The Alaska daily empire., 1918-02-06
Afternoon Report.

Yesterday afternoon the nearing was continued before Governor Strong until a late hour. Those present made various contradictory statements regarding the labor situ- ation, all of which were taken down for the purpose of the record Without an exception the labor ing men present claimed that labor had been driven from Alaska by the uncertainty of the eight-hour law standing the test placed upon it by the employers of the Territory, and all claimed that at the present time there is an excess of labor on Gas tineau channel.
 Bradley Has Figures.
 Three men present said that they had been applying for work at the two mines for the past three weeks without success and assured the Governor that if requested to do so, could secure fifty men to accept positions within few hours. This statement was denied by P. R. Bradley, manager of the Alaska Juneau and Alaska Treadwell Gold Mining Companies. MT. Bradley stated that at the present time la Dor was short and submitted figures taken from the records Of the min ing company to back up his state ments.
 MT. Bradley in making a state ment said in part: "The companies which I represent have been on an eight-hour day underground for the last five years and were preparing to go on that basis above ground even if the law had not become ef- ective on the 1st of January. We believe in the eight-hour day and should the law be set aside or knocked out we would remain working under the eight-hour sche- dule.
 Works Satisfactory.
 "The eight-hour day works en- tirely satisfactory in our case, but in many instances we should like the privilege of working few men overtime for maybe fiften minutes and maybe an hour, but are willing and glad to pay for their extra ser vices. There are many times in our business when by working a few men a few minutes overtime we can save several hours for num- Der of employees the next day , Mr. Bradley cited several instances to illustrate his point.
 D. J. Kinzie, secretary of the Douglas Island Labor Union and Jack Wilson were present and pre- sented resolutions endorsing the eight-hOur law as it now stands, but asking for the modification of it to allow overtime.
 Workingmen present stated that the Douglas Island Labor Union is not union but an association con trolled by private corporations and that it is not affiliated with any union, that it is not a workingmen' $ body and that it does not represent the workingmen of Gastineau chan AlSAp OoS Ohly kOW AA0A AAO s~s ~ employed at Treadwell and the Al aska-Juneau.
 For the Workers.
 F. B. Harrison spoke at some length on behalf of the working men. "We have the eight-hour law now. The workingmen present at the meeting last night voted to the man against any modification of the law. We are willing to lay down our lives if necessary for the good of our country but we are not willing to surrender our eight hour law for the benefit of any cor poration that needs to make more money, and take what that corpor- ation sees fit to give us in return" he said in part.
 in reply to statements made by MT. Robertson about the scarcity of labor, Mir O. P. Hubbard asked MT. Robertson why sawmills and others did not put on double crews and run sixten hours. instead of being