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Published Daily except Sunday
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
aearly as possible, is a worthy object of any good government.’’—
a ora nam Lincoln
Address all Communications to Dally Nome Industrial Worker,
Box 210 Nome, Alaska. Phone, Black 134.
'All changes In standing advertisements must reach 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, 1911, at the post office at
itome, > Atasaa, under the Act of March S, 187$.
Nome, Alaska, September 2:5, 1 !)!<!.
THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE.
They turned a surplus from the
Post Office Department into the
Treasury Department for the past
fiscal year. It was quite a handsome
surplus and led to an exchange or
compliments between the Secretary
of the Treasury and the Postmaster
General that, being given due publi
city, has also had, it is to be suppo
sed, a reasonable political effect.
Why the Post Office Department
should try to make money out of a
public service is not very clear, un
less for political purposes. It would
bo more reasonable to imagine that
the postal employees who are more
often than not, especially those who
do the actual work, over worked,
would receive an increase In pay or
have their working conditions gen
erally improved. Or failing that
which, we can understand, is the
last thing occurs to administrative
officials, we suppose it might not be
an unreasonable hope that the de
partment would use some of that
surplus towards affording those who
get no sort of a mail service, some
adequate service, and the balance
would thus he not wholly unavail
atilt* lit suuif jiuiiiuii vi
Why a defective postal or mail
service should swagger around about
the money it made, while at the
time the territory of Alaska is
getting no service at all worth the
name, is not entirely beside the
question.
The mail service is full of wond
erful mysteries that cannot at all
be explained by the operations of
the ordinary functions of human
intelligence. Not the least wonder
ful of these is the franking privilege
whereby members of both houses or
Congress carry on their political
campaigns through mails, free ana
without any cost for stamps to
them.
It is noticeable that if any labor
or other radical paper makes even
a technical mis-step the whole Post
al Department sits up and takes no
tice, often not hesitating to penalize
or to prosecute the radical press
which offends the senses of the offi
cials.
And, also, not content with this
zealous search for radical delin
quents, they are perpetually, con
stantly and officiously seeking new
means of increasing their arbitary
power.
But they never for one minute
turn an unsteady eye upon the great
abuse of the franking privilege.
That is all right; because it comes
from Congressmen and Congress can
make things very unpleasant if Con
gress so will, for the post office de
partment. As a result, we find
that many of the ‘“honorable gent
lemen” representing a variety ot
congresional districts make use ot
the franking privilege to reach the
voters, and to carry on their politi
cal campaigns at the government
expense.
In point of fact all this political
matter that is sent through the
mails is a decided abuse of the
franking privilege. It has nothing
to do with official business what
ever. It is directly the personal po
litical business of the sender who is
soliciting votes for his candidacy
by reason of the matter which he
distributes free throughout the
country.
Nor are the majority of such do
cuments records of the doings or
the sayings in Congress. They
never were for the most part uttered
In Congress, not a Congressman has
ever read them often enough, and
the utterances or more strictly the
alleged utterances are campaign
speeches, fraudulently made ijart ot
the record of Congressional actions,
and fraudulently sent through the
mails under the frank of the Con
gresmen as official business.
This sum amounts to millions an
nually, millions abstracted from the
government to forward the political
campaigns of the members of Con
gress and for which the people
pay.
These millions are utter waste or
public money. These millions could
be spent in giving better service or
paying those in the service w'lio
need it, better wages, but that Is
never thought of. Efficiency con
cerning the boss has no part in
these later day scientific systems.
It would be a daring postal official
who would attempt to enforce the
law against the abuse of the frank
ing privilege. And it is possible
that such an attempt might not be
successful.
Apart altogether from that, it Is
worth while considering the zeal
and the officiousness with which
other sections of the postal laws
are enforced.
The constitutional right of free
speech is suspended before the en
forcement of this bureaucratic con
trol of what a newspaper should
print. The official right of censor
which the postal department exer
cises, even though quite evidently
against that constitutional right, is
rigidly enforced. The just men who
are blind to the manner in which
the congressional officials abuse the
iramong privilege nave no trouble
observing the pettiest infraction of
their own arbitarv rules upon what
is and what is not fit to print.
