laily Norn? Sniuiatrial Worker.
Published Daily except Sunday
rny Nome 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 1S4.
-AH changes In standing advertisements must reyh 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, 1811, at the post office at
Nome, • AlasKa, under the Act of March I, 1878.
Nome, Alaska, August S, 1010.
THE RAILROAD STRIKE.
I -
The reason why the various rail
road companies view with so much
concern the prospects of a railroad
strike is because of the fact that
they know very well that the vari
ous employees in the brotherhoods
• are acting together, and thus mani
festing a solidarity In itself is a
manifestation of power.
Therefore the companies betray
an anxiety to have the questions
settled by arbitration because they
know that they have everything to
lose and very little to gain no mat
ter how a strike comes out.
Any person who studies out the
strikes and labor troubles that from
time to time are recorded knows
full well that when the employer ar
bitrates or wants to arbitrate, he
expects to lose. No matter how
strong a case may have the em
ployee, usually if the union is weak
and can be fought, the employer
very wisely decides that he has no
thing to arbitrate.
We know of no strikes wherein
reason prevailed, but which were
not settled because of the varying
strength of one side or another. It
is true that mediation has effected
a considerable- number of compro
mises, but that was due to the fact
that either one side or the other
was unfamiliar with, or incorrectly
understood its own or its antago
nist’s position.
Good people who think the rights
or the wrongs of one side or an
other enter into a settlement of the
various strikes have the wrong idea
wholly. It is for this reason when
times are so-called good and there
is great demand for labor, labor
then wins more frequently than
otherwise. Labor finds that the ca
pitalist betrays an unwonted will
ingness to arbitrate and to allow
mediation, and peaceful settlements
are boosted.
When there is an industrial de
pression and there are two men for
every job, quite the reverse is the
case and employers discover that
there is little to arbitrate.
The fact is that what settles the
antagonisms in the labor world be
tween labor and capital is not any
ethical sense upon the part of em
ployer or employed, although such
may really and very strongly'exist.
But it is the various factors in the
labor market and the relative posi
tions of one side or the other,
favorable or otherwise to victory.
Both Labor and Capital are always
directly antagonistic and by Capital
we mean the employers and not the
strict economic sense of the term.
Labor submits to the conditions in
sisted upon by Labor’s employer, not
because Labor believes those condi
tions right, but because there is no
help for it. And that position taken
by a well known antagonist of labor
organizations who refused to grant
a demanded increase because he
held that if he conceded this to La
bor today, tomorrow Labor would
demand still more and there would
be no end to such demands, was in
its esentials quite sound.
Those who talk glibly of a fair
day’s work for a fair day’s pay had
better consider the economic press
ure to which employers as well as
employees are subjected in the
matter of employment.
When rebuked for paying low
wages to his employees who were
girls, the manager of Montgomery
Ward admitted that the wages were
too low, but the firm’s competitors
were not paying more and in some
cases were paying less—that the ,
company would gladly pay more,
but they would go out of business
if they did for their rivals would
undersell them. And all emph- ers ,
are in that position. Thev have to ,
take advantage of the market condl- t
tions as to labor, for if they do not ,
the!r competitors most decidedly i
will, and with unorganized am j
ploytee the conditions are gcnera'ly
I
iuch that the scramble for jobs
impels them to work ror what they
’an get, not what they should get
to live decently.
Against this condition, then, the
workers can only offer this united
organization and without a labor or
ganization they are helpless in the
oxtreme.
The managers of the railroads
have two paramount duties to per
form and two only. One is to keep
the railroad skillfully operated ana
without any hitch in the moving of
traffic, and the other is to pay divid
ends. It is upon this that the com
pany will judge them. They are ex
pected to pay dividends in propor
tion to the amount of traffic hauled;
ind if a man can like the Great
Morthren railroad, pay higher di
vidends with less traffic, so much
the better is the management re
garded.
Hence we have such a condition
prevailing when the costs of opera
tion are reduced to an irreducible
minimum. Crews are denuded to
the very barest quota necessary to
move trains: overtime is insisted
upon so that the elimination o', ex
tra fall days thereby will become a
standing condition; consumption of
coal and oil and waste, of steel and
tic? and stationery, are reduced to
the finest limits of actual efficiency.
