Baily Name Industrial Markt-H
Published Daily except Sunday
•f Nome Mine Workers’ Union, No. 940. Western rede ratios of Miners.
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Address all Communications to Dally Nome Industrial Worker,
Box 210 Nome, Alaska. Phone, Black 1S4.
Entered as second" class matter March 1, 1*11, at the post office at
Home,*Alassa, under the Act ol March I, 187*.
Nome, Alaska, October 5, 1910.
THE GENERAL EIGHT HOLM HAT
Advices from all over Alaska indi
cate that the sentiment lor the gen- j
eral eight hour day is strong. It]
Is believed that it will carry. It is
a referendum that should carry, ana
it will carry if the workers who are |
interested in its passage do theii
share. It is merely an expression
of opinion, but it is one that by all
reason and equity is mandatory upon
the legislature. It affects all classes
It enables those men who toil long
hours and these women who toil
many hours to vote whether or not
they w^iit that condition to continue
Of course they do not. And equally
of course they would welcome the
change. Reactionary legislators hop
ing to pass the onus of their failure
to pass this law to the people, by
enabling employers to vote against
it, insisted upon a referendum. It
is referred to the people and it is
up to the workers to pile up a ma
jority in*favor of this eight hour day
so that there can not be the slight
est hole through which the political
invertebrates can crawl, and that
they will pass a law in which the
most criminally negligent officials
can find no subterfuge to avoid en
forcing.
THE RAILROAD QUESTION.
We have often wondered whence
under Heaven some men got their
ideas in the matter of current
events and how it is that they
would give vent to them with such
•an air of oracular authority when,
in point of fact, every word and
every line is simply a syllabled revel
ation of extreme ignorance upon the
topics chosen. A most interesting
example of this has been the men
tal exudations of the new editor of
the Nugget upon the railroad ques
tion. He has built himself up an
imaginative world in the transpor
tation industry, with the brother
hoods the bold, bad villains and the
railroad chiefs the heroes of the
piece. Either he has allowed him
self no consideration of the facts at
issue, or he has with the happy
simplicity of the capitalist hireling,
cheerfully dissertated upon a matter
upon which he knew little when he
began, and in the unusual subjec
tion of his gray matter to a mental
process, became so involved before
the close that he was content with
an array of sentences and para
graphs remarkable only for general
ized incoherency. It is our function
to set him right.
So, in order that he may be more
clear on the question we will go
over what really are the elementary
facts in connection with the dispute
between the brotherhoods and the
railroad managers and presidents.
In the first place the general eco
nomic status of the railroad em
ployee has been slowly degenerat
ing. His pay has not increased in
proportion either to the work done
or to the higher costs of living.
The railroad companies claim that
the wages paid their employees in
the brotherhoods have increased
thirty per cent since 1890. Let ua
accept that figure. In the mean
time the railroad revenues increased
during the same period, per freight
train mile from $1.65 to $3.31 as
shown by the reports of the Inter
state Commerce Commission, an in
crease of 100 per cent. The cost
of an engineer’s service per 1000
ton-miles since 1890 have decreased
from 65 cents to 35 cents. Vice
President Tarks of the Illinois Cen
tral himself testified that “the en
gineer is now hauling nearly fout
hundred net' tons per locomotive as
compared with 200 tons ten years
ago an increase of 100 per cent”.
Turning to the higher costs of liv
ing the index figures of such author
ities as the Annalist, Bradstreet
Dunn's or any other authority lead
lag food staples alone within ths
past eighteen months increased 2i
per cent. A bulletin issued by th<
Department of Labor shows that
practically all food products aver
aged between 1907 and 1915 an in
crease of 28 per cent in seven years!
Yet in 26 yqars the wages had onlj
increased thirty per cent. Food
prices increased 48 ^ per cent with
in 26 years.
On the other hand compare the
different conditions which the rail
roads are facing. The tractive pow
er of a locomotive has increased 33
per cent, the capacity of freight
cars 30 per cent and the tons car
ried by the average freight train 47
per cent since 1900, as shown by
the I. C. C. reports. We suppose
we are justified in taking it for
granted that the new editor of the
Nugget is wholly ignorant of the
system whereby railroads pay their
trainmen. He will therefore be
wholly unaware that the “mile-day''
is the method. That will of course
be Greek to him. Iffie day is ten hours
and 100 miles must be covered
which is the standard known as the
100 mile day of-ten hours. They
are paid upon a mileage basis and
it is therefore all in favor of the
companies.
In point of fact the original de
mand was that they be given an
eight hour day of 100 miles and
that the speed of the trains be in
creased so that the 100 mile be cov
ered in the eight hours. The rail
road trainmen insisted during the
dispute that in 95 cases out of a
hundred the run of a 100 miles
could be made inside the eight
hours, and in many cases it is made
therewithal right now.
Ten hours for 100 miles is an
average of ten miles an hour. The
trainmen thus asked in effect that
they be put over the road in 12^
miles an hour instead of ten as at
present. In doing so they would re
lieve congestion. They would de
crease delays to freight, and they
; would increase the efficiency of &
public service.
Because the companies do not pay
by the ton-mile, but pay per ter
hour dav-mile the trainmen receive
no benefit from the increased traffii
which, as revealed in the net earn
ings from October 1915 to July
191G, ranged from 40 to 70 per een
above the net earnings for a corres
ponding period the year before.
