Baily Nnmk Industrial Markt-In
Published Daily except Sunday
5TJy Nome Mine Workers’ I'nion, No. 210, International Union of Mine,
Mill and Sin elter Workers.
Subscription Price
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Entered as second class matter March 1, 1111, at the poat office at
(tome, • Alasxa, under the Act of March I, 1871.
“To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as
' Tly s !•' 'tde, la a worthy object of any good government.”—
Ai.raham Lincola
All chang - in standing advertisements must reach till* office at sii
o'clock each evening to Insure insertion in the following issue.
Advertising rates made knowe on application.
Address all Communications to Dally Nome Industrial Worker,
But 210 Nome, Alaska. Phone, Black IK.
Nome, Alaska, October 12, 1917.
THE I.ABOK SITUATION,
There 1s no actual shortage of
labor in any section generally
speaking of the United States in the
strict sense of the word. There
is a diminution in the number of
unemployed and the situation lias
in that way greatly improved. But
on tlie whole tlier is still a labor
surplus and no better index to this
iart could 1 <- shown than the nunt
her of strikes which are rot won.
i ;; which nr ■ adjusted coinpro
mi." d or end in defeat of the work .
< rs. Tie re does exist such a coti-i
fi it ion o:' tilings i:. the bib >r world!
that tin entjd.i.vi rs experience from 1
time to time what i tar them a real'
shortage.
In every industry there are cer-1
tain jobs which are filled only tem-!
porarily. Excess labor is used to
Jill them, and when the jobs are j
completed the men so working are
laid off. !n the railroad industry
for example, a company decides to
surface a division, to re-lav steel
along its length.
it nc'Hls for that purpose a sup
ply of labor which will be employed
from four to six months of the year
only. But evi n in industries where
there is nc such characteristically
temporary employment, in factories
in industrial plants generally, every
new and then throughout the in
dustrial year there arises a demand
te.r men to fili certain positions
which will last anywhere from a
week to several months
Now when the excess labor In the
market is hired by employers on
account of steady demands for that
labor, as at the present time, the
first jobs to feel the need of help
are such temporary jobs as we al
ludod to.
Moreover this condition is greatly
■accentuated by reason of the fact
that those who are idle are reluct
ant to engage in such temporary
jobs lest they lose the chance of
gotting a permanent employment
somewhere that they have their
mind set upon.
Employers when they face this
situation show a tendency- to make
general cry that th<v i hort
ago of labor when there is no such
thing, but when there is an inelUci
<ent distribution of labor.
Moreover these temporary jobs,
of which mention has been made,
are in the final analysis the really
important jobs as far as labor is
concerned.
The men who fill them experi
onc.e the most complete competi
tion among themselves. There are
more men, usually, to fill such jobs
than there arc any such jabs. And
lor this reason the wages paid
r.-ach t lie standard which en play
ers desiie to pay, which is in fact
and truth, the lowest possible for
which those men can be hired.
That is the minimum. And one
never establishes a minimum with
out there and then establishing a
relation between it and the max
imum. When lie minimum varies
the maximum also varies, when the
one increases or decreases sc does
;he other,
Tlie only men who gra-ped this
fact firmly were the economists,
usually the product of self study.
In the industrialist movement. And,
we want say, there are econo: ists
connected with that movement al
though they themselves would lie
the first to disclaim any sm h a
title, who can in their clear ana
lysis nt tie labor movement am
the labor situation, give the i allege
profei sors cards and spades in a
practical interpretation of the var
ious phenomena of tlie movement.
ii is not too much to nay that the
pay of the highest, dans of techni
cal labor will depend to a very
great degr ■ upon tie wages * paid
the unskilled temporary laborer. I
it may seem absurd to tlie highly I
qualified technician in any trade
to think that his wages have an>
relation whatever to the wages paid
the hop picker, the tie tamper, the
car knocker, the harvest hand,
the track layer. But none the less
that relation is there for all that
and they will be directly as the
wages paid the unskilled among
the unskilled.
Moreover it is utterly impossible
for any line of work is to p. ,; ;
their condition if they ignore this
always present fact. 1’ can-c (h ■
gradations between the most a:
ishetl t ■
mon labor' r ■ r • infinit in i anther
none the ] - t! . are on that \ ■ r\
account the more clor.cdy connected
This may seem a paradox I tit a
comparison may explain it.
