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from the Western Federation of Miners and have elected the following officers for the ensuing year President, Martin Moran vice president W. E Priestly secretary.treasurer C. E. CulIen. The organization is quite large. but at the present time is carrying a heavy expense They have received from the people of Fairbanks a large number of donations with which they are building a hall. They have purchased the old News building. and are using that but they are putting in a cellar and also adding another story so they will have a two-story building A settlement was pending and arranged for by the miners and operators, but it fell through because the union insisted they had not authorized a meeting The committee consisted of Martin Moran, F. E. Cullen W. E. Priestly and F W. Thompson for the union: H E. Riley, L. B. Rhoads, F. Jesson and W James for the operators, and Judge James Wickersham, E. T. Barnetta F. W. Parsons and Samuel A Bonnifield for the merchants An effort will be made to have allother meeting in a few weeks The rate of $5 for eight hours seems agreeable but the open-shop clause is not meeting with favor. The Miners' union has a paper run by W F. Thompson called The Miners' Union Bulletin It issues every Monday morning All the merchants in Fairbanks were held up to give the paper $30 worth of advertising a month for six months Fairbanks society weekly The Tana11a Tribune, is published weekly by E. S. Bunch It is at present advocating the taking off of the lid. Bunch is backed by the gambling interests in this matter. Fairbanks is now on a certificate basis They give out no currency but instead of it give out certificates, wherein they pledge themselves to pay their depositors in full by August 1. 1908. The First National bank and the Washington-Alaska bank are on a clearing house basis and accept each other's certificates but the Fairbanks Banking Co. (Barnette's bank) is going it alone. The bills are in denominations of $1. $2. $3. $5. $10. $20. $50. $100 and $500 They are accepted as cash all over the city and creeks. Samuel A. Bonnifield, of the First National bank is sick with fever at the hospital as a result of overwork He is improving rapidly however, and will be out in a few days. The stages from Valdez now make the trip to Fairbanks in 7 1/2 days. The next first-class mail is due to leave here for Nome a week from next Wednesday. It will have on it letters from Seattle as late as December 26. 1907. Contracts have been advertised here for the letting of the mail contract between Fairbanks and Fort Gibbon by way of the new government trail. which goes over Ester down the Tolovana to Hot Springs. G. Huey, the photographer of Nome, is spending the winter in Fairbanks He already has a fine collection from the scenes down river. The winter sports of Fairbanks this