Labor in only used where 'abor can
not be dispensed with without ser
ious results, and wages accoriCngly
jro reduced to a standard bencAtli
which it is impossible to descend.
To do this railroads have experi
mented with all grades and quail
ties of labor, with ail nations and
races, and the day's work was stand
ardized on engine foot plate, in pull
man car, on the track and in the
shops, long before any expert
thought of such a thing as efficiency
or speeding up.
All that was not done for the
purpose of oppressing labor. All
that was done to pay dividends,
and it is not an irregular thing to
suppose no one regretted having to
reduce the wages or to increase the
length of the working day more
than the railroad officials them
selves. It is a wrongful notion that
such things are done to antagonize
labor, but it is a equally wrongful
to suppose that such things are
lone without antagonizing labor.
But they are done, anyway, in
order that dividends may be earned
md that is the be-all and end-all
of a railroad's existence.
Only flattering reformers who
talk of social utilities and have
public ownership bugs in their bon
tiet, suppose that the railroad func
tions for social service or for the
■ommunity welfare. Men dinn’t put
heir money in railroad bonds or
docks to help out the citizens ot
Kalamazoo or Wahkiakum. They
nvested their good money in order
to get it back a thousand fold. And
t is in relation to getting that
money back that the bondholder re
tards railroading and as nothing
?lse.
But this has to be pointed out
hat the railroad worker did not
my more adopt that kind of labor
or the sake earning dividends for
he employers. He labored to get
he means to live upon, and hence
t is the company as represented
oy the bond or stock holders and
he company as represented by the
vorkers has two distinct viewpoints.
\nd these two viewpoints cannot
•oalesce at any point. The mbre
vages are paid the less will be the
irofits. Any increase in the costs
>f operation must be followed by
i decrease in the net return avail
ible as interest or dividends and
here is no getting over this. Medl
itors and arbitrators may work
igainst this condition until they
ire tired, but they cannot mix the
>il and the water of these two div
irse positions into and sort of a per
uanent emulsion.
What is done, instead, is done
by either one side or another when
they find that their position is
weakening. They introduce a
third party and call it The Public.
Everyone has heard of The Public.
He is the man the side that Is
geting the worst of it appeals to
for sympathy. First labor does it
and then the employer does it. Just
now the railroad companies are
working overtime upon it. They say
that they will have to increase their
rates for the travelling or shipping
public and any increase in pay will
have to come out of the Public's
pocket.
Now The Public is an abstract
proposition and like a good many
abstract propositions, specifically ap
plied, is a myth. The Public itself
can be divided into two classes an
employing or an employed class and
with the both having the interests
of one or the other to which they
belong. Every worker is interested
in every other worker getting as
high wages as possible. It would
be impossible for the miners In
Nome to get ten dollars a day
without every employee in Nome
finding a benefit therefrom. And
so on down the line. The wealth
of an employing class depends not so
much upon the wages paid as upon
the amount produced by labor. It
is true that all the wages paid is
eventually spent In supporting labor
but that is only a fraction of the
product of labor, and wealth accu
mulation is possible because of la
bor producing so much more than
it takes to live upon, which is the
standard around which the pendul
um of wages oscillates.
Because there are many small
business men who live more by the
sufferance of the larger firms, and
who instinctively sympathize with
the workers, the latter have come
to believe that there may be such
a thing as an identity of interest
between employers and employed
and they do faithfully believe in
their having the same interest as
this mythical thing the public, em
ployer and employee alike, outside
the zone of immediate contention
in a definite industry as in this
railroad industry.
The employing classes, therefore,
are much interested in getting tlie
workers to think as they think.
Mi/o’s
I Cafe
O/GN DAY AND NIGHT
Next door to Pacific Cold
Storage.
Thus the raflroad bondholder tries
hard to inspire such a loyal view
within the brain of his employee
that the latter will conceive his
first duty to be to his employer and
not to his family or himself. All
the discipline of the job looks to
wards inculcating that which is the
master’s ideal; and education,
social discipline, and authoritarian
action of all kinds look towards the
upholding of that point of view.
