The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-10-23
LITTLE DIFFERENCE.

10 the possible issues Of the presl- deutial election. Whether it is to be Wilson or whether it is to be Hughes is just now troubling a great number, most of whom are either actual or prospective office holders. And among those Wilson boosters who are making the welkin ring with enthusiastic phrase mongering is our old friend Sam Gompers.
 But so far none have clearly shown wherein one will advantage the workers. one man over an other. It is true quite a good deal of credit is extended Wilson both for what he has done and what he mas said. But what man among the labor leaders can say with honesty that the work CTS are one iota the better because Wilson and not Taft or Roosevelt succeeded in 1912 and wherein will the workers be one iota better off if Wilson and not Hughes is elected in 1916?
 There has been an increase in wages. But there has been a great CT increase in the price of commo- dities which not only nulliied, but practically overeame the benefits might have otherwise accrued from an increase in wages. Moreover there was prosperity for the busi- nessman. due entirely to the unna- tural conditions forced upon the country by the war: but that very activity has reacted upon the Amer jean workers compelling them to pay more for what they eat, drink and wharewith they clothe them selves. due to the increased price caused by increased exportation.
 Under the Wilson administration labor got more work; emphatically labor did not get more actual wages considering the higher costs of iiy- ing.
 Wilson settled the railroad strike? Wilson may have ayerted a strike before election but assuredly he aid not by the Adamson bill dispose of the employer and employee ques- tions arose between the brother hoods and the railroad companies. That Wilson could not do. Neither can Hughes nor can any of these po- 1iticians.
 We believe that the Mexican po- Hey of Wilson has been especially fine. But that has so little to do with labor that the foreign policy need not be considered at all The very best argument that laobr could intelligently put in favor of Wilson is that Hughes could have done no better: which is quite true.
 The charge that the Hughes admi- nistration would be directly hostile to labor is not proved. And if ii was what could it matter? It would serve to bring the labor questions that are now being covered over with anodynes and palliatives to the surface where they would by their insistent spread demand solution.
 Under Wilson what effort has been made to give labor fairer shake ? To prevent labor prosecutions and prosecutions? On the Mesaba range for example or in the Colorado felds? Finally, and as a fact. la bor has hardly been affected at all
 The most inconsistent and illogi- cal position of all is that of Comp eers as a booster for Wilson. Comp CTS has perpetually denounced Ia hor political activities. Even eigh' hour legislation has been drowned mp and frothed against in and out of convention. Anything that la- nor would originate tor itself is wrong politically, anything that Will son or his democratic friends startec mp was all right. He took several hours to denounce the eight nnar agitation on the political fold 1t the san Francisco convention, and he took several pages to rub the salve on Wilson for the Adamson bill.
 nhat Gompers is, denouncing ' 'itics, is an arch-po.iti .a hinl- self, and because he sustains joy ous thrills of gratified pride ir rs, sociating with President Wilson, consistency is a small matter in con trast herewith.
 The fact is that what labor needs to learn and what Gompers is doing his best to conceal, is that the only hope for labor is working class ac- tion. All the epigrammed sops of