SEWARD DAILY GATEWAY
OF SEWARD, ALASKA
Established, August 19, 1904
Published daily except Sunday by
Gateway Publishing Co,
Entered n me postoffice at Seward,
Alaska, as second-class mail matter.
SELBY & HOBEN, Proprietors
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DISASTROUS INDUSTRIAL
DISPUTES
The only misgivings entertained by
those who make it a business to
study the trend of business and in
dustry, as to the substantial pros
perity of this country during the next
three or lour years. lie in a fear
that the leaders of labor may drive
tor large wage increases that will
destroy the spirit of optimism and
development.
Generally speaking the American
wage is as high as it can be main
tained without increasing costs to
the point where the market will be
closed to foreign trade and where
people will refuse to buy and build
at home.
And when there are material in
creases in cost of production a wage
increase benefits nobody.
If a reasonable scale is maintained
there will be steady employment and
a stabilizing of costs so that trade
can be kept active.
If costs of production in this coun
try increase we will be unable to
compete with countries where cost of
production is kept low and where in
dustrial activity is certain to be
very great.
One illustration of the disastrous
effect that follows impractical wage
demands may be of interest.
Printers, under unwise leadership
attempted Jo establish a forty-four
hour week at no reduction in pay,
or with increase in pay. Hundreds
of printing establishments tefused
the short week. The men went on
strike and open shops were estab
lished. Four or five thousand men
became idle. Their fellow craftsmen
were assessed for the strike fund and
paid in about .$18,000,000. In only a
few casse did the employers yield.
Striking printers scattered through
out the country seeking employment.
Young men and young women were
taught the trade, and the result is,
for the first time in many years, the
country has now a surplus o" print
ers. Hundreds of shops are now
on the non-union basis and emnloy
ers say they will never again be un
der union cotrol. The strike was a
very great failure. The new presi
dent of the Typographical union, a
very capable leader, is trying to win
back the shops lost. He has a Luge
task lor the chief reason that inex
perienced workers have necome effi
cient printers. The olive branch
was offered too late to prevent dis
aster. The country will have to in
crease in business immediately be
fore the surplus workers can be ab
sorbed.
A case of interest is the strike of
printers and stereotypers on the Se
attle Post-Intelligencer. The chief
point of difference was not a question
of wages or hours of employment, but
it centered upon the question of re
production. The printers insisted
that the publisher must re-manufac
ture the weekly supplement of the
Sunday edition which the Post In
telligencer purchased in complete
form in another city. The supple
ment is produced by Union printers
in another Hearst plant. It is a
“fair” product. But the Seattle print
ers demanded that the Post-Intelli
gencer pay for re-setting the supple
ment, though the type would never
be used. The idea was to have men
work on a job that would never be
used, throwing away the type after
setting it exactly as it was set ori
finally by union printers. The cost
of yielding to this unfair demand
would be enormous, so the publisher
refused and went “open shop.”
Many men who had long been Post
Intelligencer employes deserted their
jobs and had to abandon their homes
and seek employment elsewhere.
There were plenty of printers ready
to take the strikers’ places. And it
is not an easy thing for an old print
er to go into another field and get
work.
That was a disastrous strike. It
almost spread to two other cities. The
infamous Union Record made matters
worse by inflaming the strikers and
inspiring them to make ugly assaults
upon their former employers.
What has been the experience of
American printers in the forty-four
hour week and Post-Intelligencer af
fairs is duplicated in other trades,
such as the miners, machinists, and
building tradesmen in some cities.
Demands that were not sufficiently
meritorious to gain public approba
tion led to “open shops” until tens of
of thousands of competent but misled
workers were turned adrift and^ un
ionism brought into disfavor with
both employers and the public.
Union labor needs nothing so bad
ly in times like these than level-head
ed leadership. The overbearing boss
is a distinct menace in times of in
dustrial dispute. But the arbitrary
“talk-to-’em-rough” labor leader is an
enemy of the unionist with greater
power for mischief than the most un
reasonable anti-union employer.
RAILROADS SENSE BUSINESS
REVIVAL
From all parts of the country come
reports of large increases in rolling
stock and improvement in terminal
facilities by practically all of the rail
ways.
The trained executives have gather
ed so much data of the commercial
and building activities of the United
States that they are sure of an early
awakening of business that will test
the capacity of the crrier lines even
with a vast increase of rolling stock.
