The Daily Alaska empire., 1933-04-03
CONNERY BILL MENACES TERRI
 TORY'S EXISTENCE.

The Connery bill to establish a 30-hour week in all industries made applicable to Alaska will bring ruin to it's industries, close down it's mines gold. copper and coal it's salmon canneries and probably all fisheries activity put end to prospecting, sagnate business and pauperize the 6OOe0 Americans who are trying to build up self-supportmg com monwealth in this the last American frontier This is not an exaggeraton. If anything it is an under statement of fact.
 Our industries 90 per cent. seasonal They compress into few short weeks the work for an entire year and a majority of those engaged in them must in that space of time be paid a suffi- cent sum to provide them and their dependents with the necessities of life for the entire year. If by Congressional fiat, some 66 2I3 per cent add- tional workers required to be put on the pay rolls it can be accomplished in but one way-to reduce the average wage paid commensuratey. Without so doing the industries could not continue to operate And if wages cut in any such manner, or by one half of that amount, labor can not exist
 In the mining industry most of the some 1000 persons connected with it must enough in about 12o days of activity to subsist and provide for their families for 12 months To state the proposition thus ought demonstrate to any reasonable person its utter impossibility.
 The fisneres gIve employment annually to ap- proximately 250OO individuals That work is even more seasonal than the mines The average salmon canning season is well under 60 days. That industry produces in normal times between $45,000000 and $50O00000 worth of canned salmon. For the past two years whole it has shown net loss to the packers It could not inaugurate 30-hour week work system without drastcally reducing wages and if it did that so profit could be earned the earn ngs of it's employees would be less than some of the pttances paid in the sweatshops of Eastern cities. ,,,rJ,,r could afford to go on the proposed Connery system, it couldn't possibly comply with the requirements during the coming season. To house the additional thousands of workmen that would be necessary there are no existing accommodations To construct them would be an enormous task under conditions that exist in the Territory and anyone familiar with them will readily recognize that it just couldn't be done in time for this years activities.
 Theoretically the proponents of the 3o-hour week have solid ground on which to stand. They are seeking to create millions of jobs for the millions of idle men and women throughout the country. In a highly industralized culture it probably can be worked out. Economists seem to think 1t can But it cannot be applied successfully to wilder ness country, to a land where the untouched wild creeps down to the very threshold of the thin line of industrial plants that have been planted here by far-seeing men with vision enough to discern great State in the future and courage enough to battle adverse natural conditions that must be overcome before their dream is realized.
 The United States not made great, was not settled did not become the worlds greatest indus trial nation, on a 30-hour week. It achieved its greatness because its pioneers were willing to work hard for long hours year after year, fighting back the wilderness conquering step by step, and laying the foundations of the United States of today on just that spirit of willingness to labor, to endure thot the finest heritages given to any people
 Just so must Alaska be developed, if 1t is to develop. It cannot prosper, it cannot grow, it can not hold it's own, it cannot possibly survive as independent self-sustaining entity under the Connery measure.