| to feel the effect of any such an in
tensified exploitation in Europe!
also.
We cannot dose our eyes in the
international nature of capital and
the natural tendency of exploitative
rates to find a level m all countries
so that profits will equalize. It is a
common experience that in any in
dustry in any country where the
profits are great, capital goes there
for investment from all lands and
(- jiiipetitlon becomes so keen in the
business that the profits ultimately
reach the level of other wlieres.
Now it is practically the same in
the labor world. Even right now
chile Americans have a high* i
standard of living ami get highest
wages, factors continually arise
which depreciate the actual advant
age to a considerable degree. One
factor is that during his period ol
l iber the Amtrlcan worker is speed
od up so that his output is greatei
than that of the European laborer
another factor is that the general
cost of necessities in Europe is less
than it is in the United States, so
that the actual advantage is much
less than it apparently is in favoi
of the American workers. And tha!
is reasonable enough.
Take another striking example
of this point of view. The Klondike
is discovered and wages aro extreme
ly high. > Men leave those occupa
tions in the states and subject them
selves to all kinds of hardships K
get the higher wages of the Dawson
camp. The result is that the labor
market finally adjusts itself and
wages declino although living con
ditions improve and prices decline
also.
Considering all things, the costs ol
living, the discomforts and the In
tensity of labor demanded or work
ers in the early days the advantage;
of the Dawson camp were not very
correctly represented by a compari
son between say the three dollar and
half a day of a Butte miner ana
the ten dollar day of the gold dig
ger on El Dorado. The rate ol
wages is always a relative standan*
The immigration bill errs In th«
fundamental principle that it Is di
rected against the exploited seeking
better conditions, and not agalnsi
the exploiters who oppose bettei
conditions,
It may be poor nationalism and
poorer patriotism but It is an eco
nomic fact that the coal digger ol
Wales, of Westphalia, of Belgium
and of France has industrially more
in common, with the coal digger ot
the I'nited States than has
the coal digger of the
United States with the company
that he works for. If the coal dig
gers in France. Belgium, Germany
or Wales can by organizing and co
operating between one another In
crease the rate of remuneration per
ton of coal, that is immediately re
flected In the labor conditions of Am- !
erica.
Workers may affect to despise J
the oriental and reject his ap- I
proaches towards organizing and fra
ternizing; but if they do they are !
merely showing an economic ignore
ance, the unpardonable sin in the
labor movement. The very highest
wages of the very highest skilled
laborer in the United States can
be traced back in close connection
and relation to the ultimate wages
that Jim Hill pays his Japanese sec
tion hand. And while the engineer
proud of his brotherhood may glance
as his engine passes along the right,
of way with some disdain at the
section hand, he may not know, but
it is none the less a fact, that h’P
wages depend for their standard
upon the standard paid those sec
tion hands- in evry ciose relation.
Moreover, the skilled machinist
who turns out Yankee tools to sup
ply foreign markets may not oe
aware that although he has sur
jceeded in keeping out Oriental tool
makers from the American shops,
his labor is in direct competition
with the machinist in Tokio, Canton
or Hongkong. There the laboring
“oolie paid machinest, patient but
sliilled is producing for a song what
it cost the American infinite effi
ciency, infinite speed and infinite
vital tension to produce, and his elh
ciency, his speed of work, his out
put, his vital energy must be all
the greater in proportion to the low
wages of coolie although the China
man never crossed the sea and the
' Jap never left Nippon—his exploita
tion is relatively intensified.
The value of the labor time of
; the American worker is wrapped
I up in his product, but its price is in
proportion to the price of the pro
duct of the Oriental laborer, and it
the two products meet in competi
tion in a European, a South Amer
ican or an Australian market, as
they do now and as they will do
more frequently from now on, the
j American’s labor comes into compe
: tition with the labor of the alien,
although they barred the doors to
( every immigrant.
! If an Asiatic plant produces goods
by machinery of greater capacity
than the American plant, the Am
erican plant must adopt that im
proved machinery or slip out of the
markets of the world. And If the ,
Asiatic plant can make use of labor j
fifty times as cheap although having j
a productive capacity 25 per cent i
les3, none the less the American
firm must reduce its wages that 25 J
per cent or close down as far as the
markets of the world arc concern
ed.
For all these clear reasons immi
gration restriction is foolish and is
merely at best a palliative. The
real thfng is to' get the workers ot
all lands closer together. The real
object is not to close out the Amer
ican labor field to all alien immi
grants, but to bring alien and Am
erican labor closer together because
their interest is in common. The
impossible is attempted when it Is
attempted to maintain the Amer
ican high standard of living while
leaving the aliens to stew in their
own grease. That is not possible.
