Ist-Ug: quxt Zindugtrial Was-ker.
Jrublished Uaily except bunday
S?y Nome Mine Workers' Union, No. 210, International Union of Mine,
Mill and Sin elter Workers.
Subscription Price
fc*ne Tear _ —__ _ ___ ____ — _ ISO.06
Hi Months______ ___ — $10.00
On* Month __- — _____I 1.00
Entered as second class matter March 1, 1111, at the poet office at
Home, • Alassa, und'er the Act of March I, 1171.
All changes In standing advertisements must reach thla office at all
•'clock each evening to Insure Insertion In the follovAng Issue.
Advertising rates made knows on apptlcatloa.
"To secure to ench laborer the whole product of hla labor, or as
aearl; as possible, Is a worth; object of an; good govern meat"—
Abraham Llncola
Address ail Communications to Dali; Nome Industrial Worker,
Box 210 Nome, Alaska. Phone, Black 114.
Nome, Alaska, July 1!), ItilT.
THE LOGO KltS STItIKK
The greatest of tin- western in
dustries uuq ics*.ionably is the lum
ber industry. While machinery
has greatly increased the produc
tivity of that industry none the less
today as yes'* rday labor is the vi- j
tally productive factor.
Moreover machinery in the woods
‘ has not lightened the load of a j
single workingman". On tiie con
trary while fewer men may be need
ed with the elaborate mechanical
equipment now in use, those who
are employed have to work if any
thing more laboriously.
Only the strongest can endure
the labor in the woods for a long
time, and although people are ac
customed to regard it as "healthy’'
work it is simply because it exer
cises a natural selection of its own,
and only the lit will bo able to do
the work.
Probably the logger is as fine a
specimen of muscled humanity as
anywhere exists, but he is that be
cause of hit. inherited natural
strength and because he finds a field
for its application in the lumber in
dustry, not because the industry
creates such men.
On the contrary the hard work
Streaks down men in the woods. And
'alter a few years the lithe and the
supple and the active and the agile,
become the bent and the gnarled
and the mishapen.
The timber in the western world
5s a commodity always in demand.
But just because it has been easily
available, many men with small or
large capital engaged in it. Conse
quently competition, apparently,
was the life of that industry and in
competing firms engaged therein,
the market was subject to frequent
and disorderly upheavals when lum
ber and logs went up and down to
the great distress of the owners.
Over production has caused again
and again the price to fall so low
that only those with anything like
adequate capital could stand the
pressure and the rest either had to
shut down or to sell out—often to
go bankrupt.
tinder such ill-organized ondi
tions it was inevitable that condi
tions should force down wages,
especially as the men who were em
ployed were unorganized and cer
tainly the lumber industry has in
many respects been going from bad
to worse.
Moreover the fact that a long
period of hird times In the lumber
industry has forced to the wall a
large number of small firms and
left behind none but the very
strongest, has not affected the si
tuation as far as the wage workers
are concerned in the least. And
the leghcv left over from the days
of bitter competition and also from
overproduction in the industry and
over supply of labor remains with
it.
Camp conditions have gone from
had to v.-orse. The good, clean well
kept hunk house occasionally met
with in former days is a thing of
the pant. The table that was well
stocked by cooks who had to fur
nish them well to hold their posi
tion has long since disappeared,
economy in the camp kitchen has
been insisted upon and many adult
erants have usurped the place of
the wholesome and excellent fare
that was provided in earlier days.
Bugs and other vermin have in
fested the older camps, but the cost
of creating new ones is too much to
be thought of in these days of effi
ciency.
The situation for several years
lias been that there was a falling
demand for lumber. But there was
no falling supply of labor, lienee
those camps which persisted in ope
rating, because ot large capital and
extensive milling interests and abil
ity to take in -large lumber con
tracts. were able also to dictate lo
labor as to the conditions ui.der
which labor would work.
It would be impossible to imagine
any industry where labor condi
tions had for some time fallen so
low, end when criticism is n.eteii
out to the present labor struggle,
it should be remembered that pra:
tieally few of the lumber carps,
the mills, were fit to work or live
in.
The work was no lighter, hut the
food was much more inferior than
in years gone by; the hours were
no shorter hut I he pay was much
lower than had been the case ten
years ago. Anu while in other lines,
labor had made an effort of some
kind or another to keep up with the
rising prices, the lack of organiza
tion prevented the loggers interest
ing themselves in their own condi
tion. Many who had been out of
work! for so long were glad to be
at work at all and this helped to
keep them at v'ork, regardless of
the evil conditions under which they
labored.
I'sualiy labor is extremely mobile
in such an industry and its mobil
ity is not to be denied in this also.
