The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-01-04
\ REAL CRISIS.

Beyond anything that has occur red in recent years the railroad cri- sis is most correctly to be considered the most important one that the country has faced since the civil war
 For many decades there has been a struggle going on hap hazard fashion between employers and employees Only when conditions became so sensational that it was impossible to longer ignore them, did the public sit up and take mo- tice
 All that time a social process has been proceeding gradually growing more and more intense, and now and then exciting national attention if only for little while.
 But there has been and indeed there is a complete failure to give this tremendous industrial evolution any such attention as is properly to be given it. It is the paramount question of the time. sweeping be- yond national borders and with it's titanic interrogation mark demand ing answer,
 Now this railroad question, ap- parently merely an incident, serves first of all to rivet attention upon the fact that the real national life is not located in political but in eco homie circles, and is not bounded hy geographical but by industrial lines. And this real life blood courSins through the national veins is puisat- ing with viality demanding more and more attention and more and more careful treatment at the hands Df those who are called upon to direct the national ti"itinV.
 Now furthermore, in this railroad crisis, the entire relation of owner ship to the people and the people to ownership, the relation of employer to employee is brought immediately to the front. And it most certainly many have realized long before, that society and these relations that we speak of, as they are at present, can no longer continue untouched: that if they do continue untouched, mo- thing but social, industrial and civil disaster awaits the nation
 This crisis presents fairly and squarely to the nation the fact that private ownership of the nationa' necessities affects adversely the hap, piness of the community, and that only clear thinking and right acting can possibly result in the nation in these uutoward circumstances avoid ing the rocks of social catastrophe.
 We may easily lose sight for a minute in this crisis of what is an apparent struggle between the owning and the laboring classes. But we cannot overlook the fact without complete loss of clearness of vision that it is this struggle which is the key to the entire situation. Further more, it may not be denied that as this struggle is faced for solution. de- bends entirely the future welfare of the commonwealth.
 We hear a great deal about the greed of the employees. of the ne- cessity for reasonable profits, for concern for the public whose inter- ests are jeopardized in this struggle between employers and employees. And these main points are the foun- dation of the case for the railroad companies. They are cited as req sons why there should be no strike; why an eight hour standard of payment is unjust and why an in- terruption of traffic due to this struggle would be quite unfair to the public.
 The question of private ownership is not they claim involved. There is no mention made of it with refer ence to private ownership of the railroads, and it is passed up as if indeed it was not as it is, the crux of the entire situation. Here is a public utility. Here is an industry which serves to deliver to the pub lie the needs which are theirs and which producers supply. That industry is one that cannot be inter- fered with without serious suffering.