TRI-WEEKLY
K 7* A A
Published Tuesday. Thursday,
* and i Saturday.
By Nome Mine Workers’ Union, No. 240, International Union •t Mine,
Mill and Smelter Workers.
Subscription Price
One Tear .. $20.00
Six Months . 10.00
One Month . 2-00
"To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as
nearly as possible Is a worthy object of any good government"—Abra
ham Lincoln.
Address all communications to Tri -Weekly Nome Industrial Worker.
Box 210, Nome, Alaska. Phone, Black 134.
All changes In advertisements must reach this office before 9 A. M.
•n day of publication to insure insersion in same issue.
Advertising rates made known on application.
Entered as second class matter August 6, 1918, at the Post Office
«t Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
NOME, ALASKA SATURDAY, OCTOBER, 26, 1018.
PAVING THE DEBT
When Bulgaria quit the war and
%av« an unconditional surrender to
the Entente, there was a panic on
the Berlin and Vienna Bourses. For
tunes vanished in a few hours and the
exchanges had to close early to pre
vents worse financial debacle.
The reason of this was of course
that the German financiers began to
see in this the beginning of the end
and that victory for them was no
longer to be hoped for.
But financiers are cold blooded peo
ple and the shock to their national
sentiment is not going to disturb
their stocks in any event. The reas
on for their panic therefore was that
they feared that it would be up to
Germany to pay the war debt. Not
necbbsarily in the form of indemnities
to the Allies, but their own enormous
indebtedness.
The German financial system is a
marvel of ingenuity. It is however
erected upon a single premise and
that is that Germany will win the
war. Upon this basis the most ex
traordinary financial policy has been
pursued and pursued let it be said
with complete success. -It has sup
plied the government with ample
money apd had hardly disturbed at
all the usual financial thimble rig
ging that affords financial sharks
everywhere an opportunity for get
ting rich thru speculation, speculation
that is usually as safe as playing a
black jack game with marked cards
«r faro with a cold deck.
American writers have likened the
German system to a man endeavoring
to lift himself with his own boot
■straps, merely because they over
looked the fact that Germany figured
■on the other nations paying the ul
timate war debt. The system was in
very short and inadequate review a
method whereby each succeeding loan
was an increase and supplied the
money for interest on preceeding
loans and as well the war expenses.
It requires some mental agility to
work out the plans for carrying this
■out without disturbing the financial
situation as did Germany, thru that
money trust known as the Imperial
German Bank and to which all others
pay tribute. But because it was felt
hat ultimately some day there would
come a time that the enemies of Ger
many would pay the debt, Germany
felt secure in this peculiar financial
policy.
To better understand the method
pursued the financial policy can be
compared to an ingenious mail order
■scheme of a gentleman in New York
whose activities some years ago
■caused him to disappear lest the post
al authorities run foul of him as they
did intend being armed with warrants
for that very purpose. This wily in
dividual advertised extensively in a
number of papers guaranteeing that
he would pay investors 26c on every
-dollar per month invested with him.
His plan was to pay the 25c on money
received say in May, by that which
he received in June. His plan was a
complete success, And money kept
pouring in upon him and he certainly
netted a handsome amount ere he
himself had to decamp to avoid a per
jnanent detention in some jail.
From his lair he himself pointed
rout in letters sent without an address
that the postal authorities by inter
rupting his plans were really respon
sible for the losses incurred by the
Investors; that money was coming
in in ever increasing quantises and
that he always had enough to pay
Investors, that there was really no erfd
to his financial scheme unless author
ities put an end to it. Possibly thei
■authorities, stern and serious men,
may have allowed themselves to smile
mver the fallacy in the allegations of
the mail order man, in any event he
remained away from them.
Now the German financers are in
somewhat similar predicament. Their
whole financial system during the
war has rested confidently upon the
belief that Germany would be victor
ious, and altho every year saw their
debts increasing in steady ratio, none
the less all would be satisfactorily
liquidated by the enemy.
When Bulgaria quit, the certainty
that Germany must liquidate her own
indebtedness became a self evident
fact, regardless of any other facts as
to the war and hence the extraordin
ary panic that prevailed.
There is not bullion much less
specie enough in Germany to pay
Germany’s debt. It will take years
and years to pay even this debt of the
costs of this great war. But. this
means that the taxes to pay this debt
must come from the Germans them
selves and it will represent an intol
erable burden upon labor, upon prof
its, upon interest and upon rents.
National debts are paid by the pro
ductive resources of the country. The
power of the government to annex
certain fractions of the product of
factory, mine or mill, industrial
plants of every kind, field and roads
and rivers, or in other words to annex
from the product of labor applied to
machinery and raw material, enables
the government to absorb sufficient to
pay off the national debt, and the
stability of that government and the
natural and industrial wealth of the
country are the guarantees of a
sound credit.
