THE SOCIALIST PRESS
Published Weekly In The Interest Qf The Working-Class.
NO. 42 .
FAIRBANKS, ALASKA, Feb. 27, 1910.
Vol-1
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
(From Socialist Party Prc^ Bulletin)
Has the Pittsbrugh Steam
ship Company—one of the
tentacles cf the United
States Steel Corporation—
got as tight a grip upon the
Michigan legislature as the
Southern Pacific used to
have upon the California leg
islature?
That is the question raised
among the friends of LaFol
lette’s Seamen’s bill in the
Senate, as day after day
drags along, aqd the two Mh
chigan senators and fflost of
the Michigan congressmen
joip in obstructing the House
and Senate conference on the
“Seamen’s Magna Char la,”
against which the Pittsburgh
concern has waged an adroit
campaign of lobbying for
years nasj;.
These congressmen merely
deplore tjie JaM-deplore ^
I out loud whenever a conferee
j is within earshot. Senator
Townsend takes it up at tjie
'other pnd pf the capital with
person^] friends. Senatpr
! Smith the same V\ illiam A11
‘
! den Smith who so adroitly
made comedy of hjs investi
gation in'.o the Titanic Hor
ror— findts himself slated as
one of the conference Corm
mittee. Whereupon he goes
to Southern California for a
month, Dec, 16 to Jan. 17,
to yisit his mother. The con
ferees opposing the bill in
sist tlpit pothing be dope till
he gets t)gck,
Smitl} rgddene$ and sim
mered gn$ \yrithed, the oth-'
er day, when asked about
his having held up the confe
rence. He finally remarked
that “he had no notion when
the conference would meet.”
Townsend, the pthcr of
this Michigan pair, so Uosely
in sympathy with their leg
islature, was not a conferee.
He had to strike his blow at
the bill in some other way.
•He struck it when he offered
for reading jn the Senate a
concurrent yesolution from
the Michigan legislature.
This resolution demanded
the defeat of the LaFoilette
bill. It declared that the
•‘drastic resolutions, to pro
tect passengers upon theo
cean and upon the Great
Lakes, if enacted would vir
tually put out of business all
pas§enger-boat lines operat
ing qn the great lakes,” and
it made tjie old plea for the
‘‘millions or dqllars invested
in said exei^iq^ boats,”
doomed to almqst total lpsa;
(continued on la^t pagg.J
Treat Children’s
Tgeth Free
The School Board of Pitts:
burgh, Pa., has employed five
dentists to care for the teeth of
the school children, free. And
only think this will destroy the
home
^ Cooperation
In Indiana
Unions of Indianapolis have a
five story department store, with
more than eleven thousand stock
holders, the larjjc.it union coope
rative store in America.. With
this as a nuclops, the unions are
preparing to organize coopera
tives throughout Indiana.
Municipal
• Pawnshop.
The new municipal pawn shop
in Kansas City, Mo., last year
made 12,000 loans, aggregating
$270,000. Though loaning cheap
er than the private companies,
it made six per cent on the m
vestment.
For, Internationally
1, For a single world power fo be ad
jministfred by an intj^na.ional congress
with authority to investigate and to
settle the questions involved in the pre
sent war, to disband all armies, and to
dismantle all forts and warships, to be
a permanent world government to take
over the ownership of the high seas, to
adjpinister all protectorates, to decide
all questions of international controver
sy covering international trade and inter
national credit, and to maintain a suffi
cient army and navy to police the seas
and to enforee its decisions and that
the United States should take the initia
tive in establishing such a world poweri
2, f-r the national ownership and ad
ministration of all industrial and com
mercial monopolies of every sort.
3, State,For a land system which will
bring into the most productive use all
natural iej' urcgs jwl guarantee to all
occupiers of the land all values created
by them and appropriate for public pur
poses all values collectively created by
the people.
2, For state ownership and adminis
tration of markets, collections trans
portation and delivery of i,o^ds direct
from prp^uccr^ tp consumers without
the Intervention o,f any private agency;
for the reclamation of arid and swamp
lands, for State building, improvement
and manufacturing enterprises; to be
carried on only wjien there are morp
men than jobs, ann to be closed always
when there are more jobs t^an men.
3. Kor State medical aid, sanitation,
hospital care, industrial and education
al employment fer tho defept^vp and
dependent, free education wjth provi
sions for seif supporting employment
and industrial training i;r al\ grades of
school work including un iver6ity courses
pensions for the aged, deformed and
permanently disabled.
4, For municipal ownership and admin
istration of the water, light, heat and
power, gas, markets, playgrounds, ci
vic centers and municipal dwelling
houses.
5, For establishing and adm.nistpring
these things on an industrial, self gov
erning. democratic basis to the end that
regular employment may bo provided
for all. Education and all else on a ba
sis of equal opportunity.
The P urpose Of Socialism
Written for The Socialist Press by Carl D. Thompson Article 17,
SOCIALIST PARTY ON THE INHERITANCE TAX. Article XV.
Municipal ownership pays. It
pays first of all, in better wages,
shorter hours and improved con
ditions for lahor. And to the so
cialist that is the first and most
consideration of all.
To be specific: The city of Ban
Francisco, upon taking over one
of th'j Street car lines in that ci
1. about a year ago immediately
raised the wages of its employees
from 27 cents per hour to more,
than u7 cents an- hour and redu-'
ced the hours from ten to eight
per day.
Eleven cities in Eng’and.upon
taking over ttr:r public enter
prises, reduced the average
hours per week from eighty to
sixty and continued to reduce
them,
Glasgow' alone spent $516,040
per year in increased wages,
shortened hours and improved
conditions of the street car em
p’oyees.
According to Albert Baker,
former manager of the London
street railways, municipal owner
ship of street car lines in Eng
land lias reduced the hours of
street car men 48 per cent and
(dontinued on last page.)
Is Kidnappihg
A Crime. •
'
■ ■ _ ■ ■ — i
! For kidnapping ![jogren, Social
ist and member of a grievance
during a strike oi mi
ners in |tHneapolis three meri
have just been senteqce^ t9
penitentiary for terms rangjng
from \ to 40 years. Two juries
disagreed and thO convict,
ed. 'Jb6 supreme court has iJiy.
hel(] the lower court.
The Navy
Is No Navy
“The navy is no navy” scree
ches a jingo. Then let us hang
the scounck.els who spiel us junk
on the ground that it was a na
vy, and at the samp time prepare
! t0 hang the same scoundrels who
are trying to dispose of other
junk and call it 9 navy.
Did Not Insure
Peace.
England had the biggest navy
in tne world and Germany tin
best equipped array ever known
and a'l this did not insure- pence*