They mean to at least keep abreast
of the times, if not somewhat in ad
vance thereof.
No better criterion of business de
velopment can bq, found than in the
volume of tonage carried by the rail
ways. When railways are active and
prosperous the country is prospering.
More depends upon a speedy handling
of freight than upon any other one
thing. Production may be heavy,
but unless products of the farm and
and field, the factory and mine, the
forest and mills, can be carried to
market quickly and at reasonable
cost there can be no profit in ptoduc
tion.
The industrial greatness of the Lr.
S. is attributed to the great railway
system and the excellent facilities
for water shipment by ocean, the
Great Lakes, the Gulf and the’larger
rivers and canals. No other country
has such a mileage as this, reaching
into the remote sections and forming
a wonderful network of transporta
tion lines in the poulous centers and
sections.
And, contrary to the wailing of the
demogogues, the railways are really
in the hands of the public. The
railways are regulated by law. They
are owned by tens of thousands of
citizens rather than by a few, as was
the case in years gone by. The
holder of a life insurance of fire in
surance policy is interested in the
success of railways, for the reserve
funds of the big insurance compan
ies are largely invested in transpor
tation stocks and bonds. If those
securities were rendered worthless
or were heavily depreciated, the val
ue of insurance would shrink mater
ially.
If railways were not permitted to
earn a fair profit they could not pay
interest upon their loans nor dividend
to their stockholders. And if inter
est payments and dividends could not
be taken care of it would be impos
sible to obtain capital for improve
ments and for replacements of worn
out equipment.
The railways are not enemies but
friends of the American people. The
railways have been treated as ene
mies because the word of the demo
gogue has been taken in preference
to the voice of common sense and
reason.
The Seward Club formerly owned
by Chris Larson was sold yesterday
to Mr. Anderson, the new proprietor
taking possession at once.
Gateway want-ads bring results.
MAINTAINING MORAL STANDARDS
A San Francisco girl ol' sixteen
youthful years shot her mother—and
showed no remorse. It is a differ
ent story from the common run of
homicides. Different from the occa
sional homicide whereby a child kills
one parent to avenge another. It is
tragic in a multiplicity of ways.
The normal human mind is stunned
tv the awfulness of it. A mother
who wants to keep her girl away
from ihe paths of white light and jazz.
—and worse. She rebukes her for her
persistence in breaking down the
old fashioned barriers. The g.'rl,
having stalled on the primrose path
of c ihiarco by “cutting” school and
disporting herself with the other girls
and boys at the beaches, linds it easy
to take the next step in the company
ol the “cabaret shieks,” which is ad
diction to the public dance halls.
Light feet, desire for a good time,
rebellion against the humdrum of do
mesticity in her own noine, growing
conviction that her moiiti s ways are
altogether out of date, gravitation in
to the younger set whose idea of a
joyous evening is to become more
empty-headed on current bootleg liq
uor—these are a fewT ol the things
that were incidental to an unusual
case.
The swift moving currents that go
downward, however, swept farther in
the instance than usual—farther than
mere defiance of parental authority
or huffy breaking of filial ties. The
16-year-old who thought her mother
hopelessly behind the times did not
satisfy herself with packing her suit
case and leaving home. Instead she
wrote a climax the most inconceivable
I in human relations.
All this, of course, would be worse
than useless if the public discussion
of it had no value. "How sharper
than a serpent’s tooth is to have a
thankless child,” mourned King Lear.
The sentiment, so graphically ex
pressed by Shakespeare has been
echoed by millions of persons. Pos
sibly King Lear was not wholly to
blame for the upbringing of his daugh
ters, nor for their temperaments, but
most parents have discovered that the
training of children while they are
children in the old fashioued virtues
of reverence and respect is a valuable
antidote for laek of appreciation af
terward. Somehow in spite of the
frequent defense of the modern ideas
of liberty and self-expression, it is
hard to escape the notion that the old
order, as we commonly understand
it, made finer contributions to char
acter. We are living in an age of
jazz and lawlessness. Restraint is
but commonly regarded something of
which we should be ashamed of, for
which we should apologize. The solid
virtues are too frequently callously
flouted. To a notorious degree, par.
tieularly in the larger cities, there
has been a breaking down in the
moral fibre of youth, the ruling gen
eration of tomorrow.