What will pay Germany’s debts,
therefore, is not an enemy nation,
placed at its mercy by reason 'if con
quest and victory. The tables are so
turned that Germany must pay the
dents herself is they are to be paid.
The billions that were paid under
the hypnosis of prospective victory
fend conquest will have to be redeem
ed from every ounce of muscled en
ergy in the country, from the loom,
from every retort, from every furnace,
from every smelter, from railroad
from every canal, from every field,
from every ship. The immensity of
the debt means the immensity of tax
ation and no one can see exactly
whence is to come the money to pay
it all.
It is true Germany Is a great in
dustrial country. It has very great
resources but the greatest of its re
sources have been squandered reck
lessly in bloody battles: human labor.
It is impossible to pay any debt
without labor activity. Gabor pro
duces the wealth which is in turn
used to such extent as government
may elect to use to pay taxes. Every
dead German is dead labor unit, that
would have been exceptionally valu
able in producing wealth needed to
pay the war debt.
Whichever way the nation that is
not able to conquer turns, there is
nothing but tragedy. And it is very
easy to see that there was good reas
on for that panic on the Berlin
bourse. If a nation insists upon its
people already staggering under an
intolerable load, in paying the war
debt for which they, the people have
no responsibility whatever, any more
than in the starting of the war, there
is likely to be a demand for an ac
counting and indeed it would be
natural enough if the German people
should deem it high time that a re
ceiver be appointed for the Kaiser’s
government and the War Lord him
self be relegated to the back ground
in some degree of permanence.
Labor may prove reluctant to cash
the bonds that a government over
which Labor has no control and for
the benefit of coupon clipping finan
ciers with whom labor has nothing
whatever in common, authorized)
Doubtless an instinctive feeling that
this is so, disturbs the German finan
ciers.
pai^Advkbtiskmknt
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'we fe m tf
CUNEWSSi
WASHlMOTON CXC
L tr
HON. CHAS. A. SULZER
(DEMOCRAT)
FOR DELEGATE TO CONGRESS
ELECTION, NOVEMBER, 6, 1818
FOR REPRESENTATIVE
JAMES J. BOGAN
(DEMOCRAT)
ELECTION NOVEMBER, 3th 1018.
FOR REPRESENTATIVE
ALMER (Slim) RYDEEN
(DEMOCRAT) of Cand'.e.
ELECTION NOV. 5th, 1018.
For Re-election
JOHN A. WILSON
| For Road Commissioner
Flection, November 5, 1918
PAID
.5T.
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:>*V
mfy !*'»■
*S w» •*,*»;
FOB RK-KUCnON TO THK TMUH^PQUl |
HOUSE OF KHPRHSHNTATITH8.
JAMES P. DALY
(DEMOCRAT)
<lu!
ELECTION NOVEMBER Stfc, 1918.
FOR RE-ELECTION
A. A. -SCOTTY- ALLAN
(REPUBLICAN)
SCHOOLS—ROADS—8 HOUR DAT
—EQUITABLE FREIGHT RATES_
ELECTION, NOVEMBER 5, 1918.
FOR SENATOR
JAMES FRAWLEY
(DEMOCRAT)
ELECTION, NOVEMBER 5, 1919.
FOR REPRESENTATIVE
E. B. -Duffy- O’CONNOR
INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE
FAVORS EIGHT HOUR LAW, INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM;
OPPOSES INDUSTRIAL MONOPOLY
ELECTION NOVEMBER 5, 1018.
FOR REPRESENEATITB
WASHINGTON STATE
"" FEDERATION OF LABOR
t - EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE
EVERETTE, WASH. Sept, 9th, 1918.
To Trade Unionists of Alaska,
Greeting.
Oruinarily we would not think of making any sugges
tions to you concerning political candidacies in your Territory
but in the present situation we feel justified in doing so. The
interests of labor in the entire northwestern group of states
and particularly Washington, is closely allied with the interest
of labor in Alaska. We have watched with growing concern
the efforts of large corporate aggregations to tighten their
hold upon the wealth of your country and have watched the
• splendid fight waged in Congress by your Delegate Mr Wick
1 ersham.
It is because we believe Mr Wickersham is fighting in
Congress against the exploitation of labor and the great nat
ural wealth of Alaska by powerful private interests, that we
are taking tho liebrty of urging our fellow unionists In Alaska
to rally to his support in his campaign for re-election.
Knowing that you will accept this communication in the
spirit in which it is written and assuring you the continued co
operation and good will of your fellow trade unionists, we beg
leave to remain,
Fraternally Yours,
E. P. M\RSH
President Washington State Federation of Labor.
CHAS, R. CASE
Chairman Legislative Committee, Seattle Central Labor Council.
J. G BROWN
President International Shingle Weavers’ Union of Amerioa.
WILLIAM SHORT
See.-Treas. Dist. Ne. It, United Mine Workers ef America.