The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-10-30
HE FnHFEN

tainias speaker. His Wickersham address could not have been better ed hy the redoubtable Jim himselt and might not have been equalled. And possibly the reason why Wick ersham has been so successful in succeeding himself. is because he has had in several divisions men like Sutherland to boost and plead his cause
 Now the Industrial Worker would not agree for an instant that on the scroll of political fame Wick ersham's name would enjoy the pri- mary Abou Ben Adhem position at any rate not as long as these are Senator Sutherlands around to un- consciously dispute the supremacy with a leader to whom they are so loyal But that is all neither here nor there. As we see it, the success of 3 politician depends upon his ability to lead the workers off on wild goose chase, and to impress upon them the fact that they are grabbing at the real thing, when they reach over for a will O the wisp to light their pipes.
 That is precisely what Sulzer did with raw inability, and that is pre-, cisaly what Sutherland did with adroit Illnesses and not a little hu- mor.
 They took the workers of on a wild goose chase, and had them guessing that at the rajrtow's end there was a crock of gold for the asking
 But the situation is not so simple as they unfold it. The situation is only mystidod as they explain it, and what suIzer did not explain. what Sutherland did not show, is that the workers would be bettered one bit by the return Of either Wickersham or Sulzer to Congress. And the great interest manifested by so many workers who ought to know better in their political activities would be simply amusing if it were not so menacing.
 Alaska is like any other country with a people to be divided up into employers and employees. The ma jority of the employees will be em- ployees to the end of the chapter, and the chapter of their wage-work- ing career will only be heightened by reason of the pipe dreams in which they indulge.
 When we come down to brass tacks, neither Wickersham nor Sul- ger offer anything which would in dcate that the condition of the wage workers would be benefited one iota by their return to Congress On the contrary, the mere fact that such of these politicians offer pana- ceas for the workers which are nc panaceas at all, offer palliatives when eradication is needed, the con dition of the workers is to that ex~ tent aggravated always-it prolongs the agony.
 The transportation, the road, the fish trap, the conseryationist ques- tions are all very interesting. They afford speakers and writers endless opportunities for gab festing there upon. They give many an unrighte- Ous political crook an opportunity of displaying an unusual righte- ousness, but as means of decoy- ing the workers from the facts or the class struggle, they are unex- celled.
 It is not at the point of transpor- tation that the workers are ex plotted. It is not in consumption of their necessities that they are mulcted of the proceeds of their labor. It is simply at the point Of production and on the job where that takes place. That the trans portation companies and not the mining companies get the largest whack out of the profits of the mine workers labor is wholly im- material to the mine workers. After a man has his house robbed beyond recovery, what does it matter whether one or the other of the gang who robbed it gets the higher proceeds.
 So whether the storekeeper, the