saflsNJgtsITndugtrial Marker.Y
Published Daily except Sunday
By Xome Mine Workers' Union, No. 240. International Union of Mine,
Mill and Sm elter Workers.
&■« Tear ... ...
Six Months.
One Month . . .
Subscription Price
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Entered as second class matter March 1, 1111, a* the post office at
Home, • Alasna, under the Act of March I, 1871.
“To secure to each laborer the whole product of hl» labor, or as
nearly as possible, la a worthy object of any good government.”—;
Abraham Lincoln j
All changes In standing advertisements must reach this office at six
o'clock each evening to Insure Insertion It? the following Issue.
Advertising rates made know., on application.
Address, all Communications to bally Nome Industrial Worker,
Box £10 Nome. Alaekt Phone, Black 18s.
Nome. Alaska,
r*:in \ i \!\c.
'ili** j.owi-r to regulate tht* ;»r '>■ |
ia , .al and < oke, food an i fin ! cd' j
is vt-si*’<! in Mn- l*r- -u! -i.t i v tV j
Food Control Bill.
That is a somewhat venturesome i
experiment. Quite a number ot
authorities questioned its feasibility
and not a f* w ventured to predict
that it would lie a complete :iil
ure.
civcnomists themselves are doubt
ful if price fixing can be carried
out without affe tins production,
and tiie iiope is expressed that the
Food Contril unci other prI e regu
lator V s :■ h ;- prn " an il.
stimulate promt-. ’ton.
Ii js h ; i. corn-' tiy we b Here
Ilia: the high pri' • - which produr
ihg owners received tor thtir com
modities will stimulate production
It is not to la- questioned that tie'
producer will seek to nlake the
greatest protit and that the main it
not the only incentive in to id, iuel
or any otte r production is for tlu
purpose ot making money.
The farmer is not in his business
for his health. He does pufotm
a very useful function in the pro
duction of edible commodities; hut
that Is no direct c oncern of his. He
lloes not raise wheat because it is
wheat which will feed the world.
He dose not raise cattle, sheep,
hogs, chickens because the nation
wants meat. He does these tilings
because from their production lie
>,m mane a prom,
more profit,in raising tins that or
the other thing, the more of this
that or the other tiling he will
raise. If there is more money in
growing barley than in growing
wheat, although the world may
languish for the need of wheat, it
is to the farmer's interest to pro
duce barley and it is barley rath *r
than wheat which he will grow.
If potatoes are very high, the
farmer will sacrifice the production
of the things which the world may
far more urgently require, to the
raising of potatoes.
Usually of course the price paid
for an article lias represented ’hr
demand that did • vst tU r or. But
it ,s not impossible t. iniagm that
■an article because of some peculiat
i ir< umsti.ii “s in connection with
the market may he lower priced
although its need may be greater
than the higher priced artlc'e.
Such an example just now may bf
found in periods preceding the ar
rival on the markets of certain
grain crops when high prices arc
paid for immediate delivery while
low prices, and especially low prices
compared to other grains, on Intel
deliveries.
When price fixing begins the au
thority to fix prices simply by au
♦horized fiat prevents price being
any such thing as the mathematics
expression of the relation of tin
supply to the demand. But it doe;
far more. It is also by such da
sweeping away the actual value o
the commodity the price of whirl
is fixed by obliterating the produc
lion costs, the most important fuo
.tor in determining exchange
value.
Price fixing then to be scientific
cannot be confined to any one com
medity. It must embrace all com
modifies. And it should be guaget
by one standard only and that tie
production costs, the* actual labo
costs plus the cost of material 1;
the raw, of wear and tear of ma
«hinery. power waste and otlie
elements which enter into produc
lion costs.
High prices it cannot be *oo oftoi
insisted will not weigh heavil
upon the people provided that al
elements entering into the proces
of production art equal. That is t
say if in the world of com mod it
exchange, modern ontmcrce am
industry. Hie cost of the raw ma
til*; il. the' cost ol machinery 111
<-■>.-( o; labor i e. v.ac -s • I J t. th ■
cost a: povv r tin- management tx
1H i.ses , 11 rise in dun proporton in
all in-in; tri’-s
High prices linome an uncoil
trolled, and furthermore an uncon
trollable evil when the other factors
rise and tin labor costs, the wage,
paid do not The need of govern
mental control occurs when we ob
serve the most enormous profits,
which ownership makes in modern '
industry and at the same time oh-,
serve the graduallv diminishing I
putch.i>:in; power in terms of till
other i on.nudities of tin workers
wages.
lo-iun.hu to the attempt of the
gover a. ip to oiitrol tin- pri-e of
lt.nl. t; is cl--., r t hiit t !;e farm -r is
not . roti teii in his produelion ex
pense. but that an etfort is made
to to- it cut of tin farti^ r.
