The Nome daily nugget., 1917-10-22
Mir. O'Higgins says;

Mir. OHiggins says;
 He had been drafted. He had been refused exemption. He was a young hack driver, with no one dependent on him. But he was not eager to fight; he had been reading The Masses. What 'av l got 10 fight for?" he argued It's a rich mans war" ' It it. But not in the sense that he meant.
 AS long as this country, at peace. was supplying Europe with food and munitions the rich man gained. The munition makers dr W enormous divi- dends. The Steel Trust, the Coal Trust, the Meat Trust, the railroad and the shipping magnates charged all that tho wartime traffic would bear, and had no war taxes to pay. It was to their interest to keep this nation out of the conflict in order to preserve their gains. With our entrance upon hostilities, the Government obtained the power to tax profits to fix prices to control the food supply, to protect the poor from exploitation and deprive the rich of the fruits of exploitation That power has been sought, for how many decades in times of peace. b. l how many social reformers? The wal won it. If it is a rich mans war. tho rich have been singularly deluded ir l procuring it.
 And, in the matter of the draft, they
 have been equally blind. The frs l conscr4ption act of our Civil War al { lowed the rich man to buy exemption
 by paying $500 for it. There is nC
 such clause in the present law. IT
 the later days of the Civil War tn,
 rich man could buy exemption by pay
 ing a substitute 10 take his place. II, 1 can not do so in this war. The onl, l to the poor man who has dependents or to the workers in the industries ant
 professions that are necessary to tn,
 life and efficiency of a modern natior ' in war tune.
 1 IL is ;t rich mans war. therefore. 1T the sense that the sons of the rich ar,
 the most liable to die in 1t. It IS [ | ,.;cl, n,o,',s x,.o in tho ea,so tbot ,h.
 rich are chiefly paying for it wIti
 their lives. with their money, witt
 their time and service and with tn, loss of their special privileges, while | the worlling1n3n, the small farmer, tho producer. the productive laborer ant the poor are everywhere comparativel,
 exempt.
 Flo the first tim, in the history o
 the world a war is being waged tha
 falls most heavily upon the classei who, in times past, have most profite,
 by war.
 In this country. as yet. the rcsult
 of that new aspect of the conflict ar, not glal1ngly evident. But in Englan
 they are so striking that they amour
 to a revolution. There it is the poore 1 classes that have gained in materia comfort, in political power, in contro
 of their conditions of life. in happiness. ,and in freedom. 1t is not merely tha | wages have been raised. that the cos l of living has been controlled that tn, people have taken over the direction ] of the railoads. and of the coal mines
 and of the food supply. and of tn,
 organized industries of the nation. |
 is not merely that the worllingman has been given a larger place in the Gov i ernment councils and the idle ricf
 man a smaller place-his income taxed to the bone and his profits reduced tt 1 extenction. It is. above all, that in 1 dustry itself has obtained a democrati, government Of its own. so that the workingman now sits with the em- ployer at the board of business man. agement and helps to make the rule under which he works and to regulat, l the conditions of his labor.