The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-05-05
CITIZEN FAIRBANKS May

But general eight hour law, so far as we know or can find out, cannot well be es- tablished. There are some occupations in which the health of those employed therein cannot be said to be injured by more than eight hours of daily employment And where the health of the individual, or the general public, is not endangered by the work itself, The Citizen is inclined to believe that no legis- lation which fixes eight hours as a maximum days work will stand the tests of the courts
 At least this is the position which has been taken by the courts, including the su- preme court of the United States, in review ing cases of this nature With such decisions available, it would seem that any attempt to enact law in Alaska, covering all occupa- tlons, would not only be useless but foolish Not only would it not be of any benefit to those in occupations wherein there is no un- healthiness incurred by more than eight hours daily work, but would render the entire law imperative and deprive persons engaged in other occupations of needed projections
 This is the stand that has been taken by various senators, including Mr. Hess of this division, on the Dunn Pennington measure which was recently passed by the lower house
 
 senate. They are convinced that the bill, if it is enacted, will not be upheld They object to burdening the courts with cases which they know will not bring anything to the people of Alaska except ill-feeling and be need less expense to the government. And they are not taking any undue lib- critics when they refuse to approve of such measures. Under the circumstances, knowing that the act did not have chance to be opera tive, any member of the legislature who would vote for its passage could do so only to gain political support at home by pointing to the fact that he supported the measure and voted for it.
 The laboring man of Alaska does not want his representatives to adopt such proce- dure. Unionism is not the product of fools, but the result of clear-headed thinking Real union leaders do not demand the passage of legislation which is doomed to defeat before it is enacted. They want laws which will stand under any test, otherwise the men whom they lead are worse off than before.
 The threat of the Ketchikan laborites to organize union labor against any senator who does not vote for the Dunn-Pennington bill is farfetched. And their threat to boycott the Victory loan unless it is passed is the heighth of selfishness and unpatriotsm. In making it they seek to weigh each senator's obligation to his country against his sworn duty to his constituents Each of them owes it to the government to do nothing which will obstruct the loan subscription but he is no less under obligations to his constituents to pass only such laws as they know will be operative.
 It would be easy enough for the terri torial senate to pass that eight hour law. Most of them seem to be convinced that it wouldn't amount to anything material, just SO many words printed on clean white pages at cer- tain cost to the territory. None of them would be out dollar by its passage But they have seen one miserable failure of an at- tempt to establish an eight hour law and are trying to prevent a second one.
 The Citizen believes that any senator voting against the bill, if he establishes the fact that it is unconstitutional, need have no fear of offending the people of Alaska, whether they be working men or not. The average good sense of Alaskans is too high to allow any man to be politically killed because he voted against bill which was manifesty opposed to the rights given every American under the Constitution of the United States THE TERRITORY's DUTY
 The reappearance of influenza at Cor dova carries with it a grave danger to the