The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-09-14
THE PACIFIC MAIL.

A San Francisco paper announces
 the Pacific Mail Steamship Co.
 "banished from the Pacific by the
 provisions of the Seaman'S Act. The Pacific Mail started up again with the Ecuador purchased from the Royal Dutch West India Mail Co.,, the Venezuela and the Colom-
 bia. And it is pointed out that the Seaman's Act is still in full force.
 The fact of course is that the de- claration that the Pacific Mail was forced out of business by the Sea- mans Act was merely made in order to effect repeal, but inasmuch as the officials in whose charge is it's enforcement in San Francisco, have practically made the language clause a dead letter, the Pacific Mail can continue to operate upon lines es- sentially the same as before.
 The Seaman's Act has not been so bad for the steamship companies. It has caused an increase in operat ing expenses because of certain ad- ditional equipment and crew re- quirements being compulsory, but it has also been the justifying reason for quite an increase in freight and passenger rates which will last long after the original increase in ope- rating expenses has been recov- cred.
 There is one beauty about this system. and that is it is passed on to the other fellow, and the situa- tion is very much the same as be- fore in the long run.
 Take another case. The railways of the country have just had the honor of an eight hour day for en- ginemen fremen, conductors and trainmen thrust on them by an in dulgent Congress. The railways estimate that this will mean an in crease in operating expenses of one hundred million dollars year, while the brotherhood men submit figures to show that it will not be more at the outside than twenty three million dollars a year.
 Now if any person thinks that the poor railroads will be required by a generous country to shoulder that additional burden, whether as esti- mated by the brotherhood men or as estimated by the railroads, they are surely very much mistaken. Already steps are being taken to enable rate review to be undertaken by the Interstate Commerce Commission, which will enable the railroads to more than recoup themselves, and the eight hour day will be bless ing in disguise.
 Really the general method that is enjoyed by corporations is always along this line. They refuse to saddle themselves with additional; | expenses and they pass them gener- ously along. The shipper pays an bunch of freight rates, | the merchant adds a little to his | price, and the man who buys to | consume digs up to meet the added demand.
 It is in the last phase where there s no adjustment, and which is over. looked by the benefcient econom~ sts.
 The consumers if they are work ers, find that they have to pay more 0 live and that accordingly their wages, with a lessened purchasing power, although nomially the same Ire actually reduced
 Hence it is that it is not true that he consumer pays, but that t is the workinman that pays. For he consumer who is in business to meet the increased costs of living dds another notch to his prices, but he worker who has nothing to sell ut his labor power can do nothing If the kind.
 Every miner in Nome remembers he time when fifty cents would buy IS much as dollar does now. Con- the wages remaining mo- at the same figure, actually epresent fifty per cent reduction n the purchasing capacity. being ess.
 Business as at present organized B in no part in more chaotic con ]