The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-10-16
INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY.

Sncy or the WOrlu can De udlH' tained if the eight hour day be- comes general. The remark was oc- casioned by some sapient considera lions of the railroad eight hour demands. It is quite an interesting question.
 Society as at present organized ill built upon peculiar foundation That foundation in no way involves anything like an equitable distribu' tion of the product of laDor, but premises that certain men by reason of certain advantages are enabled to annex in larger and smaller quantities the proceeds of social labor. They do that through virtue of their ownership of the means oi production and distribution and by that the ownership of labor power of other men, women and children whom they are able to purchase on the labor market.
 These owners are for ever active struggling for greater and greater ownership. Their buying and sell ing is around the things owned, in order that by speeulating in such ownership they can increase their wealth, and thus the power that such ownership involves.
 The industrial efficiency of na- tion devoted solely to the satisfac- ton of human needs would be am- ply satisfied by four hours day, if not less. But the industrial eff eiency of a nation which makes the product of human labor matter not to be devoted to the satisfaction of human requirements, but to be a matter for buying and selling, for speculation and investment, is never satisfied until the uttermost exertion of human productive labor is compelled by the owners of the machinery of production.
 Moreover, the industrial efficiency of a nation which has a capitalist system wherein profit is the cri. terion of efficiency, and not the complete satisfaction of human needs, involves a tremendous expen- allure of mental and physical ener- gy in the desperate effort to con trol the profit factor, to increase it, to enlarge it as a constantly rising feature of production and distribu- tion.
 Hence speculation which has mo- thing to do whatsoever with the production of wealth, financing which is an utter waste of time, and endless conventional commercial processes are compelled, so that hu- man energy is diverted from pro- ductive spheres into spheres which are concerned simply in grabbing a share of the values produced by labor
 Take Nome for instance. The wealth of the country is produced by the men in the mines. If the gold mines were wiped off the map, there would not be single whiteman ex- cept a possible government official or a few herders of deer.
 Hence it will be recognized that the only productive labor in this camp is that observed out in the mines. To be sure the work of longshoring and the distribution of commodities to support the labor that is consumed in gold production is just as essential to the camp as any, and so with other lines of toll. They are necessarily a necessary subsidiary to the gold mining in- .dustry.
 But to control the product of this labor. innumerable activities are quite obviously to be noted. Legal activities, banking conveniences, numerous stores. saloons, and other businesses are engaged in endeavor ing to make living of that gold producing labor.
 NOW COuSiuSi tnS dSeudi situdttoH would be needed were this camp de- voted to mining not for the sake of profit. but for the satisfaction of hu- man wants. There would be no req son for the immense judicial ma chinery. legal lights and accessories to defend the owning interests in their ownership. There would be no reason for dozen stores in one line seeking to make living satis. lying the wants could be better sup piled by one cooperative emporium, one cooperative dining room. dry goods store, drug shop, notions ann so forth, with an elimination of aIl aIuracaraarv snnDroductiva In hs.r