The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-07-11
PORK.

This is not going to be disserta- tation upon that particular kind of flesh which has been forbidden to the Chosen People from time imme- morial, but upon that variety which has been identified with politics since it was found that govern ment funds yielded fat as luscious and flesh. as juicy as any sugar cured or fresh killed variety of swine flesh.
 A section of Alaska is now fair lye revelling in it. The railroad to the interior from Seward and An- chorage, when all is said and done, has to be labelled pork and pork only.
 Later when generations have come and gone, and the country is more settled and it's destinies mineralogi- cal, sociological and agricultural better determined, the railroad be- ing built by the government may function in an extremely useful manner. But just now it functions mainly to enable a few professional jobbtes to hold a few fat billets, a few sharks an opportunity for turn ing a penny, and a few contractors for getting their hands into the pockets of Uncle Sam.
 The Industrial Worker does not decry the advent of this pork to the country; only it is absurd ana ridiculous to pretend that it is go ing to relieve the transportation si- auation any, to solve any transpor- tation problem or to supply the in- terior with cheaper necessaries than at present
 Alaska, or section of it, would not Le the first part of Uncle Sam d3main wherein pork was disp1n- sed with even more lavish hand. ~And likely enough it WI not be the last. But tEcro is no use pre- tending about it and living in hopes that this railroad is about to solve the entire problem of the industrial or social conditions in Alaska.
 It doesn't even touch the trans portation problem, and it is a vici- ous piece of misrepresentation to pretend it does.
 The transportation problem is not governed by overland traffic. It is contr He'd and controlled abso- lutely by ocean transportation from the Outside to the Territory ana back again.
 And it is only dealing with the most ineffective issue to tackle the railroad problem in any way.
 The government railroad will never as a means of transportation during the summer compete with the Yukon and tributary water ways. They are ready made trans portation ways that cost nothing for construction or for keep. They may meander in very lengthy way, but the cost of sending freight via those routes cannot be considered by the railroad, because the rail- road has to earn money on it's cost of construction and it's mainten- ance.
 Ton cannot expect however that those sections of Alaska which Will enjoy the railroad pay roll will look at 1t with the same impartial con- siderltion it may be observed from here.
 The towns along the route are doing their best to stand in With 1he Engineering Commission and dheIe is nothing to be wondered at that Fairbanks regards the railroad in the light of Redemeer. It comes like God from the Car to set right it's vanishing gold produc, tion and the pay roll of the ratl' road stiffs will make up for the Jack of yellow metal.
 Therefore it is that they went to the trouble of banquetting Engineer Riggs of the Commission. Riggs is imbued with the notion that the railroad is being built for the special benefit of the railroad commission. Apparently, we judge from his statements on the evening of the banquet, they are tho center from which tho rail- road benefits arc to emanate for the