ME mDUSIRML WORKER
TRI-WEEKLY
Published Tuesday. Thursday,
and Saturday.
By Nome Mine Workers’ Union, No. 240, International Union ot Mine,
Mill and Smelter Workers.
One Tear
Six Months
One Month
“To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as
nearly as possible is a worthy object of any good EOTorntncnt ”—Abra
ham Lincoln.
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Address all communications to Tn-Weekly Nome Industrial Worker,
aox 210, Nome, Alaska. rhone, Black 134.
All changes in advertisements must reach this office before 9 A. M.
«n day of publication to insure irisersion in same issue.
Advertising rates made knewn on application.
Entered as second cl^ss matter August 6, 1918, at the Post Office
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
NOME, ALASKA THl'KSIiAV, OCTOBER, SI, 1018.
.IM'IAENZA AM) OTHBK THINGS
•Some years ago this malady known
jis Spanish influenza appeared on the
Hacifis coast under the no less pleas
ing name of Russian influenza. We
dont know why it3 responsibility
should be cast upon Spain as its new
name would indicate, but in any event
the change in nomenclature does not
seem to have effected its virulence.
it has been suggested that the
name was changed for the same reas-|
on that Hamburger steak has become j
on the bill of fare are Liberty steak, or i
Hungarian Goulash, simple Goulash,
or German pot roast was re-baptized ;
into English pot roast. The fact is
that the susbtance remains the samej
•and we may say with the poet “What's
in a name?”
Many years ago when the medical
fraternity were handling this influ
enza they had one sovereign remedy.
This was called phlebotomy. Phle
botomy is a Greek word which means
bleeding and they bed judiciously
and often for influenza. Every or
thodox physician trusted in God and
bleeding when curing the sick, and
jf they didn’t get well, be sure he had
as many and as ingenious excuses as
his later day brethern for the failure
to make human repairs stick.
Today things have changed. This
is the day of dope and serums, Now
we have climbed the golden stairs of
germ worlds and behold all sorts of
noxious things thru microscopic glass
es. Hence we rush to the other ex
treme and because we find certain
germs always associated with certain
diseases we have it considered good
policy to destroy them.
But its merely a fashion. If in days
gone by any civilian were to utter a
word of distrust of the prevailing
fashion of bleeding he was regarded
as a hopeless reactionary, ignorant
and dangerous and very undesirable.
Today if a person ventures to ques
tion the efficacy of injections of
serums and toxins and anti-toxins, he
is regarded with a smile of pity be
cause of his obvious ignorance of
these things and of the formidable
learning which our physicians posses
on the recondite subject of bacteri
ology.
Judge Stevens, in the trial of a
lady rejoicing in the name of Mrs'
Maybrick who was charged at the
Liverpool Assize in England, with
poisoning her husband wth arsenic
that she might wed a younger and
more fascinating man than her mate
the cotton broker, had listened to
medical experts testifying, for and
against. On such a simple subject
,_as the therapeutical action of the
• a"us in the case, arsenic, these ex
prt's. the foremost living authorities
> on' the subject in Great Britain and
Ireland testified almost exactly op
posite one another.
So summing up to the jury Stevens
• declared that doctors appeared to him
to be men who poured drugs cf which
they knew little into human bodies
• of which they knew less. It is any
’'frontier that years after they incar
cerated Stevens in an insane aasvlum?
What puzzles the lay mind is how
rtn the name of Sam Hill they managed
to live in another era if they had no
such dope as they were able to inject
in these days of high browed medicine
-.and ■why our ancestors were as there
Its some warranty for believing, men
tof muscled strength and not so shal
low in their brain capacity at that.
Keally we may look back ti^ the
«Says of Athenian glory and observe
wv.lh some satisfaction that Plato
:siid the first ar.d last word on me
taphisics while there is statuarv
enough extant to show that they wen
no slouches when it came down t
muscular development.
Yea. but says the physician, those
were different times. Men had whole
some food, fresh air and ample exer
cise in those days and hence w
brought up under no such conditions
of civilized effeminacy as is now neces
sary. But why necessary? If indeed
these things are necessary to health
why in the world is it denied human
beings.
If humanity has physicially degrad
ed while becoming more civilized, is
it not just as reasonable to stand and
take stock as it is to accept at its face
value as declared by the physicians
ths aternative theoretic treatment of
toxins and serums?
Is there a iberal physician himself
that questions the certainity that in
years to come this treatment of in
jections will go the same route as did
the leaching and bleeding of another,
era.
