Weekly Calaveras chronicle., 1867-05-18
The Eight-Eour System.

""ieH consllute Gays LABOR from Ten ~
eight, would result benefcially to those who
demand its passage, or whether it would be
just and fair to all parties concerned or not,
the question is attracting large share Of
public attention at present, and will unques-
tlonab'y enter largely into the political con-
test this Fall. Large meetings are being
held in the principal cities in the East and on
this coast for the purpose of instituting meas
ures for the reduction of the hours of labor,
and SO infamed has the popular mind be-
come while listening to the ineendiary la
rangues of their leaders, in which their sup
posed wrongs and grievances have been
greatly magnifed and rendered desperate by
the continued refusal Of their employers to
accede to their demands, many of the meet
ings have resulted in riot and bloodshed.
No matter how just their cause may be- or
how unanswerable the arguments addueed
by the champions of the eight-hour law, no
good can ever be accomplished by such pro-
ceedings. Great rtfUrmations are never cf-
fected by violence or legal enactments; they
are plants of slow growth, keeping pace with
the forward march of ideas the result Of
education and experience; the victories of
justice and right over unfairness and wrong
achieved not by force, but by the gradual
development and expansion of the progressive
spirit of the age. The attempt to associate
the 'abor question with politics, will not, IN
our opinion. result favorably to the interests
of the working classes. Admitting that their
condition demands ainelioration We cannot
imagine how the passage of law, constitut-
ing eight hours days labor. would bene-
fcially affect it. Manual labor is a mer-
chantable commodity. governed by and
subject to the universal law of supply and
demand and the idea that employers would
pay as much for eight hours labor as they do
for ten simply because an Act was placed
upon our statute books, fixing the shorter
period as a legal days work, is Supremacy
ridiculous. Labor has its price, which rises
and falls as the demand increases or decreas-
es; and legislative enactments can no more
affect it than they can regulate the grain
market and say how much the farmer shall
receive per pound for his wheat, or fix
schedule of prices to be asked by the manu-
facturer and merchant. Men, as a general
thing, do not quietly submit to dictation.
and capitalists do not appear to be an ex-
ception to the rule. In Illinois and Missouri,
the only States in which the eight hour sys-
TEN has become law, employers have per-
sistently refused to be governed by its pro-
visions. and As yet the laboring classes have
been unable to derive any benefit from its
passage. In Chicago and St. Louis. despite
all the organizations and "strikes" of the
working men. capitalists have so resolutely
resisted their demands, and so strenuously
opposed the requirements of the law, that it
has been rendered entirely imperative, and
in consequence laborers have been compelled.
from sheer necessity, to resume their posi-
tons under tie old system. Would not
the result be the same in this State if a
similar law was enacted here: Wemost as
suredly think it would. The amount of the
business is just this : Labor is governed by
the law of necessity, and those who are COM
PEELED. literally speaking, to earn their bread
by the sweat of their brows, are subject to
the same authority. Take for instance the
farmers during the busy, hurrying time of
harvesting his ripening crops; the miner
during the season when he can obtain water
to work his claim ; those who are engaged in
mercantile pursuits and their assistants. No
law fixing the duration of days labor can
affect them. They are governed by the ne
cessities and eXigencies of the times, and
were our statute books filled with compulsory
enactments regulating labor, they would be
dead letters, at least in such cases as those
mentioned. 1t is just as impossible for the
Legislature of State 10 set definite price
upon labor-or, what is the same thing, de-
signa'e the number of hours a man shall
work-as 1t is to place fixed value upon
its productions because. the two are init
mately connected, and the price of one is
governed by the value of the other. The
only way we can see by which law regu-
lating labor can be made effective, is, to fix
the amount to be received for days work
as well as its length and then it would be
optional with employers to hire men and
pay them legal wages, or let item starvc to
death, just as they saw fit. If the eight-hou
law were passed. that wages would lessen in
corresponding ratio, is just as true as two
and two make four. While some of the
higher order of mechanics might make a
comfortable living under the new system,
how would it affect the common day Iaborers
who inhabit our cites and who can scarcely
support their families by working ten hours !:
Do they desire to labor less number of
hours II 1t necessitates corresponding re-
ductive i'll their daily earnings: We should
think not; but such will Inevitably be the
result of the passage of the cight-i our law.
We are earnestly in favor of any measure
calculated to benefit, dignity and better the
condition Of the working classes but we
think that the course they are now pursuing
with view of attaining their o. jccts. is
wholly. entirely and absolutely impractieable.
In our opinion, the results desired can Only
be achieved by convincing those who are
most directly interested IN opposing the move
ment, that the demands of the working men
are reasonable, just and proper. legislative
enactments have certainly not proven aje-
quate to the task OF remedying the evil.
Politlca ly speaking, we deprecate he intro
duction OF this question into the contest this
Fall. 1t is but one of the many plans de-