Iditarod pioneer., 1916-07-01
MEMBER or COMPASSION
 TELLS or RAILROAD STRIKE

while melIalCn was m progress, nearly put a stop to all work on the Alaska govern ment railroad, according to members of the federal commission who were appointed to settle the labor difficulty, and who ar rived in Seattle recently, says the Post Intelligencar. The action in calling a strike while a federal investigation was in prog ress is declared by Chairman John A. Moi fit of the federal commission to be un- paralla!ed in the history of American labor and was regarded as the last straw by the authorities at Washington who promptly wired the engineering commission officials to stop all work ou the Alaska railroad These direct orders came from the secre- tarv of labor and from the secretary of the interior, according to Chairman Mofitt and would have been carried out with no further barley had not Chairman Mothtt notified the Washington officials that he had tie situation in hand.
 RlhiuJ the strike on the read, says 2ir. Mof;t was the old cry for "dlrect acton.' He declared leaders of the movement had never worked an hour for the engineering commission, but instead had organized a union ard secured iobs from it.
 Contrary to reports, the commission found that the meals served the men were cyIent and that living conditions while rough, were improving as fast as possible. The commission also learned from ro>pan- si5la wolilnen that the second strike would uerer Lave been called had there been >li Gcieut r.lce protection but that the single deputy United States marshal and his three assistants were poWe'la>s to look after the .r. z .l,.,, were foreigners
 Despita the absolutely unforeseen condj liens that were encountered hy the com mission it- rpmb,Is feel that the new wage scale. accertcd by the wcr},mcl against the advice of tht ag!t@tor~, will ln q great n.easuro settle tho l:oar aVc~tion fer g2cd jua.mvcA as t k i igh enough to attract Ame~icsn wm}mcn,
 The three commissioners Mr. Moftt, B. i .~.:ji~s>. both oE Washington, D. C., and HywlI E&E!e, cf Le>jn~t. n. Ky. will re nain in Seattle few days They expect to work tLeir report into .hape while in Sc .ttia
 "Te sst thy following scale of wages fer the railroad emIIoye.' a.d Mi Nottltt. "rha m;uimr,A for common labor, 45 cents an hour; for trst -cla s skilled labor, D aant- an hour. and for helpers t. the skilled I.5orers, 534 cent, 4u hour. The steve Gorgs. or rather I.ng-L.rar.an, were g!ven a scale of 567, cents an hour, tm2 to be caunseI from the time they left the pier until they returned, with meal hours, Of course. not counted
 "toon our arrivsl at Anchorage we were met by committee of seven represeNta- tives cf the workers, who presented creden- tialS from the organization known as the Alaska abar Union. giving them power to assist the federal commission in every way possible Trey also reiterated the agree ment entered into with Commissioner Mears on M9rch i, whereby the men were to work until the federal commission had fixed a wage scale.
 After they presented these matters they were asked by the federal commission to reduce their grievances and reasons for de- manGing increased pay to writing. This was asked in order to expedite work as much as possible The committee agreed, but its members also demanded that soml of the employees be privileged to make oral statements The federal commission de ferred to this wish and requested that the committee select three representatives of every craft engaged in the work, which would have made about eighteen men. How over. to the surprise of the federal com nissiGn the committee called forty eight men to make statements. These men were interrogated by the chairman of the fed erel commission, and the labor union com nlittpe also demanded the right to question the witnesses. This necesstated the taking of more than 1000 words of testimony, which covered 300 typewriter pages and required seven days from 10 a. m. to l0:30 D. 1n., to finish Then the demand was practically made by the men that the fed erI commission fix the wage scale on eX paite testimony of the worInen. The fed- eral commission pointed out that this would be unfair to the engineering commission which has the railroad work in charge in asmuch as certain testimony was on the basis of general complaint of the treat ment accorded the workmen by their re spective foremen, on bad conditions in the mess houses and sleeping camps.
 On these grounds the engineering com mission was given the opportunity of being heard, and this required the greater part of another week, with a total of 40,00O more words of testimony.
 "The workers also insisted that the feu- eral commission make an inspection of the railroad camps which was dcre by a sub committed This last task took four more days. as the greater part of the trip had to be made on horseback After the repre- sentatives of the union forced all this work on the federal commission a few among them began to charge it with a procrasti- hating policy, and urged the men to strike forthwith. Nothing like this was ever known in the history of this country or any other country, but l feel constrained to remark that in all fairness to the skilled mechanics they honored the agreement en- tered into with Commissioner Mears and continued to work. Others however, struck.
 "We later offered wage schedule of 4334 cents an hour for common labor mini mum, with the rest of the scale as it now is fixed. This was refused and demand made for 50 cents for common labor mini