His nan bin try rises all tlie time.
Drobabh it hits quadruple! within
the past few years His hinder
twiin lias increased 25 per tent; his
gasoline lias gone up increasing tin1
cost of operating his tractors by a
still greater amount. Government
steps in and stays the price of
wheat. It is controlled but govern
ment has not ventured to control
the price of iron, steel, hemp, jute,
gasoline, machinery, tools, leather,
or other things essential to the pro
duction of food which it takes upon
itstIf to control.
This is so obvious a venture tiiat
it may lie doubted from the start.
| it is true tiiat in controlling the
! food and fuel, two of the most ele
mentary and necessitous items of
iabor cost, are controlled. But
clearly with other commodities un
affected, the position is so arhitarv
us to result in being unworkable
The trouble is tiiat schemes of
this kind arc hap hazard. They arc
taken at random. They have
neither the endorsement of capi
talist nor collectivist economics.
They are examples of what men
will do when they do not want to
do what might he mote effective
It is not likely tiiat the war will
last long enough to ptove the com
plete futility of this incomplete sy
stem ol price fixing by the gov
ernmetn. But it will develop sutli
i ient facts to show tiiat it is incom
plete end finally unworkable foi
that reason.
Hverw n ■ who lias lived in o new
•a:.ip where wealth production was
great and labor demand for years
is great, such a camp as was Daw
ion for example in the early days,
knows v.?ry well that prices will be
excessively high. But he will know
also that notwithstanding these
high prices, the worker is irrvsc-as
arable better off than in can-.;):
where wages are low.
The supply of labor not being
adequate to the demand, and The
r.ei -ssarlty of adjusting the wages
paid labor to the higher costs o!
living, are facts that are forced
upon employers and there is that
adjustin' lit
The industrial difficulties which
the I'nited States face are persist
ently laid to high prices. That
simply is stating the case upside
down. It is so stated for the de
finite purpose of concealing from
the Public which does not think
the actual cause of the present con
ditions.
When we read the Congressional
Record and enjoy the orations ( i
the soloes upon tin poor people
who have to pay high prt ■< s and
wlio for tit reason were t lamoi
ir.g for fond and fuel <• >r.iro: 1
l--v.er prici -'. wo or- ; 1! lni- b d. .V
! r a \c :-.a ,w to the oon'mi'V
*i.- ;hom.c-lves r.. t> ‘.lev •
in . . n.i. Bi t it o miiot h>- tot
• ti ;-1 ir-•'■ .111 y . rated that the tnuV.i
is not w i. hiah pri'-o.s. Net tin
least purti Tile trouble is now
and lias boon always that wage.
wore too low. Low wages and no:
high prices is the came of tHe pre
sent industrial difficulties and liigl
prices without a scientific effort to
tiring all commodities within the
reach of the purchasing power o’"
wages these difficulties will con
tinue despite all tin* efforts of Food
Controllers and Price Regulator?
throughout tlie nation.
However tlie economists as well
as the politicians lelight to state it
tlie other way. They dwell uicn
the robbery to which labor is sub
jected at the point ot consumption,
when in plain truth the robber/ is
not taking there at all but at tlm
point of production.
We have here -i lenghtv li-t ot
corporations and firms and agen
cies doing business in the I'tii'ed
States, with also the data con fern
lug tite profits made during the yeat
1916, and these will he as nothing
to what is made this year. Tht
list was made in connection vvitl
the effort to raise ievenue from
excess profits.
The profits are enormous. Tliej
are so enormous that their billionci
ciphers simply numb conception
Whence came that profit? From tin
purchasers? And where did the pur
chasers get the wealth to pay tha
price from? From the banks? Am
I the banks? From Heaven? Fron
tlu-ir safe? And lias gold tliei
■the power of reproducing itself?
None of these tilings. Tile pro
i tits came from unrequited labor
Labor produced articles over am
above the quantity of article:
whose value would equal the wage:
paid. Hie value of those article:
over and above that, is the profi
of the corporation, agency, busines
firm in the United States or any
where else under the system of ca
pitalist production.
