The Nome nugget., 1947-02-28
Main Trails And Bypaths
(AlaSka SpOrtSmanl

uglar vein of Aaska-its shipping-the future of ths great Territory is threatened before The homie existence of the people of Alaska depends for it's
 feblood the artery along which all freight is carried to and from the North At the present time indications that unless Congress finds solution this artery will be completely choked off February 28 when ship ping and from Seattle is scheduled to because it is longer economically possible continue this pub lie service.
 The monopoly is not some great shipping corporation mi ght have been the in the past but is the
 binaton of maritime unions joined together to get wha they want at the expense of the other people of the country This combination, of course is not band of unions serving only the Territory of Alaska but it is part of Coast-wide association controlling all the ships on the Pacific And the union organizations within Alaska take their orders from San Francisco and Seattle
 So great is the power of these maritime unions that they able to tell the Government and the operators acting agents for the Government not only what the men shall be paid and the hours they shall work but how hard they shall work and how many shall be put each task and who these shall be- In all this the power of the unions is absolute.
 This entrenched monopolistic power of the huge mari time unions now concentrated in handful of union leaders, many of whom not in sympathy with our system Of free enterprise IS threat not only to Alaska but to the whole nation At word these leaders can tie up water transportation system of the United States only to enforce demand for higher wages, but to contavene the policies of the elected representatives of the people and bring disaster upon the Nation in h event it should be threatened by Outside power stoppage of work in the maritime industry in time of war pr threatened war could bring upon the same form of slavery that has been visited upon millions of innocent people in Europe-and this is no idle dream!
 Just because the three months of maritime strikes which stranged Alaska during the latter part of 1946 ended is to hope that Aaskas troubles in transportation The ink hardly dry on the onesded contracts before local soppages began all again in controversies over who should man the wincheS and tend the matches of the ships And long, shoremen walked off the Northern Voyager wien it started loading in Seattle for Alaska in January because the operators had put uniformed but unarmed guards duty again in effort to cut down the perage of goes which caused losses totang than hundred thousand dollars in merchandise during the war rho these guards taken off
 Higher wages pilfering, feather-beddng work-stop- pages sowdowns inefciency and just plain misnlar- agement the part of the union personnel who are in effect really operating the ships have made operation ships to Alaska prohibitve under the present high Government-set rates, that ships will operate after February 28 unless solution can be found
 The solution of course, is to give management hand in running the ships. The way to do it is apply the antimonopoy laws the field of labor just as they are applied to business and industrial monopolies Labor in the maritime industry we'll as in many other activ-