The Portland daily press., 1865-11-02
Thursday Morning, Nov. 2, 1885.
The Eight-Hour Movoment.


recently started in some places for reducing
the hours of labor. We have already present.
ed to the readers of the Press the arguments
used by those who support this movement /;
and we here give the view of the case as taken
by the Nation:
Wealth is the result of the combined opera
ton of labor and capital Two consequences
would seem to follow from this truth One is,
that their combined action, to produce the
best effects, must be harmonious; and the
other Is, that the product of their joint action
must be divided between them according to
the natural laws by which each is respectively
governed. These laws cannot be resisted with
out punishment. Only by obeying them is
success possible. Success means the largest
attainable production of wealth, and its Just
distribution between capital and labor. If
this be so, then the 'eight-hour movement"
as it is called, which is now causing some ex
element and alarm in the public mind is un-
wise and injurious: for its effect il successful,
would be to diminish production and give to
labor part or the whole of the profits which,
by natural law, would belong to capital
which, therefore, ought to belong to it. and
cannot be refused without i'll consequences to
both labor and capital.
To prove this, it is only necessary to state
late to wages and profits and their relations to
each other. These principles show that the
interests OF labor and capital are not opposed,
but Identical, that they are promoted BY har-
monious action, and injured by discord, and
that the share Of each in the gains of both is
allotted by natural and necessary laws which
cannot be resisted by any human continuance.
The rate OF wages is determined by compe-
tition among capitalists to obtain labor, and
x1ol.a fo,,,
may be regarded as a commodity which one
class has TO sell and the other wishes to buy.
Like all other commodities, it is governed BY
the natural law of supply and demand. When
laborers are numerous in proportion to the de-
mand for them, wages are low; that is to say,
when labor is plenty it is cheap, Just as wheat
is cheap when it is plenty. When laborers are
few, and the demand great, wages are high.
just as a failure of the wheat crop increases
its price. The capitalist who buys labor like
all buyers, tries to get it as cheap as he can.
The working-man who sells labor, tries, like
all sellers, to get as much for it as he can
The bargaining between the two is the process
by which the rate OF wages is ascertained lust
as the market price of everything else is as
certained. 1t can be fixed by no other means,
for there is no tribunal possible with power to
determine it from day to day, or with knowl-
edge equal to that Of the parties Evidently
one of the parties Is not such tribunal
The market price, then, thus established by
free bargaining, is the necessary price. That
it is the just one, also, is to be inferred from
another principle.
The market price, which is finally settled by
competition or by the natural operation of the
law of supply and demand, is that at which
the whole of the commodity offered for sale
will absorb the whole ofthe fund applicable to
its purchase. Increase the commodity, the
fund remaining the same, the price will fall
Increase the fund, the commodity remaining
the same, the price will rise. This is univer-
sal law, and rules alike the market for labor
and for coal, or corn, or gold. The rate of wa
ges will be that at which the whole of the
funds applicable to the purpose will be absorb
ed IN paying for the whole of the labor. If by
low wages part only of this fund be used.
the remainder seeking similar employment
will cause competition among capitalists and
raise the rate. If wages are too high, the fund
would be exhausted before the amount of la
Dor is, and some of the laborers would either
remain unemployed or soon reduce the rate
by competition among themselves. 1850
The proportion therefore, between the num-
Der of laborers and the fund for their employ
ment determines the rate of wages This
fund is the active capital Of the country not
required for other means of production, as,
for example, machinery. Therefore the rate
OF wages can be raised in two ways only: by
the increase of this fund or by the decrease
of the number of laborers. 1t thus appears
that by the normal, untettered action of the
natural laws of industry, the capitalist and
the labOrer are alike benefited, Should the
capitalist be able to reduce WAGES below the
natural standard, a portion of his capital would
remain unemployed to his loss. Should the
laborer succeed in raising wages above the rate
at which the law of supply and demand would
fix them, he would encroachupon funds appro-
priated to means of production other than la
Dor, to the loss of The capitalist, indeed but to
his own ultimate injury also. When capital
ceases to be profitable in one branch OF busi-
ness it seeks another, and, If there bs,no 9TH
er at home, it goes elsewhere. 1T threatened
with unjust legal coercion OF popular violence
and both these are implied Or expressed in this
eight-hour labor movement, it disappears. II
is very timid and far-sighted, and runs away
OF hides itself at the approach Of danger. Its
withdrawal is proof that the body polite is
sick, for it is the life-blood of business, and
when it goes, enterprise langllshes, trade be-
comes Inactive, production is diminished,
wealth ceases to accumulate, poverty oyertakes
all classes, wages fall, labor becomes degraded
and siavish, and civilization decays These,
as many examples in history prove, are the
iatal effects of unwise and oppressive laws on
tne part OF government, or OF unjust attempts
on tile part OF individuals to violate the secur-
ity OF property and the freedom Of industry.
Such is the character of the eigbt-bour Ia
Dor movement. 1t is a gigantic strike. the oh
ject of which is to force capitalists fo now n
rate of wages, to be fixed, not by contract st'R he
tween the parties, but by the laborers only.-
Eight hours is to be henceforth a local a. ~
work, instead of ten hours as at present. and
the capitalist Is to pay for eight hours as much
as he does now for ten. He is to be compell-
ed to do so by law, such a law as cannot sbe
eyaded by any artifce its opponents may in,
yentU and the members of the league pledge
themselves to "visit with just and exemplary
action every man and every combination that
by opposing MS. shows unImistakable hostility
not only to the movement we are engaged in
but to the very spirit of republican institu-
tons" Such opponents are also stlgmatlzeo
as monarehistso-"unwo the confidence
OF the people" The meaning OF all this Is
plain enough. BY political agitation, and the
oner OF the workng-men's vote lit has been
accepted by the Democratic party, legislation
Is 10 pe OBTAINED to regulate the rate OF wages
according 10 the pleasure of the la60rer, which
happens now to be that eight hours Of work
per day shall sell for as much as fen hours
and all who oppose the plan are pointed out as
objects and victims of popular tndignot;on-
Jack Cade went no further than this ,Tban he
declared, "Yhere shall be in FnaIaad sa,,or
half-penny loaves sold for PENNY anJ 40
three-hooped pot shall lave ten hoons To
added, also, what was very natural coneo-
quence OF the execution of such promise =.
"All the realm shall be in common. and ~
Cheapside shall my palfry go to grass" Leo.
islatures can and often have played the part 3,
Jack Cade, and when either they or mohs
-T.on twa .4e