©atlg Nom? 3«&«atrtal Worker.
Published Daily except Sunday
Hr Nome Mine Workers’ Union, No. 940. Western Federation of Miners.
Subscription Price
Dae Year _ _ — —___——-Z. 180.00
Six Months_ _____ __- — $10.00
Oae Month . _ „ _ „ _ _ _. —..._... $18.00
Entered as second class matter March 1, 1811, at the post office at
Home, ■ Alassa, under the Act of March S, 1871.
“To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as
eearly ns possible, Is a worthy object of any good government."—
tnranam Lincoln
Address all Communications to Dally Nome Industrial Worker,
Bos 210 Nome, Alaska. Phone, Black 1S4.
THK SAUOO.MC KN.VYK
Hack in Geneva, they have cer- ■
tainly got a news correspondent ]
■with a fine sense of irony. Onl> j
such a sardonic knave could send j
owr the cable the quaint conceit
that the Kaiser is sending a Bible to
the Pope and a De Luxe edition of
American Authors to President
Wilson.
Fine irony indeed, and the aspect
that it is a case of carrying coals to
Newcastle in both instances may not
he without an Intensifying effect
upon this sarcastic humor. ,
It may well lie that literary grace
to Wilson is an art already master
ed; and it may lie, too. that Ilia
Holiness lias acquired a biblical
knowledge as profound as possible.
Yet because of the inefficiency ol
both mental acquirements in a
world where is not peace but the
sword, in a world where deeds not
words and practice not theory are
the living factors of accomplish
ment. there is something in that
news item almost too bitterly ironic
h! to tie overlooked.
CONSTIUTIVE LEGISLATION.
i
The intention upon the part of
the administration to force through
■what is called constructive legisla
tion will be received by the labor
followers of the President with mis
givings. Yet it is what might rea
sonably have been expected. It is
certainly Wilsonesque. There is
nothing astonishing about It at all.
President Wilson himself was, just
before his entry into active politics,
an active opponent of union labor.
He denounced it m nis speeches and
his writings. That was his affair.
His idea on this subject was one
that his environment naturally de
veloped and it is one that he enter
tained in common with many other
university heads.
At heart a strong believer in such
social or class distinctions as place
some in the “superior" grade, it is
natural that such college men should
regard the efforts of labor to force
itself upward as something in the
nature of a usurpation on the social
plane. His interests are the inter
ests of the employers and men ot
wealth who send their sons to Har
vard and to Yale and to Princeton
and who rejoice in a H*cared exist
ence of high respectability.
Politics forced him to adapt him
self to changed conditions. While
the labor vote is uncertain and is
divided and is not much to he re
li d upon, it is also certain that the
man who would in politics delibe
rately and daringly defy it would
also have an up-hill road to travel.
The line of least resistance has
to be chosen b> the politician who
would reap success for his effort
and that unquestionably has com
pelled many a person to such a
mild renunciation of viewpoint as
that it assumes a natural and not in
sincere adaptation to circumstances.
Wilson has been able to adapt
himself to the changing viewpoint
political circumstances required
with extreme ease. It is not neces
sary to dwell upon his closer connec
tion with Sp.m Comport; to prove
this, it is sufficient to point out that
within a short year or less he com
pletely effected a right-about-face
policy in regard to preparedness.
The Adamson law was pre-elec
tion legislation wdiatever else It was.
It was In a certain sense surely hu
miliating to one possessed of the
aristocratic and reerved as well as
dominating instincts which Wilson
shares. But the election is now over
Incense is no longer required by
King Demos and it is right that
they poke him back into his cave,
reft of an eye as the price like the
Cyclops, of a momentary political in
toxication.
The Wilson view of the natural
order of things in society will be far
more completely realized In a bill
enlarging the powers of the Inter
state Commerce Commission where
by strikes will be impossible before
that body has investgated the ques
I
I
I tion. It will tend to preserve indus
j trial order and to maintain things
■ as they are. It will prevent the
! sporadic revolts which have impair
j ed the efficiency of profit making,
and places in tlie hands of the em
ploying class a means of keeping in
subject subordination the workers
who balk at the tasks or conditions
of labor allotted them.