Rut the supply was constantly
maintained by the various com
mercial bodies of the west which
kept up a constant flood of litera
ture shewing attractions, opportun
ities and fortunes which were to
he found out west.
In consequence of this home
steaders trains, settlers excursions
and lov'er rates prevailed, all tend
ing to flood the labor markets of
the coast and northwest with men,
most of whom were destitute and
willing to work at what they could
get. Healthy and hungry men usu
ally were found to he willing to
stand anything for a time, so that
they could get some money ahead
to do something. Some had timber
claims, some had bought stump
ranches, some had patches of gravel
land, and in the hope of some day
getting sufficient capital to work
these unkindly soils, the men toiled
for little or nothing and under con
ditions, often quite outrageous in
Hitt niruua .tuu caniunis, caiicLiauj
the sawmills.
While everyone likes to take a
slam at the I. W. W. they overlook
the magnificent work which that or
ganization is doing in the country
in promoting the courage of the
hopeless workers and imbuing them
with a faith that never dies in the
destiny of their class.
It was alone the I. W. W. that
entered the logging industry, so
long neglected and in the face of
almost insupeiable obstacles carried
on an agitaiion for better condi
tions. It reasoned with the men
logically and dearly that the reason
they were powerless and the reason
that they had to endure whatever
the boss had provided for them was
because they lacked unity and solid
arity. It was conclusively shown
that one man quitting and one man
agitating and one man rowing with
the employers, did no good at all.
That the only good would be ac
complished when all acted to
gether.
The loggers themselves were edu
cated on the job to realize the abso
lute truth of these contentions.
Often the owner of the camp, the
mill or the drive they never saw.
Generally his place was taken by
some professional driver who earn
ed his reputation as a woodsman
from some tough escapade in Mich
igan. Minnesota or somewhere back
east where he had trouble with men
in the tough joints that linked the
winter logging camps with the out
side civilization. Others were men
who had as cruisers been profes
sional jumpers and timber thieves,
without a particle of any morality
in their minds or bodies except
that they make money for the
boss.
It is utterly impossible for any
decent and fair minded person to
make a survey of the western log
ging camps without necoming im
pressed with the certainty that the
outlook was little short of hope
I less, that human beings were being
degraded to the very lowest depths
of animalism and that the employ
ers in all too many instances deli
berately catered to that end.
The men who were most in favor
were those who roystered their
money in a short and furious de
bauch and who broke and docile re
turned to their slave pens to be pat
ted on the back with the bosses axe
handle for the rAt of the season.
"A good spender and a hard
worker”, that was the qualification
mostly sought and it was reckoned,
and rightly that such a one would
be the last to struggle for better
conditions.
Into this miserable cesspool of in
dustrial tyranny went the members
of the I. W. W. full of the faith
that was in them, the faith that
saw in all fellow workers, fellow
human beings and considering
“none strangers to them” to para
phrase the great pagan. They
taught the class struggle, explained
in, demonstrated the facts of exp.cit
ation and bade their fellow work
ers hold up their beads and fight
for better conditions.
People say that that organization
is un-American It is hard to see
how any such a bravely defiant or
ganization can be considered un
American without a reflection upon
that man's Americanism. Surely it
is no light work to bring hope to
the hopeless, to bring strength of
will to those who lack all courage.
It is not evil to resist industrial
tyranny any more than it is evil
to resist monarchical tyranny, and
in the daring and tireless struggle'
of the members of this organization
against the villainies of organized
capital, the members deserve no
small praise.
The most striking and effective
work that they hgve done unques
tionably has been the organization
of the unskilled workers. They
have brought some degree of im
l provement to the conditions w'liere
I in before employers paid just as
i little as possible and provided such
an existence as was not compatible
with principles of common hutnav.
1 decency.
That is undeniable. Merely be
cause the vast majority of the peo
ple do not know the filthy, unsav
ory and unsanitary conditions pro
vided on public works, in the woods
and saw mills, have no conception
of the strenuous nature of the
work which has to be done, its ex
hausting laboriousness, its long
houred and fatiguing nature, they
are inclined to lightly regard the
work of organizing ’these men and
inducing so many to fight, for better
conditions.
The fact of the matter is that
the work of this organization in
this respect is beyond all praise.