That it is not always successful is
apparent, but it is much more suc
cessful than in a world which is
endowed with reason Is to be con
sidered possible must also be ad-,
mitted. The perversion of the work
ing class ego has become a fine art
and still continues. When it per
sists no longer then the antagon
isms of class appear as rocks show
up at low water. The actual naked
truths of the class struggle ob
scured by superstition and artifici
ally perverted views of one’s best
interests, stand visible for the un
pleasant thing it is and the effort
of exploitative might to maintain
itself as right, is seen in all its re
pulsive reality.
OVERSTOCKED
To the Public; —
We have just finished stock tak
ing, and find that we are heavily
overstocked so are making enorm
ous reductions in Hardware—as
much as 50% in certain lines. Not
withstanding immense advances out
side, especially in Hardware and
Metal Goods, we are still selling on
the basis of goods purchased tne
past two or three years.
We will sell for cash only at these
prices, and for a limited time, until
we bring our stock down to the re
quirements of the Camp.
If you have an order to be filled,
let us figure on it; we can save you
money. We have proved it oj
others, we can prove it to you.
DARLING & DEAN COMPANY.
WHEN IN TOWN
Drop Into the
MERCHANTS CAFE.
The Home of Good Eats.
*1 Si
ILOMEN BROS, i
Prescription Druglsts
BRGGS
and
Drug Sundries
ON STEAMER UMATILLA: CAULIFLOWER, GREEN PEA8,
CELERY, RHUBARB, GREEN ONIONS, CABBAGE, CHERRIES,
BANANAS, PEACHES, PLUMS, WATER MELONS, TOMATOES,
CUCUMBERS, HEAD LETTUCE.
Mollers Grocery
211 FRONT STREET PHONE, MAIN 86.
Steamer Arctic
will sail for Teller, Lost River, York, Tin City, Wales, Deer
ing, Keevallk and Kotzebue, MONDAY, JULY 17TH, 7:30 P. M
For information call up Al-aska Lighterage & Com. Co. or
U. S. Mercantile Co.
aaaaaaaaai
BUTTERICK
FASHIONS
A TREASURE-TROVE of SMART STYLES
Styles for Women,
MISSES, GIRLS, JUNIORS, CHILDREN, LITTLE BOYS. THE
COMPETE FASHION GUIDE TO AUTHORITATIVE
PARIS
NEW YORK
LONDON
BERLIN
and NOME at
HILLS PHARMACY
We Deliver The Goods.
RSisafncfia
“$. S. UMATILLA”
For Seattle Direct
SAILING FROM
NOME
AUG. 5TH.
AUG. 29TH.
SEPT. 23TH.
OCT. 25TH.
SAILING FROM
SEATTLE.
JULY 20TR.
AUG. 15TH.
SEPT. 11TH.
OCT. 7TH.
SCHEDULES SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICES.
F. J. O’CONNOR,
Commercial Agent,
Front St. and Steadman Ave.
ALASKA L ft C. CO.
AGENTS
At Dock.
ALASKA STEAMSHIP CO.
S. S. VICTORIA
LEAVE SEATTLE: LEAVE NOME.
AUGUST 4 -W i AUGUST 16.
AUGUST 23
SEPTEMBER 18
OCTOBER 15
AUGUST 31
SEPTEMBER 26
OCTOBER 29
R. A. Carroll, Agent, Nome
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I We have received on the
jj Umatilla a nice line of
|| SLICKER COATS before
II buying see
Cheap John Store
S ONE PRICE TO ALL. TELEPHONE MAIN 48. J
****************!«***** **«**«*« 1*^*****^!^** **!f»ae#aaa»
GET THE NEWS RIGHT. READ
THE WOK'KKK.
* MINERS i
| RESTAURANT*
*** Opposite Industrial Worker. ***
+ FIRST CLASS MEALS. *
4* Served In *1*
FIRST CLASS STYLE. *
•5* Under New Management *{*
4. OPEN ALL NIGHT. 4.
Phone Main 153. .g,
+ S. H. SIMEON*
Anything In the line of job work
Satisfaction assured.
**++++++*****
£ U. S. MAIL. BOAT
* “Silver Wave”*
* ♦
•ft Making scheduled trips be- 4>
^ tween St. Michaels and all
t *
,), way points, including Bluff,
**■ Solomon, Nome, Teller, York,
•J* ^
^ Tin City, Deerlng, Candle and .j,
+ Kotzebue. +
+ *
* + + + + + + + + + 4. +
♦ *+