The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1867-05-23
EIGHT Hour Wages.

| On the first of May the Board of Public
| Works adopted the eight-hour system-pav.
Ilng their laborers pro rata, that is four-fffths
| of former pay for lour-ffths of former work,
Before week had passed the men began to
| grow discontented, and wanted to know if the
| city could not afford 10 pay them ten hours
wages f0F eight hours work But that was
| peremptori1y refused. Another week passed
ana the discomfort grew stronger. They must
nave more wages there fore they petitioned
the Board to let them work ten hours and
draw ten hours pay, which has been acceeded
70, and the men are now voluntarily working
the former number OF hours for the former na y
ana seem vastly better pleased and satisfied.
they have tried the eight hour system to
lhelr hearts content and at the end of three
weeks experience have unanimously discs
ed IL. They found that what the demagOgues
had told them about the value of the two
hours for improving their minds" was moon
shlhe. What they most needed was more
money with which to buy flour and meat, NO.
tatoes and groceries, fuel and clothing. and
OF pay their house rents
Iho eight hour experience of those men is
Ihe same as that of all the other laborers who
nave gone TO work on the eight hour system
I0f corresponding compensation they are eli
ther insisting upon ten hours pay or offering
Io,Nofk- ten hours Tor the old pay
Inc Ten hours pay for eight hours work
ldea7was at the bottom Of the whole agitation
1t was the motive power that pr0pniled tbn
system never intended to accept pay in pro
portion to the work performed. First secure
q deduction oftwenty per cent in the hours of
labor, and then strike for two hours vases
after quitting work, and compel the EMPLOYER
70 stand the loss. That was the programme
Ihere Is not one in hundred Of the strikers
VINO ever intended to accept the wages they
earned, or submit to the same reduction in
pay that they reduced production. Their mr.
pose was TO cut down production one-fflh. but
10 eXtort the compensation OF full work there
LOT. II Is true that some eyasiVe resolutions
were adopted setting forth that the question of
pay was not thenln ISSue-that they were con
ending Tor reduction in the hours of work.
I but NOBODY was deceived by such declaration.
IN L1oSe shops where the employers took tb-n n,
at their word and hired them on the eight honr
work, elght-hours pay system, they began TO
Srum0le and demur before they had been at
work week. And in every instance where
fbe e,,,,1",,i.O uhaole to dragon
the employer into paying them for two h0u,s
IGIe TIME, they have voluntarily retired to the |
Ola system OF ten hours work for ten honr,s !
WORK ior former pay. Some of them by means
OF pleasant fiction, call it a day and a omar
ter ana draw pay accordingly The whole |
elSht-hour movement and ATTENDING strike |
rests on the sandy foundation of ten hours /
compensation for eight hours production-
the employers to sustain the loss Remove
the expectation of receiving two hours nav I
for unemployed time, and the entire agitafion
Will cease, and the whole thing will colIaDse |
very speedily. 1t needed no law TO authorize
)r empower journeyman TO work but eight
hours day; and no act of legislation can |
compel am employer to pay him twenty Der
'ent OF wages for idle time.-Chicago Tribune.