Number Two
Where a laboring man is hurt
(say for six months) and at the
end of this time, he is perma
nently but partially disabled,
when the company settles, it
may take credit for all that has
been paid. For example, a single
man has a compound fracture
of the thigh and is laid up for
six months; he got $150 per
month as a miner, the law gives
him $68.20 per month. When
he gets well the doctor reports
that the man has suffered a
permanent inj ury amounting
co 25 per cent. The law then
says that this man is entitled to
$1350 but in doing so the law al
so says the company may deduct
the six months paid or $585. so
the man gets only $765. for a
loss that has decreased his earn
ing powers 25 per cent for his
life time, perhaps thirty years.
The Juneau Chamber of Com
mf'.Tf says that this ’t a gore,
law.
It is the worst law in the
United States with the excep
tion of only one of the other
states—Nevada, being the other,
and singularly Mr. Metzger, of
Juneau, who lauds the Alaska
act, claims to have helped in
writing or passing the Nevada
act.
Mr. Metzger, Superintendent
of the Juneau Mine, says that a
law after the model of Washing
ton or California has been care
fully considered by the Alaska
legislature several times and de
feated.
This is not true.
The proposed insurance scheme
was not considered altho we
grant it was defeated. It was
defeated by Joe Murray of Cor
dova, faithful servant of the
Kennecott Copper Company, as
sisted by Tom Gaffney, former
agent of the Western Federation
of Miners and a flannel-mouth
ed radical, who is trying to show
CAPITAL that he has reformed
and is now “conservative.” In
the Senate, it was defeated by
Senator Harry Pratt, attorney
of the Fairbanks Exploration
Company.
It was defeated by the men in
the legislature, moral cowards
who were afraid of the Juneau
Empire.
It was defeated by men who
had allied themselves to the
federal machine, servants or
carpet baggers, who often for
small considerations, like fore
men of road construction jobs,
sold themselves to the federal
machine.
It was defeated by the large
companies whose attornies sit
on and dominate the “Legisla
tive Committee of the Juneau
Chamber of Commerce.”
There is only one way out—
DOWN WITH THE JUNEAU MA
CHINE.
This slap in the face that the
Hyder Chamber of Commerce
got is to show the Hyder Cham
ber its place.
CHAMBER TAKES STAND
AGAINST CHANGING LAW
By unanimous vote the Cham
ber of Commerce today adopted
a resolution opposing the repeal
of the Alaska Workmen’s Com
pensation Act, or the enactment
of the Territorial Industrial in
surance Act. It based its action
cn the ground that State mo
nopolistic industrial insurance
would put too heavy a burden on
industry and business for it to
be a benefit to either labor or
capital.
The resolution was presented
by Chairman R. E. Robertson of
the Legislative Committee. It
takes a contrary position to that
taken by the Hyder Chamber of
Commerce in a resolution pass
ed June 4, and which the local
Chamber was asked to endorse.
Text of Resolution
The text of the resolution
passed by the local Chamber
follows in full:
“Whereas, the Territory of Al
aska has had in effect since 1915
a workmen’s compensation la\y,
the provisions of which have
been proven by experience to be
satisfactory to the majority of
employers and employees while
permitting schedules of compen
sation higher than those provid
ed by either similar laws or in
dustrial insurance acts of most
of the States, as for instance, the
maximum compensation payable
to an employee or his family un
der the Alaska Workmen’s Com
pensation law is $9,000, as oppos
ed to the maximum compensa
tion in the mining industry un
der the Washington State in
dustrial insurance act of $4,000,
and,
“Whereas, the Territory, re
grettably, has so sparse a popu
lation and so few industries that
a tremendous burden would be
placed upon the people of the
Territory by the enactment of a
Territorial insurance act with
its necessary attendant opera
tion expenses that would have
to be paid by the people and the
industries of the Territory eith
er by direct payment into an in
surance fund or indirectly by
taxes subsequently diverted to
that purpose; and
“Whereas, it is to the interest
of the people of the Territory
that the beneficent provisions
of the present Workmen's Com
pensation Act be continued in
effect.
Approves Present Law
“Now, Therefore, Be It Resolv
ed by the Juneau Chamber of
Commerce that it approves the
present Alaska Workmen’s Com
pensation Act and opposes not
only the repeal thereof but also
the enactment of any Territori
al industrial insurance act, and
that it urges the various Cham
bers of Commerce and other
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