Thus between the pure white
man and the Bantu kaffir who is
pitch back in color there is an in
finite abyss. Rut between the var
ious admixtures of race from pure
white to pitch black there a e so
many of infinitely slight variation
that we could place them side by
side from pure white to pit* it black
and no ethnological expert could
sav where the white ended and the
black began or whe’1" the black
ended amlt he white began.
Thus between tlie absolutely un
skilled and the most highly techni
cal worker there is an infinite
space, hut in between the two are
varieties of technical ability hat
an employer can with little loss
substitute the next highest for the
highest and so on with hardly any
trouble until the completely un
skilled one can be raised a notch or
two without industrial disturb
ance.
Between the next best and the
best the difference is very slight, as
slight and hardly noticeable as be
tween the lowest unskilled and the
next unskilled so that we can move
along the intervening rows of tech
nieal ability in its varying grades
without observing whete tech
nical ability actually begins to show
itself. —
This fact, seldom mentioned out
side radical papers, is one that is
made use of by employers not in
frequently and they have very little
trouble breaking in unskil'ed to
take tlie place of skilled men ?t a
pinch.
Furthermore industrial progress
lias greatly aided this. The nwchine
today is a more than complex me
chanism. but labor tending it has
for that very reason become just
the simpler. Thus while the mu
| chine has been becoming more and
| more complicated, ar.d more and
j more technical in it adjustm mt,
■ the machine tender, the la bo -er
has been reduced to his simplest
terms in that dexterity and experi
enced motion is now taking the
place of craftsmansh'p almost
wholly in industry.
The result is that employers who
have instinctively relied upon the
enormous masses of unskilled laher
as the cheet anchor of their em
ployment question finding this line
somewhat unevenly distributed,
liaise coipiiderable clamor about a
| labor shortage. *
But there is no stub thing. It
! there was any short .ge—if thcc
j .vote net m n enough to perform
jail the work of the nation, the r>
s n't would 1 e that tabor prices—
wages—would be limited only by
11'/' demands which iab r would
make.
When an outcry is pronounce'!
in tlie public press against the de
mands for high wages (or higher
wages than now paid > on the part
of the unskilled workers, it is a
graphic illustration of the truth
that employers realize that the un
skilled wage is the standard of all
wcge3 paid. Nor can we fail to
observe that while relatively small
objection is manifested tc the orga
nization of the highly skilled
their technical ability places a pre
mium on the wager, paid in an
event and compels the fact that
they are not so plentiful and th"ir
wages will he greater) the organ!
zation of the relatively unskilled
wil! occasion a nationwide concern.
Quite regardless of the methods [
may he made use of by such an or
eanization doing that work. w<
m: y expect that a class consicious
I employing i lass will use evert
means possible tc defeat sui h orga j
tii zation.
Especially during the past few!
years have employers directed ir,
press and polities a campaign
: gainst the organization of un
skilled. And the outcry reaches its
height when sawmill hands, lum
ber jacks and common agricultural
workers organized for more pay
This occasioned, such an agitation
among employers and their papers
that the government was roused to
very respectable efforts to elimi
nate such organization.
We must not forget that employ
ers and those agents connected with
the work of securing employees for
them, regard labor much as they
regard other factors in production:
as cash or credit or raw material is !
jregarded.
Thus at the Fourth Annual Meet
ing oi the American Association of
Employment offices, held in Buffa
lo quite an important paper was
read by Professor William M.
Lierserson. of Toledo University.
He suggested a federal labor re
! servo board “because the problems
j of the labor market were similar to
the problems of the money market"
and the labor problem was to ne
treated from that point of view
with the Government a Clearing
House for labor. But in all the
proceedings at that meeting we may
obserte that the fact was insisted
upon the labor employment was a
cold blooded business proposition,
capable of scientific adjustment to
economic laws and taking no stock
of the human or individual factor
beyond the relation of that factor
to the productive capacity cf the]
I worker.
The idea that this element in j
i sorb ty which constitutes at least i
: three fourths ol the population i. j
j is to be directed according to rule
and regulation measured, standard
ized and appraised is the new philo
sophy that before many years is
going to provide us with one of
the most spectacular catastrophes
in all human history. The idea
that labor can be neglected ab
solutely as far as its human, flesh
and blood, side is concerned has
been always responsible for cata
strophes.
