The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-10
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hours labor as formerly for ten, Ten hours'
labor per day, no matter of what Sort will not
return the same wages to any laborer. The
lawyer the minister, the banker, the Jour
nalist the merchant the manager the fore
man, the mechanic, the farmer, the laborer,
all get less pay for the same work-get more
than one-tenth less. Wages may 60 up or
down, as stocks may, or gold, or cotton, or
wheat, but the return for labor, year
in and year out, will have less pur-
chasing power, less comfort-getting, hap
piness- obtaining power than formerly;
less by more than one-tenth, in all depart
ments of human industry, highest to the
lowest. That is what it means to have debt
of billions. Further evils of like sort we are
suffering because that our national indus
try is paralyzed, and because that our
irredeemable and fuotuating currency de-
bauches credit and commerce; but these are
evils which in time can and will be remedied
by the opponents of the men now in power
and responsible for their enormity. The
gigantic debt which they have created is
not in the power of any party or adminis-
tration to remove. The nrtional debt alone
makes the success of the eight-hour movement
impossible.
1t may be asked why the eight-hour move
ment interferes with the free exchange of SER
vices between man and man. In this man.
ner:-Either an eight-hour law would esta-
bllsh less work Tor the same wages, or more
wages for the same work among considerable
number of employees; or would establish less
work for the same wages among the few emi
ployes of Government; or would reduce wages
and work both in the proportion OF ten to
eight; or would be dead letter on the statute
book, and have no result at ALL Now in deter
mining how much work for how much wages,
the debate should be perfectly free between
him who has wages to exchange for work and
hfr,a hA hna a.. 4.
These two alone are concerned. The interfe-
renee ofoutsiders is an impertinenoe-of Gov
eminent, is an oppression. The workman is
master of the quantity and the quality of the
labor he will sell. The employer is master Of
what labor he will buy, what wages he will
pay. They often differ, but must come to-
gether at last, and, that no injustice may be
done to either, debate must be utterly free.
Then the exchange of service will be free.
But Just as the manufacturing capitalists
! have made use of Government machinery and
I Government power to disturb this free debate,
and to cripple this free exchange in their own
selfish interest, so the demagOgues who want
the votes of wOrkingmen are telling them that
they too can step in and make use of the
enormous power of Government to disturb
this free debate, and oonstrain to their own
advantage what should be an unoonstrained
and free exchange.
OuCQ Inc ODJ6CLlOnS 10 any government
interference of whatever sort. Descending to
detail, no advocate of the eight-hour law seeks
to put dead letter ON the statute-boOk, or
seeks to reduce wages and work both in the
proportion Of 10 to s. If the passage of such
law were to have these results only, he
would feel that he had labored in vain. Were
its passage TO result in giving the same wages
Tor less work to a few employees of Govern
ment only, his failure would be hardly less
complete. In order to profit, unduly and un-
fairly, a few favored fellow-worl1men by pay
ing them more than current rates he would
have imposed considerable tax upon all
the rest of their fellow-citizens who, in
great proportion, are workingmen. The
only remaining effect of an eight-hour
law would be to establish less work for the
same wages, or more wages for the same work,
among slightly larger number of working
men. "Sightly larger" for we have repeat
edly shown how few and numerous the
classes are to whom an eight-hour rule could
or would apply, though written on every
statute book in Christendom-not possibly Ia
farmers or farm-laborers not possibly to me-
chanics who own their tools and work by the
piece, not possibly to the workmen engaged
directly in transportation by railroad on land.
or by steam or sail on sea; and so on till Won
come to the small and few classes to whom an
eight-hoWr law could and would apply II one
were enacted and enforced. And now we saw
that to these classes utterly impossible has
our huge national debt made il for the same
work to get the same wages. Utterly futile
and hopeless, therefore, is any movement. led
by demagogues, pandered to by politicians. foy
giving by law the same wages for less work