How many physicians take a larger
view of the field of their profession |
and reason generally upon the cause
of the physical degeneracy which af
fects nations. They are individualists
in their profession and in their prac
tice and they deal with each as if
each were not the victim of the social
environment which must itself be re
formed before the physician's skill
will be of value.
In point of fact this age is in many
ways the narrowest that ever beset^
humanity. They provide the masses
with an environment dangerous to
mind and body and then turn it over
to the charlatanry of medicine and of
religion to palliate the results of an
evil practice.
They send the child to labor in the
mill and then pay the doctor to pro
vide it with a remedy for rickets or
for tuberculosis. They rear the
children of the very poor in the slums
and in contact with every form of
vice and then pay the churches to min
ister to them that they may not be
wholly bad.
The masses are sacrificed that the i
few may profit, and the doctor and
the preacher and the lawyer are brot
forward to protect the few against
the evil effects of such a sacrifice. One
superstition begets another and they
have the unwholesome habit of call
ing one in contradistinction to an
other; science.
A great French writer said that'
the proper study of mankind was man J
Not the individual man did Montes
quieu mean when he wrote his maxim.
But man in the general sence; his en
vironments, his social proclivities and
his needs and his hopes, fears and bids j
for happiness. The religious profes
sion begins in a garden of Eden and ■
ends in a New York slum, while the!
medical profession begins in the dis-j
secting room with a scalpel and ends;
in the undertaking parlor with an In
jection of formaldehyde.
Russian influenza was a malady
that caused a good many to shuffle
of this mortal coil. The doctors made
valiant efforts against it and when
the diseaase played itself out and
the evil germs themselves suffered
degeneracy, we became familiar with
them in the mild form of common or
garden grippe. Now it reappears in
adolescent strength once again and
although we have been burning in
cense before imaginary strides which
the doctors have made in the healing
art the infernal' disease seems to be
playing just as much havoc in the
camps as it did in the year 1762 when
the fleet of Admiral Kempenfeldt ap
peared off the Downs with every
other man prostrate or a corpse from
the fell disease. Progress? Well, we
suppose progress is a relative thing,
but surely we may be excused if we no|
longer pay our respects to the super-,
stitlon o fmedlcine merely because iti
now claims to be the very highest1
form of science.
Bring jonr forfeiture notice* Ui|
the Industrial Worker.
PAID advertisement
HON. CHAS. A. SULZER
(DEMOCRAT)
FOR DELEGATE TO CONGRESS
ELECTION, NOVEMBER, 5, 1918
FOR REPRESENTATIVE
JAMES J. BOGAN
(DEMOCRAT)
ELECTION NOVEMBER, 5tli 10X8.
FOR REPRESENTATIVE
ALMER (Slim) RYDEEN
• (DEMOCRAT) of .Candle.
ELECTION NOV. 5th, 1918.
For Re-election
JOHN A. WILSON
For Road Commissioner
Election, November 5, 1918
PAID ADVERTISEMENTS
FOR RE-ELECTION TO THE TERRITORIAL
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
JAMES P. DALY
(DEMOCRAT)
ELECTION NOVEMBER 5th, 1918.
FOR RE-ELECTION
A. A. -SCOTTY- ALLAN
(REPUBLICAN)
SCHOOLS—ROADS—8 HOUR DAY
—EQUITABLE FREIGHT RATES—
ELECTION, NOVEMBER 5, 1918.
FOB SENATOR
JAMES FRAWLEY
(.DEMOCRAT )
ELECTION, NOVEMBER 5, 1918.
FOB REPRESENTATIVE
E. B. -Duffy= O’CONNOR
INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE
FAVORS EIGHT HOUR LAW, INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM;
OPPOSES INDUSTRIAL MONOPOLY
ELECTION NOVEMBER 5, 1918.
FOR REPRESENEATIVE
RUSSELL J. DOWNING
(DEMOCRAT)
ELECTION, NOVEMBER, 5tli, 1918.
WASHINGTON STATE
FEDERATION OF LABOR
EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE
EVERETTE, WASH. Sept, 9th, 1916.
To Trade Unionists of Alaska,
Greeting.
Ordinarily we would not think of making any. sugges
tions to you concerning political candidacies in your Territory
but in the present situation w« 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
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 the 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. MMISH
President Washington State Federation of Labor.
CHAS, R. CASK
Chairman Legislative Committee, Seattle Central Labor Council.
J. G BROWN
President International Shingle Wearers’ Union of America.
WILLIAM SHORT
Sec.-Treas. Dist. No. It, United Mina Workers of America.