The Alaska daily empire., 1918-02-14
Declares That His Position on the Eight-hour Was MiSrepreSented by
 That Paper.
HE MAKES A STATEMENT
Refers to His Report as a Refutation of What
 Was Claimed by
 Nenana News.

l JUNEAO, FeD. I2, l9lS. EdltOf The Daily Empire, Sir:
 In your editorial columns of Sat urday Feb. g, 1918, you published an article, under the heading, Ma loney on Eight Hour" Which ran as follows:
 The Nenana News in an edito
 rial refers to the eight-hour and
 the opinion of William Maloney,
 Territorial Mine Inspector, as
 follows:
 Territorial Mine Inspector William Maloney declares that
 the development of the Territory
 will receive a tremendous set
 back if the law is enforced ow | ing to the shortage of labor
 which will be created.
 This statement is absolutely l false, l have never made such a statement to anyone, and where the Nenana News, or any other pa per can get the foundation for such misrepresentation is a conundrum. 1 Anyone that knows me, knows ! that I have always been an advo- cate of the eight-hour day, even before its passage.
 Anyone that was present at the hearing on the eight-hour question, before the Governor last Fiday, and heard me read from my report on ! the labor conditions in the Terri tory during the year 1917 (which 1 had written since my return to l Juneau, after an inspection tour throughout the Territory and is | based upon personal observations | during the trip) can readily see i the inconsistency of the article re- published in The Empire and my written report.
 The paper which I read and which will appear in my annual re- port on labor conditions during 1917 was as follows:
 During the year there was a shortage of labor in some districts, or localities, but taken as a whole there was an ample supply of la ! Dor in the Territory, the fault real i ly lying in the distribution of la bor Some localities having an ex- cess while others suffered from a shortage. The large low-grade l lodes mines of Juneau district were severely handicapped in the opera tion of their mines and mills by | nf tha Iank of fEnia 1n bor. The shortage of labor in this district could be traced to the small wage paid by those mines as compared with the mines in other sections, and in the copper mines of the States
 To substantiate this statement l read the scale of wages paid in those mines near Juneau and in the mines near Ketchikan and those to the Westward, for the same class of labor, which showed that the mines of the Ketchikan district paid one dollar per day more and those to the Westward, Kennecott and Prince William Sound from $1.0 to s150 per day more than the mines around Ju- neau for the same class of work.
 Continuing, reading from my re- port: "A shortage of labor was noted in the Fairbanks district, al- | though the placer operations had decreased fully 50 per cent below that of 1916, in the number of
  and board for eight hours work was the prevailing wage. This can be traced to the large number of men employed by the Alaska Road Commission on interior wa gon roads, and the construction of the government railroad, where the pay was more certain, although the wages were lower. Large numbers of laboring men were attracted to the railroad construction towns of Nenana and Anchorage, where the number of idle men was noticeable "There were three strikes by those employed in the mining in- dustry during the year. Early in June the miners in the Willow Creek District demanded an in- crease in wages, fom s350 pei day and board to s4.00 per day and board. The Willow Creek Mines Company, operating the Gold Bul. lion Mine, was the only company in the district to grant the request of the miners, the others contin. ued operations without experiencine any difficulty in getting all the la bor needed. June 16, the miner. working at the mines of the Ken. necott Copper Corporation, at Ken necott, demanded that a fiat rat, of s4.50 per$ day and board, in stead of the sliding scale then ir force at the mine, the miners agree ing to accept the old scale Of s3.7! and s4.25 per day and pay sl.2' per day for board upon the pric, of copper dropping below 1Sc pei pound. Upon the company refus trn h to nff