The Nenana daily news., 1919-01-27

works, and to take such action as will restore matters to normal con- dition, 9 mass meeting was held at the Union Hall at seven o'clock last Saturday evening.
 The meeting was called at very short notice, the handbills being dis tributed around scarcely an hour
 before the time fixed for the meet ing, but the interest in it was so great that the citizens of Nenana turned out in force and the large hall was packed with representa- tive gathering of all the interests
 in this district. Nearly all the merchants and professional men in the town, all the sourdough miners and prospectors who happened to
 be in town and great many of the railroad workers were present.
 Robert Joseph Diven, pastor of the Presbyterian church, presided at the meeting by special request, and called it to order shortly after 2 o'clock. In explaining the purpose of the meeting, Dr. Diven said that the action taken by Mr. Browne, in charge of the Fairbanks division of the railroad, which was forced on him by a lack of funds, threatened to cause great distress and suffer- ! ing, not only among the large num- Der of workers directly affected by the lay-off, but to the entire dis trlct, and that it was the purpose of the meeting to take immediate steps to apprise the secretary of the h. terior and others in authority at Washington, of the true state of affairs and to demand instant re lief. It was understood that the local head of the Alaskan Engin- eerlng commission was powerless to do anything for the relief of the district, although he had used every means in his power to avert the disaster.
 It was proposed, the chairman said, to send an urgent telegraphic appeal ,o Secretary Lane and Dele gate Wickersham immediately, and copies of these telegrams were also to be sent to Senator Martin, of Virginia, and Representative Sher- ley, of Kentucky, chairmen of the congressional appropriations com mittees, pointing out with all possi- ble force and urgency, the need of immediate favorable action in mak- ing sufficient funds available for uninterrupted continuance of rail road construction work on this divi- sion to avert the impending dis tress among the people of this dis trict.
 The chairman called upon MT. C. M. Graham to read the telegram it was proposed to send, which was as follows:
 When in peril from German kultur, the people of the land were lmportuned to turn their substance into bullets to blot out the Hun his mark; none responded so nobly as the people of Alaska, par tlcularly the workingmen of the Fairbanks division of the Alaskan Engineering commission. Now on the heels of another appeal, this time for bread, instead of bullets, tor the Hun, the hands of officials here are tied and workers of the Fairbanks division, many mourning sacrificed sons and brothers, and impoverished by prompt response to incessant appeals from a nation in need, are thrown out of employment by the same government, in the dead of rigorous winter. This means not only imminent ruin to men induced to invest in the gov ernment townsite here, but hard ship and suffering to the workmen with nothing to sustain them but Red Cross buttons and receipts for Liberty Bonds.
 We the workingmen of the Fair banks division of the Alaskan En- plnaprinp cov, n, o.1.