But all that is politics. Some day
when socialist politicians get into
j Congress and begin rushing their li
terature through the mails, there
will, we suppose, come to life a
zealous official whose manifest duty
as he sees it to God and Country
is to stop such a manifest abuse of
the franking privilege, and steps
will be taken promptly and with ef
fect to prevent the socialist solons
from distributing their political mat
ter through the mails.
Until such time, therefore, we
may not unreasonably expect that
the game will still go on, still also
contributing not a little to the fame
and to successful re-election of the
grossest offenders.
INTERNATIONAL LAW.
Just at present there are a num
ber of legal high priests in the
United States who'are greatly con
cerning themselves about interna
national law. The spokesman for
this set of legal-doctrinaires is Elihu
Root who says that one of the main
questions to be disposed of after
this war will be whether interna
tional law is to be a mere code ot
etiquette or something much more
definite and binding upon the na
tions.
International law exposes at once
the weakness and the lack of hold
which law as an abstract concep
tion possesses, and is a somewhat
rude proof that justice is little more
than the interest of the stronger.
Oscar Wilde once said through one
of his characters in ‘“A Woman of
No Importance” that the only law
always enforced is the law of the
strong over the weak. There is a
desperate truth in that cynicism,
and it is shown quite positively in
all the ramifications of international
law. The only rights that are posi
tively and absolutely respected are
the rights of the strong, and it is a
peculiar thing that in order to force
the nations to abide by some inter
national code, it is proposed by the
legal archons that the greater na
tions ally themselves to enforce it.
How international law came into
being who shall say? That it is an
effort to carry out in practice be
tween nations national law can
hardly be doubted and for this rea
son almost all international law is
written in terms of the strongest na
tion whose hand in the writing of
such laws was not weak or hesitant.
Indeed thise is manifest: The in
ternational laws that have dominat
ed the Intercourse of the nations
on the high seas were such as might
be accepted without demur by Great
Britain whose naval supremacy
often questioned was never at any
time really assailed.
The desire therefore to criticize
the policies which developed among
nations navally not so strong is due
to the fact that such navally weak
en nations are compelled by the exi
gencies of the situation to establish
laws of their own and to endeavor
to re-write international law in such
a manner as it may accomodate it
self a little more fittingly to their
interests.
In this we see an almost perfect
analogy in the evolution of law in
the various nations. We see that
the legislation which was of su
preme importance in the feudal age
has been that which tended to main
tain the feudul lords in their posses
sions and the struggle of The
bourgeoisie to change those laws_ has
been the struggle of the weaker
against the dominant power to have
such laws as would more material
ly be adjusted to their interests.
With hardly an exception the le
gislative structure of any nation has
been the reflex of the economic
structure. It was a manifestation
of the interests of that class whose
interests were supreme in the na
tion. Hence reasonably enough be
tween nations, the laws that wrere
creditted to exist, always have been
such as the strongest nation could
with satisfaction observe as best
adjusted to its interests.
What the world faced when the
great European war broke out was
a number of laws tacitly accepted
by the nations as an international
code. They were supposed to re
present some sort of theory of ab
stract justice. They were founded
upon the interest of the strongest
maritime nation when affecting
shipping, and in the interest of the
strongest landed force when affect
ing land operations.
And thus, inevitably, we see aris
ing as the war pcoeeded, different
conceptions of this international
code from time to time, as one or
the other of the belligerents saw
fit to think that the code affected
them favorably or adversely, and
when the international code stood
in the way of their interests, they
did not hesitate to tear that code
into tatters.
We again note a striking analogy
in the national affairs. When any
ground law, constitution', or statu
tory enactment stands in the way ot
a great economic interest against
a weaker power it is simply torn to
tatters. The violation of the con
stitutional rights' of strikers by the
government powers in states which
constitute the official force a serving
force for the corporations is so no
torious that we need hardly mention
examples. But the cases in West
Virginia, in Colorado and in Michi
gan are so recent that we may not*
make any mistake about this.
