The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-08-01
\ REASONABLE REQUEST.

T
 Interested at all times in uphold ing the scale of wages paid in this camp and realizing the fact that it is impossible 70 lower wages in one extensive instance without that lower standard finding acceptance, the Nome MiLe Workers Union pc titioned the Divisional Road Com mission preparatory to that body beginning it's work in the District that the standard scale of five dol lars day be paid on the road. That request was granted.
 A similar request is being p!aceo before the Alaska Road Commission, and while the District Superintcnd- ent is not in a position to aeeede to| the same and as 1t will go before the neadguarters of the C. nmisslon, q few remarks On the reaeOns why that scale is advisable may not be. amiss.
 In the first place while a small increase has been granted this yr"r, il may be pointed out it is the tirs' that mas been allowed in ten years and during that time expenses of IiV- ing here have greatly increased. Many of the supplies have doubled and there is no line of necessar!
 
 so serious and pressing as to actual lv mean a decrease in the purchas- ing power of~-the dollar by about slzty per cent.
 Ii is of course known that the amount at the disposal of the road commission is limited. Unfortunate lv in the past politicians to gratiLy their own personal spleen against the Commission heads have made 1t sheir business to block and Obstruct The efforts to secure these appro- priations in every way possible and a consistent agitation has been car ricd on in the most unfair and ne farious manner intimating that the Commission existed for graft and graft alone
 None the less, the welfare of the camp here is wrapped up in the wages paid not bit less than in the activities that industrially take place and to maintain the standard scale of five dollars a day is little more than a ;ital necessity.
 It. is correct to &ra" @"artoA to lhe fact that when u.a @o,erament installed the eight hour day on its public works and industrial plants, it was clearly the intention to con form to the previous scale paid. There was no reduction in pay, but reduction in working time. So true is this. that we can observe ,hroughout the States men work ing on government work paid Tor their eight hour day exactly tn same as men are paid for similar work by private firms for the ten honr day. So in government plarts and arsenals throughout the nation the government pays for its eight hour day the standard seal" obtam- ing in other shops whether they work ter or eight hours per day.
 The Industrial Worker has ai- ways maintained that road building ill this camp is necessary to it's eN- istence; but the road builders Of to- day are the road users of tomorro" ana many a man who made his ini- tial stake during the summer time working on the road has been able to provide himself with grub stake which enabled him to prospec' throughout the winter and to utilize and develop the country contiguous 10 the roads which were built.
 The conditions which exist here are to certain extent anomalous There is work in the summer time only. When the winter comes Il 5s as the night when no man may work. Unfortunately the extensive winter mining of Q decade ago i' now thing of the past and this neaessitates the man who will stay here making enough to last hin over the winter. Now in the spring before the opening of navigation tho Road Commission will need men They will be needed to protect brid ges and to save culyerts but tue mcr