The Alaska citizen., 1915-07-19
Phone 262 Phone
BLAME FOR THE STRIKE.

The strike that caused most of the placer mines to quit operating a few days ago would have been avoided it seems, had the miners been able to understand that the law was not directed against them, but against the operators The trouble was that the miners who wen: on strike were mostly men who are not able to talk English fluently, atnd therefore il was hard to get them to understand the real issues.
 If there had been more American miners here. it is quite likely that they would have agreed either to work the full ten hours or to have received pay for the eight hours re qured by law. for most men of or dinary understanding realize that much of the ground being worked here at present will not pay if high CT wages are demanded.
 This brings to mind the efforts that were made early in the season by the Seattle Chamber of Commerce to prevent men coming to the In terior of Alaska, as well as to pre- vent them from going 10 other sec tons of the Territory. The strike shows that We need plenty of Amer their time prospecting when not em- ployed, and are sure to keep busy.
 Perhaps it would be a good idea next season to send request to the Seattle Chamber of Commerce not to interfere with the affairs of In terior Alaska until the Chamber has a chance to get the views of the people here.
 The only way that money can de yelop country is to use it in buying labor. It is hard to oversup- ply a district like this with the right kind of men. for there is gold every where. and the men who are not working for wages can find chances to rock the dirt that will bring them a living.
 If the Seattle Chamber of Com merce had issued a warning against were able to speak English well and felt that they were backed up with the health and strength required for pioneering, then no harm would have been done. But We do need plenty of men in Interior Alas ka of the right kind, for without them the country will never be developed in any way
 The Citizen does not mean to say that all men who are not able to speak English fluently are not de sired here, as that would be wrong and a decided injustice But what it does mean is that Americans are, as a rule, more suited for the work here, and there would be less labor trouble if they were in the majority.
 The present strike was not justi- fled, except in such cases as the op- orators may have tried to force their men back to work long hours against their will. But when the men were given the choice to work eight CT ten hours as they may have de sired, and to have been paid in ac- cordance with the work done, 1t seems that the mere fact that a new law came into existence should not have caused the men to strike, es- pecially when the law does not or crate against the working men.
 More to blame than anyone else bers of the Alaska legislature who passed a law prohibiting operators from working men more than eight hours day. It seems that the chief purpose of the law was to work a hardship on the people of the Fourth division, who are practically the only ones it injured.
 Previously a law had been passed making it illegal to work men norc than eight hours in quartz mines, and the quartz miners of the coast blamed the legislators from this dis trict for this law It was made evi- dent at the legislature that these coast members were determined to make the law apply to placer mines, so it would injure the people here.
 If they had really been working in the interest of the miner, they would not have passed such a law, for in the end the miners are the losc,s. as the shortening of hours simply means that the laboring men can not demand as high wages as when working more hours.
 Next year is election year, and it may be expected that one of the main issues will be the repeal of this law. Legislators who have no idea of allowing men and operators to fix their own hours to suit them selves. are not fit to make laws, and it is safe to say that men Of
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