That it is endeavoring to make this
world worth living in, that it is
making better conditions of living
for many n.en and women, that it is
bringing hope where despair sat
darkly, that it giving courage
where the discouraged sat hope
lessly brooding, that it is doing any
and all of these things are reasons
why its work however it may be
condemned, denounced derided, at
tacked, abusul. misrepresented, is
of a type more truly patriotic than
anything else in the country with
out a single exception.
i
GOVERNOR STRONG AND
MRS STRONG RETURNING
SKATTLE. July 18.—Governor
J. F. A. Strong and Mrs. Stroup
arrived here today on his way back
to Juneau. Governor Strong has
been in Washington for a consider
able time dealing with Alaskan
matters with the officials there
WANTED AT ONCE
FIVE HUNDRED MEN
Let us do your cleaning, press
ing and repairing. We’ll make your
clothes look like new. We do Dry
and gasoline cleaning for Ladies
and Gentlemen. We do steam clean
ing. We make alterations. We
guarantee first class workman ship.
Our prices are Reasonable.
Once a customer, yo'U always be
a customer. Drop in and see us,
and we’ll give you our prices before
we do your work. And we appre
ciate your patronage.
Suits made to ovler.
NOME TAILORING CO.
Next door to Segerstrom fc Hagen.
WATER
WESTENHAVER & BOGAN
Formerly A. I>. Poteet.
PHONE RED 124.
WATER
SwMGKieigMagBi^^
S. S. Standard
Sails every SIX DAYS to
DIME AND WAY POINTS
weather permitting
From Snake River.
CHAS WECK.MAN.
Why worry
About wash day
THAT’S OUR BUSINESS.
Satisfaction Guaranteed.
BOSTON
STEAM LAUNDRY
444 Front St. Phone Main 53
*
especially In connection with the
war and war time administration of
affairs in Alaska.
Governor Strong has denied the
report freely circulated throughout
Alaska that he offered any opposi
tion whatever to the re-appointment
of Jennings or any other territorial
official. He declined to talk either
about his own possible or any other
federal appointments in Alaska nor
would he discuss the Sulzer-Wick
ersliam contest now proceeding. It
was believed that Strong would re
main in Washington until these
hearings had been concluded.
RELIABLE TAILOR SHOP.
Front St. S doors west of Alaska
We do the best
CLEANING
PRESSING
ALTERING *
REPAIRING
Ladles and Gentlemens Clothes.
*1* *£■ v •!' 'b ‘I* ^
+
+ *
•fr v +
+
•f.
J D. E. Crowley *
+ *
+
+
+
j.
+
*
*
+
*
*
^ssjssjs^ssjsajsajs^s^ssjse|s^*sjs^e
INDEPENDENT
MEAT MARKET
W. H. Webb prop. Phone M.15
_
BOARD OF TRADE
Restaurant
and
LUNCH ROOM
George Modini,
Proprietor
ALASKA STEAMSHIP GO.
S. S. VICTORIA
LEAVE SEATTLE: LEAVE NOME:
Via Seward, Valdez and Cordova
AUG, 1. AUG. 13.
SEPTEMBER 2 SEPTEMBER 14.
SAILING SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.
R. A. Carroll, Agent, Nome
From Nome
August 4th.
From Seattle
July 21st.
AUGUST 18.
AUGUST 31. SEPTEMBER 15.
SEPTEMBER 28. OCTOBER 13.
OCTOBER 25.
RIGHT RESERVED TO CHANGE THIS SCHEDULE.
PACIFIC STEAMSHIP GO.
ALASKA L. & C. CO.
AGENTS
At Dork.
WHMWHWWHWI
F. J. O’CONNOR,
Commercial Agent.
Front St. and Steadman Ave.
Hi*i
Charles L. Ross
Milling, Lumber, Contractor
HAVING TAKKN OVER THE FREIGHTING & TRANSFER
BUSINESS OF W. STEIGERMAIER AND OF REO KENT,
FREIGHT ORDERS AND TRANSFER CONTRACTS WIRR RE
CEIVE PROMPT ATTENTION.
3RD AND B STREET. PHONE BRACK 162. .
The Rose Candy Store And
Arctic Bakery
Agency fur Augustine & Kyer Chocolates and Bonbons.
The Quality of our Home-Made Candies and Nome Dairy' Ire
Cream speaks for itself. Bread, Pastry aud good Ranches.
SUNDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS FRESH WHIPPED CREAM
PUFFS.
rrn-1—i-rrwrriTTTTimirrriMiimiiffiiiMi
CARGO INSURANCE. W'e can Insure uny and all freight in
and out of Nome to Kotzebue and way points, St. Michaels and
way points, Dime Creek and Marshal, Seattle aud San Francisco.
ALASKA LIGHTERAGE 6 COM’L CO.
AGENTS: Standard Marine Insurance Co.
. ■ i , -
8
ft
H3nnnr.»mnniriprvcic
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 j
THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER OFFICE |
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