As far as having to play the poli
tician, Wilson’s day of humiliation
in this regard is past. Re-elected
to the highest office, he has no rea
| son to act in any other way than
as his social conscience and his own
opinions dictate. He need no longer
feel or affect to feel any obligation
to support the demands of labor
which he has said in the past were
almost impossible. These are days
when he can give new turns to the
policy of reassuring business as a
businessman, or as a professional
man or as an educator with a
businessman's interests at heart, and
a business man’s instincts.
It is <iuite safe to say that there
will be no reason to complain ot
any lack of firmness upon the part
of Wilson during the present ad
ministration in any sphere. He will
do as he sees fit. not with one hand
upon the public pulse and the other
upon his Princetonian principles.
Under such circumstances his policy
towards labor will be more consist
ent and more rational coming from
him. It will err in excess neither
in favor of labor, nor in ultra reac
tionary tendency. He Is a wise pre
sident who knows that the way of
reaction is as dangerous as the way
of ultra radicalism. It will be safe,
sane and conservative always look
ing towards the stability of industri
al things, compatible with such le
gislation as may secure also the
highest possible efficiency.
What people mean by construc
tive legislation is such that will let
things stand as they are even by the
addition of governmental or legis
lative props where such are requir
ed.
Wilson said that the industrial
maximum of efficiency is reached
when there in a minimum of indus
trial unrest. That does not mean
that he intends to see to it that the
cause of such unrest he removed.
No such thing! It means that the
unrest must be taken in hand and
quelred even though the exciting
causes be untouched. Such construc
tive legislation as this which will
prevent strikes, does not propose to
go to the roots of the matter by eli
minating strikes, but by preventing
them and making them a crime.
That has been the safe, sane and
conservatively constructive way
from time immemorial. The man
that places a bucket of water on the
floor to catch the rain that drips
through the roof is old as the cave
man. It is possible that the cave
man did not regard the placing ot
the respectable upn the floor as na
turally constructive. It is quite
possible that in his primitive Way
he would have repaired the roof and
made it rain proof. But we are living
in a more civilized and constructive
age. That is why such a policy
as the suppression of strikes is so
highly civilized and constructive. It
may have later on a worse result.
It almost certainly will. But suffici
ent for the day is the evil thereof,
is the keynote of constructive stand
pat ism. It is to be sounded until the
welkin rings by President Wilson.
CLASS ANTAGONISMS.
It had been repeatedly deplored
by Governor Hughes that there was
a painful effort being made by some
to create antagonism between the
classes when by right in this coun
try there were no classes and no
room for them.
But the economic fact remains
that Hughes never did a day’s work
at manual labor in his life and If
he had and continued to do it, he
would never have been a prominent
corporation lawyer, never Governor
of New York, and never republican
candidate for president.
This division into classes Is one j
that no matter of political or patri- j
otic idealism will overcome. It is
an economic condition that the sy
stem itself forces upon the nation.
There are and there will continue to
be employers and employees, there
are workers and leisured classes,
there are those who do no work and
draw dividends and there are those
who do all the work and draw hard
ly enough to live on. There is not
even a question about this.
Moreover, the matter of antagon
ism between the classes is also one
over which there is no such thing
as individual contrd it is as ine
vitable as the antagonism between
master and slave, lord and serf
under other economies. This may
or may not be considered a desirable
matter, but its existence as a fact is
one that cannot be questioned. There
is of course quite a determined ef
fort made to overcome this natural
antagonism by education. Efforts
are made to have the workers devel
op an idea that there is a commun
ity of, interest between employer and
employed. This state is held as cer
tain. But daily the economic facts
in the world of industry are disprov
ing it. It is held that the antagon
isms are the work of agitators and
the finger of denunciation is pointed
at this one or that who insists upon
its existence.
