The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-02-27

less. However, the restitution is not
now as great as it was ina gined would
be the case, and this is because it has
been found possible for the different
camps to help one another
There is no such rate of wages as has
been stated. Indeed, when all the con-
dtions are considered, according to Mr.
Durham, labor is in many instances
better paid out of than in the Klondike
One story is told by the following state
ment:
Miners wages, IS to $40 per day.
Helpers, SIS per day.
Loggers, So per day.
Carpenters, $3.50 per day.
From these facts can be gathered the
existing rate of wages. Now, then,
contrast those figures with these:
Flour, $3.50 per hundred.
Beans, SO per pound
Bacon, SIPS per hundred.
Canned goods, 1000 per cent higher
than prices in the states.
Coffee and tea, $50 per pound.
Just q few of the figures. Almost
everything else is considered a luxury
and has no quotation whatever. so Mr..
Durham says, the price being the most
that man is willing to pay who has
plenty of money. Meat is very scarce,
indeed, and dog meat comparatively
unknown. This is not because of a
prejudice against the latter. but for the
reason that any kind of dog is worth
ued at less than $780, In truth it may
be said that in the mining camps the
life of a dog is really placed at a higher
valuation than that of human being.
When Mr.. Dunhams report. which is
now on it's way, reaches Washington,
it will be sent to congress at once but
owing TO the fact that the report is not
likely to reach the department before
March, after the Klondike emigration
has passed flood tide, Mr.. Durham has
4 - l.
portant facts here presented. In his |
latest letter to the commission of labor |
Mr. Durham says:
Il am making fair progress on my re- |
port and have reached a point where |
| can give an outline of its principal |
features l have completed an intro |
duction, giving a short sketch of the /
stampede as l saw it from the other |
side of the mountains; a chapter on the |
klondike, containing the first accurate /
account of the original discovery and /
the development of the mines, and I
what hope will prove an approximate \
ly correct statement of the output tan Z
exceedingly hard subject TO handle); a /
chapter on Dawson and 1t surround |
ings, giving full information relative /
to wages, cost of living, opportunities /
for employment, etc, and ending up /
with an account of the food famine and |
the exodus, and a chapter on naviga-
ton of the Yukon.
Il have we'll under way chapter on |
Circle City and the Birch Greek district |
and have all necessary data for one on |
mining laws and regulations. inciden-
tally touching on the only form of gov
eminent that has been known here |
previous to the present year-miners'
meetings. In addition 10 these / shall /
give considerable space to the trails |
and the best means of getting here. ex-
pense, etc: the best routes for rail-
roads, which we assume are bound to
come within a few years. although we
do not know what is going on outside:
the possibilities in agriculture, which
are considerable in the Yukon valley,
as wheat, oats and vegetab of many
kinds can be grown here successfully; /
the outlook from the commercial point
of view. etc.
"A thousand pages could be written
on the situation without exhausting
the subject or the reader: but l shall !
sto~ short of 400 typewriter pages. IL
is exceedingly difficult to get informa-
ton here, on account of the great dis
tances and the unsettled condition of
the public mind on the food question.
1t Is hard to work when one hears con-
stantly on every hand stories of star
walton and death from exposure. I con-