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

ne Speoks as one who holds the des- tinieis of the territory through which the railroad passes as we'll as railroad itself in the hollow of his hands.
 Consequently it .s very interest ing to observe that Riggs was quite solicitous to see that no undue quantity from the railroad pork barrel escaped to the stiffs who will build the road. It is not for them that pork of the brand under con- sideration is dispensed. It is for railroad engineers, commercial clubs, contractors and others who will make god of the Riggs and will blow lots of hot smoke where it will soothe and console.
 Take this imperial manner, quoted from Fairbanks paper d" aling with the railroad workers;
 From his statement Saturday evening, MT. Riggs indicated that the greatest problem of the com mission will be the labor question. esp. cially in the interior. At first the commission thought of allow ling the same wages as granted on the coast, but a few minutes befor. the meeting Saturday night the commission received a communica- tion from other members of the commission agreeing to a slight raise. This raise however will be absolutely the last word, so far as the government is concerned, MT. Riggs seid, and if this is not ac- ceptable to the men, there will be a shut down immediately and the work will be carried on only from the coast end. In this connection Mir. Riggs said that he was going to need the support of all Alaskans as without their assistance he will be helpless.
 That is the most remarkable state ment ever made on the labor ques- tion. Just consider that situation. Riggs has not started up work yet. There has no construction work be- gun. But he knows that paying the paltry wage that he and his other jobbite commissioners have in view the labor question will be a hard question. And before work starts up he issues an ultimatum that this wage scale about the same as paid on the coast where everything is from twenty to one hundred per cent cheaper must be accepted or no work will be done. And Riggs appeals to the people of the Interior "all Alaskans", meaning all the business interests who will profit from the pay roll so that they too will support him in the peonized conditions he has arranged with his fellow satraps for the hinds of the hinterland.
 We don't trouble much about tn } Riggses. The man with a snout in a government pork barrel is not worth troubling about. But it is the workers who must in turn pre- vent this pork barrel from demoral- izing the entire labor situation ill the territory.
 The Riggs and the Mears and the rest do not feel very kindly dis posed towards labor. They met their match in the workers at An chorage and the pain of defeat still rankles. fl
 The meeting to which Riggs ar- ticles refers was the banquet where the hot smoke blowing match ac- cured. The conquest of the Alas kan wilds by railroad from no- where to nowhere solving no transportation problem, can it appears, only be accomp- lished by the reduction of wages to an irreducible minimum.
 It all depends upon the workers. Already the nucleus of first class labor organization has been estab. lished at Anchorage. There is no reason why similar condition should not be developed along the construction work in the interior, and then the workers could them selves take hand in the regula- tion of the wage scale and they ana not Riggs have the last and final say in the matter.
 Poturninp to ina nuaStfnn Of tho