The daily progressive-miner., 1916-03-06

wages of all classes of employees and as to conditions surrounding the gang and some of the others? It should be remembered that the steel gang walked out after assertions in pairs and half dozens had occurred daily for a period of several weeks, the vacant places being filled by new and verdant arrivals. Also re- member what is related herein oc- cured Oh public work, to be paid by the people of the richest gov erment under the sum-" work under supervision of their own "hired- men" presumed to be holding down their jobs because of efficiency.
 While the question of wages IS now involved, that was originally es- tablished by Alaskan railway com mission are the lowest paid skilled labor in Alaska and at most points on the Pacific caost. It is to the credit of the commission, however, that it has paid common labarers on the railroad higher wages than ever paid on any similar work in the ter ritory except at Nome and Fair banks; but the system of compen- sation established for station work ifiore than offsets this credit. Con- tractors on government work are not permitted to pay more than the wages fixed by the commission. The A. E. c. scale at Anchorage follows: Common labor, 371s cents an hour, carpenters and other me- chanics, 50 cents, helpers, A cents. Many of these men have been hired by the month at sixty to ninety dollars, not including board. Wages paid here by private employers are fifty cents for common labor and not less than seventy-five cents for skilled. The schedule now ask ed by the insurgents is; minimum of 50 cents for common labor, price and half for overtime and double pay for Sundays and holidays. Mi nimum of 75 cents for carpenters, cooks and bakers graduated from ninety to one hundred and twenty five dollars a month, depending on size of crew and including board.
 Teamsters ninety to one hundred and twenty dollars month and board, depending on size of team. Wages for longshoremen and others are to be approved by the organization whenever the men can agree on what they want.
 The real cause of the walkout and phenomenal growth of the organi- zation was the intolerable unsanita- ", inhuman and almost unbeliev- able conditions under which the steel gang were compelled to work. Their combined living and sleeping quarters were flat cars on which were flimsily constructed shacks, without adequate means of ventil- ation other than crack in floor and walls. These cars,8 by 32 feet in size, contained 24 rough hunks in three tiers. There was no room for seats and the hunks were the gen. eral resting places for the men at all hours when not at work. Tenn perature from zero to 30 below and cars were heated by a stove placed in the center, so that occupants of the middle tiers of hunks were over heated and those at the ends were unable to keep warm. Dry foot wear being absolutely necessary to keep from freezing those members when the men were working, the dry-out occurred at night and 48 pairs of perspiration-soaked sox and half that number of insoles ad- ded their poisonous odors to the already choice assortment in the unventilated sleeping quarters. The cars were crowded to double the capacity permitted within juris- diction of cities and communities which do not care to make or save money at the expense of human life or health. Mattresses and bedding froze to walls where airholes form ed masses of ice, and icicles accu- mulated on the lower mattresses.
 'I have been in some of most notorious logging and construction camps of the middle west and never saw anything to compare with it.
 said one of my informants.
 Continue in tomorrow's issuel