Seward daily gateway., 1927-03-02
MORE ON ATTY. GEN.
(Continued from Page Five.)

may be possible to limited extent to attenuate some of the most baleful effects of the unfair contracts at pres ent habitually required of employees connected with the fishing industry. To that end and for that purpose make the following recommendations: 1. The Labor Commissioner should be given authority to hear and decide disputes over compensation for labor, and his. decrees should be prima facie evidence that they were correct and just. He should also have authority, in exceptional cases, to require the Attorney General to prosecute claims for labor at public expense.
 2. A law should be enacted pro- viding:
 Q That the employees should be paid monthly and in money of the United States unless prior to perform ance of the labor a C" tract in writ ing had been entered into expressly and specifically providing for payment in different manner.
 (b) That where the contract is for gibbing or packing herring and noth- ing is stated in writing as to the size of the fish to be gibbed and or pack ed, it shall be presumed that by barrel of herring is meant not to ex- ceed 700 fish.
 contrary is stated in the contract in writing, refilling is not a part of the gibbing and or packing.
 (d) That where a contract for ser vice contains no minimum guaranty it should be construed to guarantee to the employee enough work to enable him to earn at least twenty ($20) dol lars per week besides lodging and subsistence; and where the contract is for the performance of tasks con- templating the employment of several servants and contains no minimum strued to guarantee for each indivi- stured to guarantee for each indivi- dual whose services are needed to ac- cOmplish the task when the cannery, saltery or other esta ablishment is op- erating at full capacity, enough work to enable each servant to earn at least twenty ($20) dollars per week in addition to lodging and subsistence.
 (e) That where the contract for service provides that the superin- tendent or manager of the work and or other employee or employees of the master shall be the sole judge or judges of whether the servant has discharged or performed his duties under the contract, it shall be compe- O fn hny \, nf or their decisions were unfair or un- just and not in conformity with the facts |
 f Written contract for service or the performance of the work shall be plainly read to the servant before it is signed and copy furnished to him at the time of signing, and in event the contract contains more than two hundred (20O) words, the parts relating to the minimum guaranty and the size of the fish to be packed, if such there be, shall be printed or written and printed and is understood by the servant it may be varied by oral evidence in any court in Alaska no matter where the contract origin ated
 Such a law as here recommended will, in my opinion, be valid because it does not invade the constitutional right to contract. It simply estab- fishes certain rights where the con- tract is silent and permits a written contract to be varied by oral evidence in certain cases. Being purely law of the forum it will apply even to contracts entered into outside of Alaska whenever they are produced as evidence in case before the courts of the Territory
 That ignorant and Weak-minded people will always be the pray of the keen-witted is unavoidable no matter what the law provides, but it is my opinion that statute as suggested will materially ameliorate the evils above referred to as special subjects of complaints.
 It must be also admitted that the proposed statute would afford dis honest employees considerably better opportunity than heretofore to annoy the employer. But it should not be overlooked that the employer is in far better position to protect himself against dishonest employee than is the employee in position to pro- tect himself against interruptions en- ployers, at least so far as the terms of the contracts are concerned. Complaints are common that men
 hire out in the states to work for a