The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1867-05-18
The Eight Hour Movement.

The exceptional manner in which the eight
hour men in Chicago attempted to force the
system through in that city, has we'll nigh
ruined it. Instead of striking simply for eight
hours, they virtually struck for an addition OF
20 per cent. to their wages, by insisting upon
receiving the same wages for eight hours
labor that they had formerly received for ten
hours. II thus becomes double strike--a
strike both for shorter time and higher wages.
They undertook too much, and have broken
down. Now, it is true, those that continue to
hold out, have dropped the higher wages clause
and say they are contending for eight hours
only. But having failed in the first effort, they
have become so divided up and demoralized
that for the present the movement threatens
to be total failure. .,.. i''
On reading the speeches made at the meet
ings of the Chicago strikers, we find very
prevalent mistake, and it is also entertained by
some of our workingmen here, in reference to
the effect of the so-called eight hour law of the
late legislature. They seem to have an idea,
that because the legislature has declared eight
hours legal days work, therefore those EN-.
ployers who refuse to pay the same wages for
eight hours work that they formerly did for
ten, are law-breakers This is ridiculous. All
the laws that all the legislatures in the country
can pass must be ineffective to compel employ
ers to hire workmen for any given time, or to
regulate the prices of work. What Legisla-
lures may do is to say whenever there is no
agreement between employer and employe as
to the number of hours that are to be counted
Is a days work, it is to be understood that a
given number of hours Tin the present case
eight are meant. 1t is exactly like our inter
est laws, which fix the legal rate of interest at
SIX per cent. Nobody imagines our bankers
and business men are lawbreakers, because,
the use Of money being really worth more than
six per cent, they therefore contract Gin per-
feet accordance with the law for eight, ten
or twelve per cent. A law which would de-
clare that an employer should not employ men
more than eight hours day, or that a laborer
should not work more than that many, would
be as arbitrary and despotc towards the one
as the other.
In the present depressed state of labor at
the east, when so many manufacturing estab-
lishments are closing, it is certainly very
serious question for the workingmen to CON
slider whether it is expedient to strike for high
er wages. 1t is doubtless true, that in proper
ton to the expenses Of living, their wages are
less now than they were five years ago. But
it is well to consider, though this is the case
employers are not therefore making greater
profits. Since five years ago great changes
have taken place in this government, and in
the shape Of excise, tariff duties, and many
other ways enormous taxes are now levied that
our people knew nothing Of formerly. It
would take us much too long to trace all the
ramitications through which it is done, but in
the end it is certain these taxes come all out of
the workingmen-thc producers. Without
this taxation, the present wages would be high
with it they are low. Depend upon it, it is
taxation more than the oppression of employers
that is now bearing most heavily on the work
ingmen.