The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-03-12
KILLING THE GOOSE.

plain that business conditions are not very brisk and that the winter in this camp is duller from thelr point of view than is usual. All sense the fact that if Nome could maintain a winter population the town would be quite prosperous. But it does not and the problem seems to be to improve matters.
 It is pointed out that the workers last summer had a fairly good sea son and the number who enjoyed a hundred shifts at five dollars per day was larger than usual. It IS true that some of these remained to spend their summers earnings in Nome. but it is also true that a number did not, and it is this which is causing things to De so quiet in the camp during this winter.
 Accordingly businessmen are cudge!Iing their brains to know how to remedy matters and some are actually driven to believe that by advertising the resources o1 thls camp. capital may be induced to ln- vest and the winters thus generally improved.
 Let us consider this situation with some frankness without attempting to delude ourselves with pipe dreams.
 The average man in this camp who is on the pay rolls works dur ing the summer time only. In win ter he can get little or no work and he either stays at home or pros pects. That is if he stays in the country.
 Every summer he labors for cer- tain rer diem-and this is supposed Ia provide him with a living. His wages will about equal the cost of reproducing his labor power on fhat per diem each year, it is sup posed to. bul it does not always,
 ue is supplied by merchants ill Noma with certain uecessaries of nfc By virtue of the situation these merchants enjoy among them selves a monopoly for the worker cannot have access to outside com petition during the months that na- vigation is closed,
 And by a genteman's agreement among themselves the prices on various necessities are increased from time to time thus extracting the workers wages by quit" direct process of abstraction and which is recognized as good business the world over.
 The worker has to pay the prices charged or go without during the winter and be is to all intents and purposes al the mercy of the store keepers.
 This winter a good high increase has been slapped on commodities of one kind or another since naviga- ton closed. Especially has this been the case as to the necessities of life. The grocer will tell you ar euuontatiyclv that crices have so ln- creased outside that he has 10 do the same thing in self protection. He will have to meet the prices now prevailing in the markets and his retail price now must meet the in creased wholesale cost. That is his business way he considers it good business.
 We are not attempting to say how he should run his business; 1t is up to him as he knows, but the people of Nome will not be inclined to admit that the storekeepers Tn the past ever showed any lncilia- tion when commodities fell outside during the winter to cut down their prices accordingly.
 Now the people who live in this camp and elect to face winter here face also the certainty that their summer earnings will be the .subiect of continual eXactions from Nome businessmen throughout the entire period of closed navigation. A dollar on this and dollar on that and by the time the water begins to run in May, some of the prices on some commodities are out of sight.
 In consequence, the wage worker discovers that his wages paid during the summer have come, through