The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-02-03

 hear it said that business is dull. And indeed it is almost self eviden, that things might be little more ! brisk without any harm being done the bank accounts of our merchant | princes. We'll, the reason is not far to seek. 1 There is no pay roll. The gentle | men that purvey goods to the men who operate the muck stick find fhatSthere are no wage workers pro- ducing wealth, and whose needs and requirements must be satisfied.
 That's it. The wage workers arc not in evidence and without the wage workers; little account as is taken of them, there can be no pros- perity for any of the merchants.
 Now Nome, it has to be admitted, is well supplied with merchants in every line There is no shortage 1n any commercial pursuit except may he the coal business. There's no scarcity of dry goods, general mer- Ghandise, hardware, second hand wares, bakeries. restaurants, sa- Icons, hotels. The merchants who engage in these occupations fill the bill. They are there with both feet to oblige the customers who arrive with cash to purchase their de- mands.
 But the question is whence are the orders to come from? That's what Nome, faces, ct loast wha; Nome business mon face without an, doubt How they face it is anothcl matter
 It is clear therefore that any i'm provement in conditions of business must begin first with this question of the absence of pay roli,
 This year that absence is very conspicuous.
 Now the winter pay roll here has been maintained for the past five years by men who worked all sum mer and prospected, all winter and who in that prospecting struck pay.
 The banker sent out man to expert" the ground. The Bank 1ook no chances on lending wher'. inc gravel existed in the pay In sup erfluously unprofitable quantities, The banker wanted a cInch. Some times he got no cinch, but that wasn't from trusting the workers who prospected and made good It was because he trusted lot of fouI flushing would-bc O1CrGto-s whose idea of operating was to get out g much dirt regardless of whether 1t was, pay or not We needn't in stance them. Everybody knows them, even if most of them have had to convey themselves and their peculiar bull peddling talents to other fields.
 Ihe man who turned with his wages and went prospecting during ths winter, found a little pay was the man who maintained pay roll in this camp.
 He wasn't capitalist He was the agent for the capitalist. He looked after the grocery and fuel an wage bills. The bank and the cru.> IT and the coal man attended ,o nh.e cleanup carefully enough, thank you.
 NeyertMe. less. he maintained q certain amoont of prosperity for Nome His energy and the chances which he took enabled him to dis cover pay streaks and after paying royalty altogether excessive, hano- some store bills, extensive fuel ac- counts and adequate banking inter- est. he contributed to the camps prosperity.
 But, the man originally was en abled to prospect because he got work for wages. He saved ana scrirnped those wages and put them v0 the ground. Lots of others did the. same thing and good men at that, maybe better miners and more energetic than the man who found it... and they never found g color But it was gamblers chance and tbe winners made Nome quite lively burg. This winter there I very little wage working. Mayn' there are thirty men employed Probably there is about tha amount.