NOTICE.
The Chamber of Commerce will
tender a farewell to Judge Tucker
on Monday evening next the 15th
inst. All citizens who wish to par
ticipate please notify the Secretary
before Saturday noon.
FRANK C. OMAN.
Secretary. j
LOCAL ITEMS.
The following notice was given
to the newspapi rs for publication.
It is self explanatory:
“Alaska tax payers in order to he
in a position to comply with the
new revenue act of October 3, nine
teen seventeen. AH stocks of al
coholic liquors, tobacco, snuff, ci
gars and cigarettes in the hands of
dealers should be inventored as ol
October 4. 1917. Penalty for fail
ure to comply with law is fine up
to thousand dollars or imprison
ment or both. Complete inventories I
must be made at once Blanks have
been mailed and should he executed
on receipt and forwarded to Col
lector David J. Williams, Tacoma,
Wash., parties not receiving blanks
should prepare inventories at once
and send blanks without delay.
Signed David J. Williams, Col
lector.'’
• . .
Mining outfits dredge supplies, j
granite ware, crockery ware, stoves, j
heaters and ranges at HOLTS.
GET THE NEWS RIGHT. REA'S j
THE WORKER.
* * •
Anything In the line of job work
Army Shoes
early last spring we
ACER AX ORDER WITH
ONK OF THK GOVERNMENT FONTRATOKS FOR ARMY
SHOES MADE AS l'ER GOVERNMENT SPECIFICATIONS ON
THE ‘•MUNSON” LAST. COME IN ANI) LOOK THEM OVER.
* YOU MAY SOON I5E FURNISHED WITH A FAIR l!Y “UNCLE
SAM" RUT WHY WAIT?
pTaTpeterson SHOE CO™
LARGEST RUBBER COMPANY IN THE WORLD!
ALL
a
“CLOVER LEAF BRAND’
RUBBER BOOTS 8 PACS
ARE NOW MADE BY THE NEW VACUUM f
■b- • .
PATENT /&&& PATENT
PRESSUREl filtli PRESSURE
PROCESS
PROCESS
-0i,
THOUSANDS OF WEARERS AFTER EXPERIMENTING WITH |
OTHER BRANDS HAVE COME BACK TO tUKLr\Ab
. ;■
GIVE THEM A TRIAL. NEXT TIME AND YOU'LL SOON LEARN
WHY THE OTHER TELLOW SWITCHED BACK
At ALL FIRST-CLASS DEALERS
OVER FIFTY-FIVE THOUSAND EMPLOYEES I »■• ••
ALASKA STEAMSHIP CO.
S. S. VICTORIA
LEAVE SEATTLE: LEAVE NOME:
Via Seward, Valdez and Cordova
Without Additional Charge.
Oct. 10th. Oct. 25th.
SAILING SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.
R. A. Carroll, Agent, Nome
T
w*w iw»«*s6aat«»»i»w«« *kw«w*stci«um
LAST SAILING OF SEASON
1917
From Nome
For Seattle Direct
S. S. UMATILLA
OCTOBER 25TH.
PACIFIC STEAMSHIP CO.
ALASKA L. & C. CO. F. J. O’COXXOR,
AGENTS Commercial Agent.
At Dock. Front St. and Steadman Ave.
W** fi***Ak*&***XmV**&l&tt*S!fX¥.*#W**X*!*tt^.*%*W»mKZ
Charles L. Ross
Milling, Lumber, Contractor
HAVING TAKEN OVER THE FREIGHTING & TRANSFER
BUSINESS OF W. STEIGEL MAIER AND OF LEO KENT,
FREIGHT ORDERS AND TRANSFER CONTRACTS WILL RE
CEIVE PROMPT ATTENTION,
3RD AND B STREET. PHONE BLACK 162.
S. S. Standard
Sails every SIX DAYS to
DIME AND WAY POINTS
weather permitting
1
From Snake River.
CHAS WECKMAX.
INDEPENDENT
MEAT MARKET
W. H. Webb prop. Phone M.1B
FOR SALE
ONE 8 III’. Corliss Engine.
ONE (> HI*. Kaii'banks-Morse Engine.
Alaska Lighterage Comercial Co.
! THE NOME INDUSTRIAL WORKER
is prepared to handle
all kinds of
Let us figure on your
work. Call up Black
334 or call at
THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER OFFICE