Suppose for the moment that
j instead of dissipating these millions;
in profits to idle shareholders, the1
| money was returned to the work
j crs within those plants, on those
| railroads, in the various factories, j
the result would be that there |
would be money with all and to all;
to pay for every human necessity i
be tin- pri-es many ti nes higher I
- nan tlv' present
But then there would be no such!
lusc ious dividends. There would :
have been no such juicy melons!
quartered up by the owners and
shareholders. The Wall Street ac
tivities would die of inanition. The
matter of high prices only would
hate solved itself.
And that is where the shoe
pinches. That is why the econom
ists and publicity agents, the poli
ticians. the press dwell upon the
fact of the consumers being robbed.
The consumer suiters Iro n < x- j
actions all right. But he -at: -rs
from the m as a prodin r when ;.<■
is a wage worker.
High prices arc not nei••■ssariiy
!., .!. But they are bad when they ;
stain’, -s they now stand throughout;
tlin industrial world of the United!
States for low wages.
The lew wages paid today is the
root of the evil. If government
wanted to stimulate production, if
government wanted to reduce labor
troubles to a minimum, government
could do it tar more effectively
i than by price fixing. Government
could do it by insisting upon labor
getting more of its product which
i portion is nov- absorbed by the j
‘owners as their profits or their]
dividends. I
In this way the high prit-cs would i
automatically adjust themselves
while now they press heaviest upon
the poorest for the very existence
of a higher price for neeessary com
modities with tlie wages rising in
no similar proportion means entire
. !y that wages arc too low.
The economists say do not in
crease wages. If you do wages will
in turn increase prices. Nothing of
the kind. If prices are fixed then
in proportion to the wage scale
paid, and not for one but for all
commodities, the price fixing will
have a permanent value and a per
manent effect in reducing tlie labor
troubles now confronting the gov
ernment and the nation to a mi
nimum. The present food control
and price fixing is merely a stop
gap measure and useless for all in
| tents and purposes irtend i(l.
RELIABLE TAILOR SHOP.
Front St. * doors west of Alaska
Bank.
We do tke best
CLEANING
PRESSING
ALTERING A
REPAIRING
ladles and Gentlemens Clothes.
I****************
The Rose Candy Store And
Arctic Bakery
Agency for Augustine & Kyer Chocolates and Bonbons.
The Quality of our Home-Made Candies and Nome Dairy lee
Cream speaks for itself. Bread. I’astry and good I. line lies.
WOltKI.XGMK.VS I.IXCIIKS PIT I P.
SC X DAYS AX'D WEDNESDAYS 1BKSII WHIPPED CREAM
PCI'PS.
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LARGEST RUBBER COMPANY IN THE WORLD!
ALL
ffij&A
‘CLOVER LEAP BRAND”
kl
RUBBER BOOTS® PAC5
A ARE NOW MADE BY THE NEW VACUUM?
PATENT
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THOLl^ANn4? OF WEARERS AFTER EXPERIMENTING WITH W
I nUUDWINUJ a OTHER BRANDS HAVE COME BACK TO EUREKA S
nr - .., -i--I, T-- - — nf'-mBfir- -ht
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GIVE THEM A TRIAL NEXT TIME AND YOU'LL SOON LEARN
y ^ WHY THE OTHER FELLOW SWITCHED BACK-r
At ALL FIRST CL’ASS DEALERS
Jtfty OVER FIFTY-FIVE THOUSAND EMPLOYEES I
ALASKA STEAMSHIP GO.
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
| From Nome From Seattle I
T! r
Oct. 3rd Ss$,-V Oct. 15th. *
¥
LAST SAILING OCT. 25TH.
£
RIGHT RESERVED TO CHANGE THIS SCHEDULE.
PACIFIC STEAMSHIP CO.
5j ALASKA L. & C. CO.
AGENTS
» At Dock.
F. J. O’CONNOR,
Commercial Agent.
Front St. anil Steadman Ave.
**!#W**S**jR* A* * ***»**«**«*»
Charles L. Ross
Milling, Lumber, Contractor
HAVING TAKEN OVER THE FREIGHTING & TRANSFER
BUSINESS OK 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
Stills every SIX DAYS to
DIME AM) WAY POINTS
weather permitting
From Snake River.
CHAS WECKMAN.
INDEPENDENT
MEAT MARKET
W, H. Webb prop. Phone M.15
FOR SALE
ONE S HI*. Corliss Engine.
ONE li HI*. Fairbanks-Morse Engine.
Alaska Lighterage Comercial Co.
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IDE 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
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