The cause? Possibly there is not
a cause but a combination of causes.
And who can say what they are? One
student of the tempore et mores says
it is booze—the failure to make the
sale of booze next to impossible, lack
of lawr enforcement, which breeds dis
respect for law. Another says it is
the law itself, which has created a
new smart set of youthful guzzlers of
bootleg whisky. A third blames the
war and its after-affects, upon the sta
bility of society. Scores of other
contributing causes are assigned, and
yet vre do not know; nobody knowrs;
because vre are in the throes of some
kind of psycho-analytical complex,
wdiich is a wordy concealment of the
real cause.
mere as no jeremiad. Alter all,
current affairs which reflect the weak
nesses of society are surface affairs,
and do not touch the great heart of
the American people. What we see,
in one sense is a disease, in another,
a symptom. But it serves a moral
lesson in placing an injunction upon
society to maintain the moral stand
ards which have made possible the
progress of civilizatio.
NO ONE
BARRED
Sign up with
Chamber of Commerce
Liberty Theatre
TONIGHT, ONE SHOW, 8:00 SHARP
Lewis Stone
And a Special Cast In
“THE DANGEROUS
Anchorage sent us word that this is
one of the finest pictures shown for a
long time—and we know it is.
A FINE STORY
And
SPLENDID ACTING
With it we will show an extra good
LEATHER PUSHER
BIG BOY BLUE
And besides all that, there will be a special
musical number — stringed instruments — If
you pass this program up you will lose a rare
night’s entertainment.
Why holler hard times? The min- j
ute one man tries to pinch down on
his expenses the habit spreads like a
stampede and directly Mr. Hard Times
is present sure enough. Times are no
harder for one person than another.
Everyone feels the pinch of what is
not really hard times but Christmas
extravagances. Business is very good
thank you.
One law which should, be introduced
at the coming legislature is the licens
ing of firearms brought into the ter
ritory by aliens. Every foreign resi
dent along the railroad has a gun. and
most of them kill game out of sea
son. The cannery crews to the west
ward are also flagrant violators of
the game laws. This could easily be
stopped by providing the payment of
a license and the registering of wea-!
pons with the local commissioner. !
If Alaska is ever to be for Alaskans j
the proposition, like charity, should '
start at home. Last term a non-resi-!
dent was appointed clerk of the Ter
ritorial legislature. This year the I
same thing may happen unless a pro
test is made. There must undoubtedly
be some Alaskan with sense enough
to transact business for eight sena
tors and thirty-two legislators.
The Gateway believes that the offi- i
cials we have at the present time are
good enough, and that is a plenty.
If any better judge than E. E. Ritchie
has ever held down the bench in the
Third Judicial Division, we want to
know it; and the same applies to H.
P. Sullivan, the present United States
Marshal. Why swap horses until the
end of the republican administration?
The Literacy bill will again bob up
at this session of the legislature, and
with the Woman’s Clubs and Ameri
can Legion Posts solidly behind it,
will probably be passed. But its pro
ponents must watch out that an emas
culated bill is not Substituted for the
genuine. No man, whether white or
other color, should be allowed to vote
unless he can read and write the En
glish language.
A neat banner broadcasting the
coming American Legion Dance ha>
been placed at the Tecklenberg cor
ner. Len Olson is the aritst. Mr.
Olson has also made up various pla
cards for the event which will grace
the windows of the city.
Tiie water wagdh might also be
called the banned ivagon.
Wild and erroneous reports we al
ways have with us..
The American Legion dance Febru
ary 21 promises to be a hummer.
George Nelson, the well known
guide of Skilak lake, is a Seward vis
itor. Mr. Nelson came up over the
ice on Kenai. He reports the temper
ature during the recent cold spell
around 35 or 40 below. Moose are be
ginning to travel and Mr. Nelson says
that feed is plentiful this winter.
SEWARD
MACHINE SHOP
Ford Authorized Sales and
Service
Firestone Tire Sales and
Service
Plumbing and Sheet Metal
Works
CHAS. LECHNER, Prop.
Yes! no autos
today!
But you auto see our shipment of fresh
Goods that auto satisfy the most auto
cratic appetite in Seward.
EAT YEAST FOPw HEALTH
The FLOWERS GROCERY
Telephone Main 65