So although the wise legal lights
whose fetish is the law are con
cerned very greatly about the inter
national obedience to an interna
tional code, we must nevertheless
insist that these laws will be valu
able only in so far as they tend to
react in favor of the stronger na
tions. When international law stands
in the way as of protecting the
weaker against the stronger nations
they will go by the board. They
will not be worth the paper where
on they are written. They will be
ignored or violated with impunity.
The best means of securing the non
violation of international law is to
be strong. Then the law will be
drawn up in favor the stronger, and
it will fall also to the lot of the
stronger nation to enforce that
drawn up in its own interest.
It is because of the wide diver
gence at sea between the interest of
Germany navaly not so powerful as
England navally supreme, we also
notice the fact that there is a ten
dency upon the part of Germany to
pay little attention to an interna
tional code of British ideation and
construction. But these views will
continue to be irreconcileable just
as are their interests.
• Stoves, Phonographs, Beds, etc.,
at Crooks, next Fire Department.
For Correctly
Fitting
EYE
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Go to
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OI*EI« DAY AND NIGHT
Next dour to Pacific Gold
Storage.
i
iStSiTftRfi*
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and
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w*a»«siaai«^^
iwsaawaaawwaa;
HEINZ
57 Varieties have arrived at
Mollers Grocery
211 FRONT STREET \ * PHONE, BIAIN 8a
Steamer Arctic
will sail for St. Michaels and all way points Including Solomon,
Bluff and Chinlk, August 24.
For Information call up Al-aska lighterage A Com. On. or
U. S. Mercantile Co.
LADIES
Going Outside
SHOULD SEE OUR LINE OF
Toilet F^olls
Rubber Lined
Just received. They are almost, a necessity .travelling and
Certainly very Convenient.
HILLS PHARMACY
We Deliver The Geode.
f
“$. S. UMATILLA”
For Seattle Direct
SAILING FROM
NOME
OCTOBER 3
OCTOBER 25.
SAILING FROM
SEATTLE.
SEPTEMBER 20.
OCTOBER 12.
SCHEDULES SUBJECT TO OHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.
P. J. O’CONNOR, ' ALASKA L. A O. CO.
Commercial Agent, AGENTS
Pront St. and Steadman Ave. At Dock. 9
ALASKA STEAMSHIP CO.
S. S. VICTORIA
LEAVE SEATTLE:
SEPTEMBER 29.
OCTOBER 15.
LEAVE NOME.
OCTOBER 10.
OCTOBER 29.
R. A. Carroll, Agent, Nome
For
Mackinaw Coats
LOGGERS SHIRTS, STETSON’ HATS, FLORESHEIM SHOES,
FLAXN’ELL SHIRTS AND A GOOD SELECTION OF UNDER
WEAR. LATEST VICTOR RECORDS AT
Cheap John Store
Tel. Main 48.
ONE PRICE TO ALT.
Kent Transfer Co.
Genera1 Transfer & Freighting
Qoal & qh
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 MAKE THIS STORE THE BEST PLACE
IN ALASKA TO TRADE.
PHIL MURPHY
MURPHY HAS THE HOOBS
GET THE NEWS RIGHT.
THE WORKER.
READ Anything in the line of job work
Satisfaction assured.
MINERS
RESTAURANT
Opposite Industrial Worker.
FIRST CLASS MEALS. ■
Served In
FIRST CLASS STYLE.
Under New Management
OPEN ALL NIGHT.
Phone Main 158.
S. H. SIMEON
♦ •H1 + + 414* 4"Hi 4* +
4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4'
*♦ + TTT ++ T + + + + +'■++
++++++++++++
U. 8. MAIL BOAT
“Silver Wave
ft
Making scheduled trips be
tween St. Michaels ‘and all
way points, Including Blag,
Solomon, Nome, Teller, York,
Tin City, Deerlng, Candle and
Kotzebue.
++++++++++++
*+ + + + + ++ *.+ * + + + •»*