The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-05-31


 that this is most effective in Alaska. On the other hand, Wickersham who IS the most accomplished as well as the shrewdest of Alaskan politicians has repeatedly shown with what skill he can bring abou. his election by .harping upon this particular string. It has been 50 obvious to all the politically wise that now it is recognized that the candidate must all of them dance to this music and to be elected they must go the other fellow, with dignity and serenity of course, ono better. This condition as it exists today reveals two things of very great political and economical i'm portance. The first is that this ter
 ritory is still in relatively speak ! ing backward stage wherein con- siderable mental independence based it may be on a totally wrong conception of economic facts, ex- ists, and they hope that one day
 they will reach that plane of un- hampered and uninfiuenced eco- homie independence which is the goal of every man. This is con dition was quite common in the United States half a century ago
 when as there is now in Alaska there was a wide range of free land
 and one existed so to say on froH- | tier. There was less inclinatiOns to submit to the yoke of industriaI dependence which economic conditio slowly but inexorabiy forced upou the people. The second fact of i'm portancc is that the voters are still living in fantasy of political and economic errors which are sooner or later certain to be subject to dissi- patton and their condition reveals the important fact that accompa- nying the lack of economic develop ment, the social and political devel- lopment is backward also generally speaking.
 Taking the average Alaskan in dividually who berates the tendency of the corporation to monopolize the resources and the trade and indus tries of the country, each of them on an average would upon investi- gation display the same tendency upon a smaller scale. Thus We find men stalking entire tracts Of ground where they can for thelI,- selves; we find small employers try ing to exploit what labor they hire to the very uttermost of human en- uurance and men in business if the opportunity offers and they secure a favorable petty monopoly charging all the traffic will bear and then some.
 Consequently we behold the fact that it is not opposition to the prin- ciple of exploitation which inspires the people of Alaska to oppose the corporations, but opposition to the requirement by more powerful ri yals of control identical with that which they would seize if they could. In their vehemence of oppo- sition ts the Guggenheims, they travel far afield seeking fresh fields and pastures new where they humb- ly hope that some day theirs too will be the Golden Fleece to rest upon and own. ] et ls ,sa3
 That's why the friend of labor and the opponent of corporations finds such favor in their eyes. The fights of Wickersham against the fish trust, against the Guggs. against all the exploiting corpora- tions that have sought to dominate the political and economic life of the country, finds, such wonderous favor and made him strong peliti- cally with the strength of a Hercu- les in this territory. And that is why the more shrewd politicians re- alize that Wickersham can be fought only by those who are will ing to out-Herod Herod at Herod's own policies. sr % ss asr-y It is instructive to contrast there fore the condition as it exists today in Alaska with the condition as it exists say in the industrial ecenters of the East In the latter place, de mocracy has to shed its popular frills if 1t is to survive and Man haitian Clubs, Tammany Halls and