The Ely miner., 1943-12-23
On This
Occasion
A Few Observations on Matters
Material and Immaterial
by the Editor
HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Y

One of the industrial firms Of tn
nation in making its annual report :
stockholders states, your officers ar
glad to report that business during tn
past year has been greatly improved
In fact, we almost broke even. We hav
named six vice presidents in order t
get little work done about the plan
by answering about $4,000 inquire
from Washington each week and j
naturally running at full capacity. w
have also built an addition in which
all summons to congressional probe
can be received, filed and cataloguet
without confusion"
- - IA
Every once in a while a compulsor,
military training movement is organ.
lied by Americans who fully believt
that preparedness in every way Is 6
preventative of war. The claim is be-
ing put forth that a nation fully pre-.
pared will not be attacked. There vii
be much support Of compulsory mill
tary training and there also viii be a
great hue and cry against it, the same
as has been done every time the mat
ter was broached. The lessons taught
by the war, in our way of thinking
should settle the matter The chair
man of the house military affairs
committee has introduced a bill for
peace-time military training which
calls for one years training for young
men, to begin at II or 18 years of
age, that age being decided upon be-
cause they would then, as rule, be
fresh from school and their business
careers would not be interrupted.
Those who oppose the training do so
on the matter of expense and also
claim that American, unframed, are
able to spring to arms, rush into a
fight and defeat any foe This has
been diSproven and shattered, but a
lot of demagogues are still using it..
A few years ago military authority and
discipline were abolished from the CCC
camps near this city by these same
demagogues who claimed that the
training was putting us in the same
class as the European nations. 1t will
be noticed, however, that the boys
who had the benefit of this kind of
training in the camps became officers,
mechanics, etc., in the army much
quicker than boys who did not.
"a - "a
The Ely Miner and more than 1850
newspapers in 27 pulpwood producing
states were asked this week to con-
tinue their efforts to increase pulp
wood production in 1914 because of
the growing military need for pulp
wood products. Chairman Dear of the
>pulpwood committee states that pulp
wood is an ever increasing vital war
material made scarce by the manpower
shortage. "Since it is too early to
estimate the results of the newspaper
campaign in terms of pulpwood pro-
duction, am sure we can feel justly
proud of our records" said Mr.. Dear.
- p "a
President F'airless of the U. S. Steel
Corporation says that the corporation
is willing to extend the labor contracts
beyond their present state of expira-
tion during current negotiations be-
tween u. S. Steel's manufacturing SUBJ
sidiaries and U. S. Steelworkers OF
America, but expresses strong opposl-
ton to a retroactive clause in any
wage adjustments which may result
from these negotiations. Mr.. Fairless,
in his discussion of the subject in
letter to William H Davis, chairman
of the National War Labor Board, said
that the subsidiaries were in full ac-
cord that the present labor contracts,
most of which expire on January 3,
1914, shall remain in full force and
effect until the many proposed changes
are finally determined, but that they
strongly protest against the inclusion
of any retroactive provision. Mr.. Fair
less said that the nature of the steel
business is such that producers of steel
cannot go back to their commercial
customers and expect them to pay in
creased prices for steel already de-
livered. He also pointed out in his
letter that between January l, 1941,
and october 81, 1943, basic common
labor applicable to employees of most
of these subsidiaries had increased from
621a cents to 78 cents an hour, or
nearly 25 per cent, and that average
weekly earnings Of all such wage
earners had increased from S3301 to
s5O.42 per week, an advance of SIT per
cent, partly occasioned by overtime
pay. The cost of living index has in
creased 23.4 per cent in the same time.
Further emphasizing the corporations
opposition to the retroactive clause,
Mr.. Fairless states: Considering the
increases in wages which have been
made by these subsidiaries since jan
uary 1, 1941, we fail to understand how
anyone can properly contend that a
retroactive wage increase is necessary
on the theory that present wage rates
are not at an adequate level to COM
peneate for increases in the cost OF
living since January 1, 1941."
FOUR IN SERVICE.
r1o,Ir sons of MFR and Mrs. Mike Le-