The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-05-22
HOW ABOUT IT?

Every law that is directly or In. directly violated, without any re- sultant action being taken to see that it is lived up to, is so ignored by the tacit assent of the authori ties or by an understanding that no action will be taken Tn any event. That is the rule; that is the rule, surely, with such common regula- tions as we face with regard to pet ty measures in connection with civil life.
 Thus wien the people in this community ignored the existence of Sunday closing law, it was be- cause the officials were willing that such should be the case.
 The eight hour day s being deli bcrateIy violated by partnership pretense in this community. One ot these firms which hired men by such Q partnership, facr:ng tEo 's- sue of damage suit settled out ot court. The Industrial Worker is in formed the consideration was in the neighborhoGd of $J00. The authori, ties locally are not ignorant ot that. They must know it. They must know, we presume, that othe" firms ;ro entering into these part nership deals with view of mak- ing this eight hour day q joke.
 It is submitted to Che District At tornay that this enforcement of the eight hour day is really more i'm portant than comic opera, ana while no doubt some firms may be providing us with plot for such in the official estimation, it is certain ly a scandalOus situation that it can be broken without any effort made to compel it's enforcement and un- der such an immCrel. .and wholly vl- cious method as an alleged partner ship.
 To our mind tho violation of the eight hour day law, just because il is labor law, and without any effort made to prevent such constant viol- ation, is a much more anti-social condition than game of pangingl or selling a can of tobacco on Sun days. From the working class point of view there is no comparison.
 But we doubt not the District At torney would spend thousands ot government money to enforce his sabbatarian views against an ordl- nary business man (we are noJ mentioning in this class such more powerful firms as lighterage Or steamship companics) while this eight hour law is honored in the 7, breach.
 We don't pretend to know whaI views the courts will take of such an obvious subterfuge as these partnership agreements really are to enable employees to work ten hours a day, but when this is con- ing into use generally throughout 7 the camp. what we would like to , know is whether or not there is any | tacit understanding between opera tor and the district attorney, or the government officials generally ani | the lawyers of the operators, that , the pretended agreement will be recognized as giving the right suffl- cient to violate the eight hour day law.
 As stated at the outset of these remarks, when we see any commu- nifty tolerating violation of the law, as many laws are violated In this community, it is because it is understood that no official action will be taken against its violators. There is we say in this regard tacit understanding that no prose- cution will follow such violation, and we would be considerable en- frightened did we know that in the eight hour law violation, similar conditions exists.
 The second division elected mem bers to the territorial legislature on expressly this issue. They went to Jureau and passed the lew that in underground working should be an eight hour day. That's the law. If that law can be broken in this in- stance, and it's violation can be ig- nored by tho entire officialdom, how are the workers, who find that such