The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-05-08
wages that are not forthcoming

Quite frequently they have gall
 enough to come to this paper with request that the matter be taken 1 up for them-for those men who had not manhood enough to ven ture to look after themselves and who would rather be struck dumb l in the sight of God than admit to | boss who might blast them where they stood, that they ever belonged to a union anywhere.
 Why men will work without l troubling about what wages they get-why men will refuse to be
 uniOnmen, why men will not have 1 the backbone enough to be men is
 one of the mysteries of this world
 that there is DO getting over. But
 these same men will come to town
 and tell all about the job, complain about the low wages, report what a son Of gun the boss was. and how they were driven around on the job
 and half starved by mulligan ar tist of a cook-but they will not
 saddle themselves with any respon
 sibilitv whatever, when they and lthey alone are purely to blame
 Is there any good reason that
 employers of labor are paying $40
 in one camp and three dollars in
 others today except that there are
 so many ncrveless slaves around
 who will not dare ask for or hold
 out for more. Most assuredly not.
 There are not many more men
 in this camp right now than there is work for, and all that those who
 work have to do to get the proper
 scale, is to organize.
 This work has got to be done.
 The men are here to do it; but lest
 they lose their job, lest they lose
 the smile of boss, lest they get ill
 bad all around. they will not join
 the union and have the backbone to ask for what is right.
 Instead, these parodios upon man , hood, whine and sigh for the union
 to get higher wage scale, to set it for them, so that without hand $
 turn they may hang on to their job and enjoy the labor and the work
 of other more manly men. , What is actually happening to- , day is that the non-union men are setting the scale for themselves and are being paid just as low as the r boss likes to pay, even if not as , low as they are willing to work | for.
 They are still men with the slave s instinct and the job first, last and
 all the time, and the wages never 2 is the subject dear to their hearts 1 It is a fact that the only way you , could insult such men is by taking 1 their shovels or their bowls Of s mush or their bundle of blankets
 away from them. Those are their ' heartstrings and beyond these their S intelligence cannot rise without ar
 !
 5 effort.
 5 It is hard to consider that this : condition prevails among so many [ but in this camp there are so many : who are strictly invertebrates thar 0 it has got to be said. In man! e ways they are the paradise-provider: !, for employers who fattening upoI l. the cheap labor thus afforded, cal d every fall go outside and have |; y good time.
 q Just now wages are lower il e Nome than in any mining cam I over which the American flag flies e There is no reason for this, beyon' g the anxiety of many of these me- Il for job.
 L. It may be that there are other
 outside the union who would will II ingly avail themselves of an op n portunity afforded them of joinin y did they understand that the Uniol t. at all times is open to their appll 0 cation. It is true that in any com 1T munity, in any camp one or tw Is professional jobbites will exercise ,t bad effect upon all the rest an
 keep men who know better an k would act better working under tn et same mean conditions as them l. selves.
 t. The workers have themselves an It themselves alone to blame for an u evil conditions under which the : may labor. Here. there is bette e opportunity for organization to ge