- But there is no industry where
conditions do not spontaneously and
inevitably develop this very antagon
ism and it might as well be recog
nized as areality.
The plain fact of the proposition
is this: The workers produce all
wealth, that is the workers by
brain or hand applying their labor
to the raw material, the machinery
or instruments of production create
more wealth than originally existed
when they began the process of pro- !
duction. That wealth is divided no1.
by the producers and certainly not
in any even ratio. It is divided not
by the producers and certainly not
in an even ratio. It. is divided
among the owning classes, so much
for rent, so much for interest and
so much for profit. There is also re
turned to labor in the form of wages
just enough to live comfortably or
poorly upon as the case may be
Now it is an obvious fact that the
class relation of employer who mav
control all the product and the eiu
| ployee who controls none of the pro
: duct of his labor begets the fact that
; the more that is given labor means
also the less that is annexable by
the employer. Fundamentally theii
interests are not identical, and that
in the very vital matter of the
means of existence.
To preach a harmonious relation
when the relation economically is
one of fundamental antagonism as
we have shown is merely trying to
cloak an ugly fact by fine words.
It is far better to face the facts
as they are. It is right that the
conditions of capitalist exploitation
should be known. First of all it is
a scientific fact and secondly being
; the truth, it enables us all to face
the facts, to consider them clearly
and without mistiness of conception
and doing so to remedy the evils
that arise from the conditions that
i surround us with intelligence and
J precision.
In this way we can face the al
ternative of a world where sup
; pression of the aims of one is to he
| regarded as the only possible solu
j tion of the class struggle, that or in
the abolition of an economic system
which carries a division into class,
realizing the co-operative common
wealth of industrial freedom where
are no classes.
GET THE NEWS RIGHT. UEAv
; THE WORKER.
■WSSSfi!
FOR VOI R
»
THANKSGIVING
MINCE ANI) PUMPKINO PIE ETC. Leave your orders now at
The Arctic Bakery I
THIS WEEK AUGUSTINE & KYER WEEK.
Fresh Snlted Almonds and Peanuts.
WIN THE BASKET
One Chance with every 25c. Purchase.
^iBKM^iecwAaiBgiaww
THE 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
PRICES AGAIN REDUCED ON
FORD AUTGMORILES
Chassis price is now $ 325.00
Runabout $ 345.00
Touring $ 360.00
F. 0. R. DETROIT
PUCE VCUC ORDER ROW
HA LIGHTERAGE 8 COM! CO.
Do You Like Nice Fresh Eggs?
Then Use Hollyhurst.
Remember we receive fr esli shipment of these eggs on each
boat, thus insuring their freshness.
D.E. CROWLEY
Kent Transfer Go.
General Transfer & Freighting
Goal &
Phone Main 139:
TRY
PHIL MURPHY
FOR LEATHER VESTS & COATS, THE LONG KIND OREGON
CITY MACKINAWS. HATS SHIRTS, PANTS, SHOES, UNDER
WEAR, SWEATERS, FUR CAPS, MITTS, WOOL GLOVES,
PARKAS AND ROBES.
MURPHY HAS THE ROODS
Since the opening of Navigation we have received 3270 pairs J
| of SHOES and RUBBER FOOT\VEAR. Every boat brings more. X
jj “There is a reason”. Our prices are right and our business has §
| been built by satisfactory service to our patrons. |
I P. A. PETERSON SHOE CO. \
+ v + + + + + + +
RELIABLE TAILOR SHOP.
Front St. 3 doors west of Alaska
Bank.
We do the best
CLEANINQ
PRESSING
ALTERING &
REPAIRING
Ladies end Gentlemens Clothes.
GET THE NEWS RIGHT. READ
THE WORKER.
§^s s^S
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
THANKSGIVING
Call at the INDEPENDENT MARKET and see the
display of fine Turkeys, Chicken, Geese, and Ducks
also Fresh Killed Veal and Pork
W. H. WEBB
TEL. MAIN 15