The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1909-03-20
Employ High Handed Methods q
Defeat Strike Of Miners for
Fair Wages.
BA1TED OFFERS MADE
THROUGH PUBLIC PRESS
To Induce Unemployed to Go to
Alaska to Suffer Untold
Privations,

FAIRBANKS, Alaska, March IS
The mine owners usual high-hanled,
czar-llke methods are being used to-
defeat the 5000 gold miners who are.
striking in. the Tanama Valley, Alas
ka, for living wages, and owners,
courts and newspapers have Joined
their forces. to beat the men who are
fighting for chance to live as men
should live..
The Mine Owners and Operators
Association, James Wickersham, now
Alaska delegate to congress, and the s.
leading newspapers of Seattle, Ta-8
coma and San Francisco, are the great
weapons that have battled with the
striking miners. III &s...l. - - >5S
False Advertisements.
The newspapers Of Seattle, Tacoma
and San Francisco, subsidized through
their advertising columns, are printing
advertisements stating that there is
plenty of work in Tanama Valley for
those who will go there and get 1t.
They are Haunting in the faces of the
unsuspecting' unemployed Of these
cities, attractive offers OF IS per day
and board for ten hours work. .
E. Through the misrepresentation Of
these advertisements the operators ex-
pect to secure a sufficient number Of
strikebreakers to work their proper
ties and defeat union labor.
Truth Is Suppressed.
The truth of real conditions, the
publication of which in any paper
would make the most determined scab
think many times before he allowed
these glittering offers Of IS day and
board for ten hours work take him on
a fools journey to end in misery and
privation, has not yet appeared.
The situation robbed Of the many
dreadful details that enter into it may
be summed up as follows:
when it is considered that the ma
jority of the operators secure the
wherewithal to start work by giving
a mortgage on their un11pisted. dumps:
that they have. no capital and no
means OF recompensing their work
men unless these dumps come up TO
sexpec ectations;; then twill be plain that
the miners lot in here is not happy
one. " =. 80 f ~ 81: 81
For seven months in the year there
is no pay day, The miners must. wait s.
through the winter until the dump is
washed up in the spring, and the
amounts Of all mortgages paid.
The laborer, in the meantime, re-
ceives a time check. -
This time check Is a temptation to
those Of doubtful morals ODE dis
honest. It Is a written promise to pay
for work performed, at some future
date, generally In six months or so.
and the miner has no legal means Of
enforcing payment. z55z:#s
Gambling With Men and Mines.
The operator who issues these time
checks Is usually gambling with the
ground he is working; is heavily. in
debt for machinery, fittings, ETC., and
has to mortgage his dump to cover
his Indebtedness. g = .5rs-
If the dump does not come up to !.
expectations, these, time checks are.
therefore, absolutely worthless. This
SO often happens that time checks are
as rule non-negotiable. and If nego-
table at all are discounted at about
three quarters of their face value and
in some cases half.
When a laborer wishes to collect
wages due he cannot attach these
dumps as, according to United States
law, personal propert vi sexempt. The
business men, on the other hand, are
assured Of getting their money from
the mortgages. Many Of the working
men get nothing but food in return
for. their labor. :st,sss st,ssss: s5zs.s s.
A Quarter Million Unpaid.
An idea OF the injustice done the
poor man through this fearful state Of
things can be formed when it is stated
that the aggregate amount Of the time
checks dishonored last spring was well
over a quarter of million dollars.
James Wickershann, now q delegate
to congress from Alaska, is respon
sible for the inability If the working
miners to realize on the time checks.
While judge Of the Third District he
handed down a decision that a worker
has no redress in collecting his wages
and cannot file q lien against the
dump because the pay dirt immediate
ly becomes personal property when
hoisted to the surface. I. .=sss,8l
. Extortionate prices are charged for
food. y Sugar brings ,12h cents q
pound. potatoes 10 cents per pound
and other food stuffs In proportion.
The figures given here are much be-
low the maximum. ii ss. 53.
s AS a result OF these conditions and
the methods now being used to defeat B
the miners, hundreds OF them are sui
fering untold privations lii their oss-
derly, honorable fight for III stice. and 3