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service and half by private lessees.
In explanation of the plan for
profit sharing in the government
. "mining. service" Senator Polndexter
said: - .
"The original idea embodied in this
plan waS suggested by Mr. James
MacKaye of Cambridge, Mass., a Har
vard man and scientist of note, au
thor of 'The Economy of Happiness.'
Under this plan, the 'mining service,'
in developing its half of the coal
lands, is to be organized to obtain the
welfare of two, and only two, sets of
people the consumers and the oper
atives. Operatives include both la
borers' and managers. A minimum
wage (or salary) and a maximum
price are fixed .for the 'mining ser
vice' by the President. It must do
business between these limits.
"All receipts over and above the
costs of operation, maintenance, etc.,
and 5 per cent interest charges are
put in a 'dividend fund.' Half of this
fund goes to the operatives to in
crease their minimum or original
wage, and the other half goes as a
rebate to the consumers to decrease
the maximum or original price charg
ed. The share of the operatives is
distributed among them in propor
tion to the respective amounts of
their original wage, and the share of
the consumers is distributed among
them in proportion to the amounts
of their respective purchases." -
The senator said that this provision
of the bill is designed to provide a
specific incentive to efficiency of ser
vice. "The more efficiently they work,"
he said, "the larger will be the divi
dend fund, the higher will be their
final wage, and the lower will be the
final price to the consumer. Hence
the interest of producer (laborer and
manager) and of consumer are made
identical.
"By this plan all necessary and
legitimate charges must be paid
maintenance, depreciation, etc.,
wages of labor, of superintendence,
and-interest at 5 per cent," continued
the senator. "The maximum price
may be set by the President to be
sufficiently high to allow for all rea
sonable rink. But EVERY CENT
over and above these legitimate
charges I3 absolutely disposed of be- .
tween producer and consumer, and "
thus all charges for 'velvet' or
'speculation' are annihilated.
"This bill makes monopoly impos
sible, furnishes coal at the lowest
price which conditions make possi
ble, prornotes the general develop
ment of Alaska, aids manufacturing
cheap fuel, furnishes government
employment for thousands of unem
ployed, and, perhaps more import
ant than all, iffords an object-lesson
in the-relati. is between "employer
and employe which may aid in the so
lution of that problem."
00
DIARY OF FATHER TIME
Marvelous as have been the strides
made in ship-building in the last hun
dred years, there is still plenty of
room for improvement,, in a few
directions.
Noah probably spent many hours,
when the flood began to subside, in
the bows of the Ark testing the depth
of the water by means of a lump of
rock attached to a long piece of
twisted grass. Exactly the same
meanB is employed by the quarter
master on the Ocean Greyhound to-,
day when he heaves the lead. Fulr
ton, when he invented his first steam
boat, used a cow-bell and a gong as
a means of signaling his instruc
tions to the engine room. A similar
device Is still in use on our coast
wise vessels.
Although we still speak of the men
who man our boats as sailors, engi
neers would be a better term. It is,
pretty safe to say tnat not one of
them in a hundred could splice rope,
sail a boat, or pull a good oar, yet to
successfully navigate the swarm of
lifebofits which every liner is now
compelled to carry, all of these quali
ties might be necessary.