The proper policy is to bring up
the Asiatic or the European, laborer
to the American standard, for
whether they toil in the Unite! 1
states or in their own country,
otherwise they will simply drag the
American workers to their wage
level.
Wage scales have in the past been
very high in one section of the
country and very low in others. Bui
the employers saw that this meant
that the higher scale sect’ons would
have to give way, and they reduced
it to the scale of the lowest paid, i
And that took place without any |
emigration from one state to an-1
other, but by closing down plants i
because “they didn't pay ana
| wouldn’t pay until there was a read
justment”.
In the lumber industry of Puget
Sound, brokers in the east repeat
edly communicated with employers
of the Sound telling them that they
would have to cut their wage scale
to that of the Middle West or the
South if they wanted to persist In
the industry. They did so. And it
was the worker in Michigan, Wis
consin or Minnesota whose labor
was paid for ,at a lower standard in
i Michigan, Wisconsin or Minnesota
' who reduced the wages on Puget
! Sound or Gray’s Harbor. It re
' uuired no labor leader with extra
1 vagant interstate emigration views
| to reveal the fact that the proper
1 policy was to have organized labor
so that the Middle west and the
south paid what was paid in the
west. And on a larger scale, the
only policy which the workers have
to consider is what is the best means
’ an international increase in prices
i paid labor just as long as the wages
! system exists. ,
Anything in the line of job work
I at the Industrial Worker Office.
Satisfaction assured.
I * ******** SSW'JUfiifi'nifiSS!
THE WOMAN WHO
CARES |
SHOULD SEE OUU WINDOW DISPLAY OK
MARVELOUS COLD CREAM
and all the other
STANDARD COLD CREAMS
To he had in the 1>est
MARKETS OK THE WORLD
the most complete line in Alaska at
HILLS PHARMACY
We Deliver The Goods.
ifHfilfiai'iaiwifiifiifiWifiifisasfi'fissifiKfi'fiwa;* *******!*******!f****i*****!«G
i'fiyW'fiaW'fWW’
iaaagBBBBBBiaaa
THE NOME INDUSTRIAL WORKER
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
faaaaaa
NO TICE
We have been appointed agents
for the
Dodge Automobile
The popular, fully=equipped,
pleasure car that satisfies all
ALASKA LIGHTERAGE A COM! GO.
FOR YOUR -
HATS, SHOES,
MEDDLICOTT AND COOPERS UNDERWEAR AND GREEN
HOOD SHIRTS
AT CHEAP JOHN’S STORE.
OUR PRICES ARE THE LOWEST IN TOWN.
Cheap John Store
*»« jawaam aaaaHaaBaaaai
Kent Transfer Oo.
General Transfer & Freighting
Coal & Ql±
Phohe Main 139.
For Summit and Greenhood
Shirts, Mid/icott and Stady Un=
derwear and Sox; the best ever
sold for the money.
MUBPHY m THE COOPS
I PHIL MURPHY
S AHTIC SPUING
WATER
Always at your Service.
Prompt delivery— Blizzard or
Shine at usual Kates 16
Buckets $1.00. 50c. a Barrel.
A. D. POTEET.
S Phone Red 120.
INDEPENDENT.
MEAT MARKET
Wholesale and Retail Dealer
in Beef, Pork, Mutton, Veal,
Ham, Bacon Poultry and Fish
Game in Season. All fresh
Stock. No old or damaged.
W. H. Webb prop. Phone M.15
A FEW SPECIALS
ON OUR BARGAIN COUNTER THIS WEEK.
QUAIL BRAND, BERRIE8, Gal. Cans, 65c. per can.
QUAIL BRAND PEACHES, Gal. Cans, 45c. per can.
QUAIL BRAND APRICOTS Gal. Cans, 45c. per can.
QUAIL BRAND, RHUBARB Gal. Cans, 40c*. per can.
SEA PORT PEACHES ..$4.00 per case. '
FORCE.8 Pkgs. (or $1.00.
SHEEDED WHEAT BISCUITS. 8 Pkgs. (or $1.00.
MOLLER’S GROCERY i
PHONE MAIN M 111 QtONI STREET
ARE YQU SEEKINQ. A PATENT?
If bo It will pay yon to Investigate
rates of the Industrial Worker on
publication of application therefor.
Brine year forfeiture notices to the
Industrial Worker.
lie* as
WE CAN DO IT.
For Or«t dam work and (MB pa
delivery ph >ne Mala 1M and Ik*
People's Steam Ianodiy KT t»M
and set roar laundry.
W. 9. WTlitilAMSON Pro*
OUT THE NEWS RIGHT. UU»
THE WOKKER.