Seward daily gateway., 1932-11-28
EDITORIAL
PETTY TORYISM

Railroad aDOnSned US cOmlSSary, and entered into contract with the Northern Commercial Com pany for supplying the section mesShouSeS on a basis of $1.50 per man per day. Then the railroad added 10c additional, making it S160 per day. At that time flour sold for SIP to $14 per barrel; to- day it sells for $6 Other commod- ity prices have dropped cores pondingly. Yet this rate 53 13 cents per meal still prevails in the sec tion mess houses while town res taurants charge 50 cents.
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 According to well-founded re- ports the Alaska Railroad contem- plates the purchase of railroad ties from the States, despite de- nials to the contrary.
 Whether this is in payment to Washington State lumber interests for Republican campaign expenses, we cannot say.
 To the most disinterested and impartial observer this course takes on an arbitrary aspect. And especially at time when the Ter ritory of Alaska is not the reel pient of one penny of the gigantic dole pouring out of the Federal Treasury for big business inStitu- tions, but on the contrary is too proud to be made the recipient of aims and the people are asking only for honest labor bestowed on a reciprocal basis of value for val ue received.
 It would be as consistent for the railroad to import foreign coal with which to fire it's locomotives. And guaged by the policy introduc- ed by the Howell senatorial com mittee, one of the great farces per- petrated upon Alaska, it would be no surprise if this was done
 It is difficult. to concieve of the quality of business economy which prompts the Federal government to pursue such a course in view of the claims of the Administra- tion that it is employing practical means for reducing if not obliter- ating the depression. And it will be difficult in the light of repeated petty economies on the railroad for MT. Hoover or any of his apol- OgiStS to convince rational beings that tke slogan of economy in the cost of government embrace a gen. eral plan of pairing away growthS of bureaucracy, when these titheS filched from an already eXasperat- ed public appear to be the only evil dence there is to offer in point of sincerity.
 The working people of Alaska within the railroad zone have ask ed nothing more than the right to compete in an open market both for labor and materials. This is what they have to sell either to pri- vate enterprise or the Federal gov ernment. They have as much right to protest exorbitant freight and passenger rates as do the commit tee Of the United States Cham Der of Commerce.
 And yet any protest only evokes further reprisals and impositions.
 If anything was needed to clinch the case against the Toryism which has Stalked thru Alaska since the passing of President Warren G Harding, it has been the policy ot the Republican party in it's rela- ton to the Alaska Railroad.
 The tie cutting contract is a vit- al question not only with those men who have performed hercu- lean tasks in building roads into the national forest, which has timber to sell, only to find them selves shorn of a right to work and libe, but to the business men whc must and now are carrying the penniless, while the parent govern ment "greases the fat SOW" from the Federal treasury.
 
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