Railroad efficiency upon the par
of the management has tounuea it
self upon the old maxim of mechan
ics that what is gained in speed i
lost in power and vice versa. Henc<
when they installed enormous capa
citied engines, built huge pressei
steel cars capable of carrying 100,00
lbs. each, they also were obliged t
curtail the time mileage schedule
And over-loading has become sucl
a common practice even with grea
articulated compounds that not
cough across ninety pound steel, de
lays are increasing steadily and las
year the railroads voluntarily re
ported no less than 100,000 cases o
infraction of the sixteen hour law
Yearly the railroads in th
United States experience a car short
age and a car excess. And the re
markable matter in this is that th
car excess is often reported whe
traffic is at its height owing to th
delay or refusal to run trains belot
or approximately close to their mat
imum capacity!
Everything here stated is withi
reach of the Nugget man if h
would devote the time and study t
actual conditions. But if intellectc
ally or constitutionally incapable c
ascertaining them, we submit thei
for his information, so that whe
delivering his next tirade agains
labor unionism he can no longer b
ridiculed for an utter lack of know
I ledge of the subject which he hanc
les.
The mythical concept of an it
jured public is one of which he i
not alone in making use, and he i
is not singular in his-firm devotio
to its existence. But the industris
scheme of things makes us all eithe
producers of wealth and its distr
butors, or its consumers an
wasters. .,
The entire system of stockholdin
in industry and the idea of salarie
directors is as unessential and cun
bersome and unjustifiable as a royt
family in the political world. Th
brains of management can justif
its salary; the intelligence in open
tion and the labor that is directe
by such human intelligence all at
factors in wealth production. Pr
vate ownership of utilites has n
economic justification whatevei
The people pay the bill. The me
who function usefully then in th
transportation ~ industry alone can
with justification claim a payment
for the service, and if there is any
retrenchment to be done, it must be
done with the totally unnecessary
private ownership whose function Is
not even as important as the drone
in the hive.
Only an elaborate system of per
verted ideas through the teachings
of convention, of accepted habit,
custom, a serving press, a suborned
pulpit, still keep us tolerating any
su.ch thing as private ownership of
needed utilities.
Yet we are far from crediting that
the labor question has been settled
by the passage of the eight hour
day. We know different. Even it
the roads did not litigate the broth
erhoods into submission, there ,
would still be the struggle between 9
labor and capital forced through the I
economic exigencies of the situation, g
The efforts of labor organizations
to obtain positions of controlling
power in the industries is one that
will not end, for it may not end un
til the workers by increasing solid
arity drive those who produce no
thing to live ofT themselves and it
is mighty lean picking they will
have of it.
In the meantime we have some
doubts whether we are justified in
taking the Nugget editor to task for j
his ingenuous assumptions. Ignor- j
ance cannot always be taken too i
seriously.
Political Cards.
I’OK DELEGATE TO CONGRESS | I
FROM ALASKA
Chas E. Sulzer
Election, November 7, 1910.
FOR DELEGATE TO CONGRESS 1
FROM ALASKA
Lena Morrow
Lewis
Socialist Party Candidate.
Election, November 7, 1910.
FOR ATTORENY GENERAL
TERRITORIAL OF ALASKA.
George B. Grigsby
Election, November 7, 1910.
FOR SENATOR:
Thos. M’Gann
For Re-Election.
Election, November 7, 1910.
FOR REPRESENTATIVE:
Victor A. Julien
Election, November 7, 1910.
FOR REPRESENTATIVE:
Charles D. Jones
Independent Candidate.
Election, November 7, 1910.
FOR REPRESENTATIVE:
T. M. Reed
Election, November 7, 1910,
'OR REPRESENTATIVE:
Phil. Corrigan
I
Election, November 7, 1910.
'OR REPRESENTATIVE:
Mike Young ,
Election, November 7, 1910.
OR REPRESENTATIVE:
A. A. Allan
(SCOTTY)
Election, November 7, 1910.
b’OR REPRESENTATIVE:
James P. Daly
For Territorial Roads. No Poll Tax
Enforcement of Territorial Laws.
Election, November 7, 1910.
EOR TERRITORIAL
ROAIX’OMMISSIOXER
John A. Wilson
Election, November 7, 1910.
FOR TERRITORIAL
RO A DCOMMISSION ER
Barney Gibney
Election, November 7, 1910.
RELIABLE TAILOR SHOP.
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ALASKA L. & C. CO.
AGENTS
At Dock.
ALASKA STEAMSHIP CO,
S. S. VICTORIA
LEAVE SEATTLE:
OCTOBER 20.
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OCTOBER 10.
OCTOBER 30.
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WMeBiaiawagBEEKmBiiMBEiaEweiai^iKfaifiaBiafiiK^^
Attention
WE ARE RECEIVING ON EVERY STEAMER ONE OF THE
BEST STOCK OF GENERAL MERCHANDISE, SELECTED DUR
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AND FOR A SQUARE DEAL CALL AT CHEAP JOHN’S STORE.
TEL. MAIN 48.
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Cheap John Store
i *>*.****** i
Kent Transfer Oo.
General Transfer & Freighting
fjoal & Qtf
Phone Main 139.
MR. MINER
I HAVE PURCHASED WHILE OUTSIDE THE BEST LINE
OF FURNISHINGS AND WINTER SUPPLIES TO BE HAD, AND
AM DETERMINED TO MARE THIS STORE THE BEST PLACE
IN ALASKA TO TRADE.
PHIL MURPHY
MURPHY HAS THE GOODS
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GET THE NEWS RIGHT. READ Anything in the line of Job work
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