The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-10
Labor and the Laws of Political
ECONOMY.


IT is to be regretted that the principles of
political economy are not more generally
and thoroughly understood by all classes of
people. If they were, we should be saved
much foolish and hurtful legislation on the
one hand, and much ill-advised and abortive
action on the part of the laboring classes, SO
called, on the other.
The "eight-hour movement" is a case in
point. Without much thought or investiga-
tion, but mainly in obedience to a clamor
which threatened to be turned to political
ends, several of the States have passed laws
recently making eight hours a legal days
work in the absence of express stipulations to
the contrary. This is very well, perhaps, as
far as it goes; but a moments reflection will
show that it does not meet the real problem
which, in the minds of those urging the move
ment, lies at the bottom of it. The reduction
of the hours of labor will be a boon of small
moment, if the reduction of PAY proceeds in
the same ratio. The real effort is to secure
the same payment for day of eight hours
work as is now given for day of ten hours
work. In other words, the proposal is to
increase the present rate of wages twenty-five
per cent. An example or two will make this
clear. The mason who now receives four dol
lars day for ten hours work is paid at the
rate of forty cents per hour. Give him four
dollars for a days work of eight hours, and
he will be paid at the rate of fifty cents per
hour-an increase of twenty-five per cent.
The shoemaker or tailor who receives three
dollars a day for ten hours work is paid at
the rate of thirty cents per hour. Pay him
three dollars for days work of eight hours,
and he will receive at the rate of thirty-seven
and half cents per hour-anOther increase of
twenty-five per cent
Now the question whether wages can be
raised twenty-five per cent. is not at all one
of legislation, but entirely one of political
economy. 1t cannot be reached by making
eight hours or six hours or any other num-
Der of hours, days work. Labor is COM
modify, just as much as pork or flour is, and
its price is regulated by the same great law of
supply and demand which regulates the prices
of all other commodities. When labor is abun-
dant, exceeding the demand for it, it will be
cheap, just as under similar circumstances
corn will. When labor is scarce, not meeting
the demand, it will be dear, just as wheat is
when wheat is scarce. Legislation cannot
change this. Making eight hours legal
days work cannot do it. You might as well
legislate against the force of gravity as against
the great law of supply and demand.
Almost all values represent labor. The origi-
nal value of the raw material, before any labor
has been expended upon it, is a very small
portion indeed Of the value of any manufac-
tured article. Even the coal which we dig
from the ground derives the greatest part of
its cost in market from the labor which has
been expended upon it in mining and trans
porting it. Values thus representing labor,
what would be the effect, suppose this eight
hour movement could be carried out to its full
xtent, including the same pay as is now given
or ten hours work? In other words, what
would be the effect of arbitrarily increasing
the price of labor twenty live per cent. ? Why,
simply that the price of everything else would
go up in the same ratio. The pair of boots
which it now costs four dollars to make,
would then cost five.
The suit of clothes which can now be manu-
featured for twenty dollars, would then cost
twenty-five. The house which it now costs
four thousand dollars to build would then
cost five thousand. And so of everything else.
Hence the result would be that, while the
laborer might get just as much money for a
days work of eight hours as he had previously
obtained for ten hours, that money would not
buy him so much in the market as before. He
must pay more rent, for it costs twenty-five
per cent. more to build houses; he must pay
more for meat and flour, and hats and boots
and clothes, because it costs more to make all
these things. An hours labor would purchase
no more in the market than it would before,
so that the laborer would really be poorer by
every hours labor he had lost. r.
If our laboring men, instead of listening tC
the appeals of demagogues, and the noisy elo
quence of those who are wiser than mer
who can give reason, would investigate this
subject, and study the laws of politca
economy, they would get juster views of tn,
question of labor. They would find that it i
ruled by laws which inhere in the nature o
thlngs' 1t is proper that the Legislator
should protect the minor, the apprentice, an
whoever is unable to protect himself, b
hmlting the hours of labor, but it is beyon
the province of the Legislature 70 regplate tn
price OF labor by any enactment. Il canpo
do it if it would.