, 1869-06-01

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Atarrs TRIBuSE COMPANY,
seAso. m
THE EIGH1-HouR PROJECT.
There WIS held in Boston, last week, two
days convention Of the friends Of "Labor
and Reform in which there Was even more
than the ordinary amount OF airnless talk
upon wrongs and rights and remedies aud
corrections. AL agreed that labor was op~
pressed. and that this oppression was unjust
sSnd should be corrected, but beyond this all
was vague and indefinite. There was a
pretty general concurrence Of thought that
though wages azo higher than ever before,
Yet the working classes were never less able
20 support themselves on their earnings IS
than now but not one OF the orators, male
OF female, understood enough Of the SUBJ
jsct rron which they were convened to
point out TINT The first and vital measure OF
relief TO labor is in reducing the cost of
living. In the whole caravan Of orators
and oratri1es, Senators. Representatives,,
t1iv1nes and politicians, not one was shrewd
enough to suggest the only practicable rem
e1y of oqnalidug the cost Of living and the
cummings Of lnbor- What arails it to man
10 receive five dollars day for ten
honra', or eight hours, or two
hoHrs' labor, If it cost him si1
dollars day to live: and what "reform"
50 dira2t in its RELIEF as that which, by re-
moving taxation from the prime necessaries
Of life, will reduce the cost Of living to four
dollars, and leave labur daily surplus?
This, the most obvious Of all modes Of re-
lief, seems never to attract the attention Of
the professional labor reformens.
There was considerable discussion and
-,ot sA..~auI OF defamation nrea the
,luction Of the hours OF labor. In their en-
thusiasm several Of the orators promised
that the reform would not stop ut eight,
but would reduce days work to SIX hours;
lint NO one Of these cou1d Iaoint ont how
men who were unable TO Hyc upon the
wages Ct ten hours could do so at eren the
same wages for eight hours work. In the
convention, however, were two men Who,
though unable to poirt out the remedy,
very clearly saw tho iupracticability Of the
e:ght-Eoar sys:cn as i relief from present
actual dist7ess. One Of theae-Mr. S. P.
Cummings, Il practical shoemaker-is thus
reported:
lie w;zhel 10 repeat that he coald sec no a1-
:an:aEe to be sasnec hJ the eight hours being
hY I'M
Egnt-HouE Law, hut he doubted the policy Of fixing
La. liyiso:. OF TING br .1w. 1Io allowed that ten
wr1I IA i:c,oFies, but to make the eisnthoar sys
:c PRACTICAL theS 1nrst break down the necessity
.lt rua;,ela ,he laho1ng classes Il, do 1t for ten
reiiet :hat be hai r.: he found that he could not
-uplor: Ills family upon The lat'or Of eight hours
Mr.. T. J. Durant, after insisting that u
general social reform WAS necessary, said:
The eight-EoHr system ! do not consider
Practical at present nnder the rrtSeut existing
side Of soce1y, for it could not he applied to tho
sailor, tie a4Tcul:uTis', iac aui1eSttc, or those
employed IN ttanspurt2ton-7
These two men state the whole difficulty.
One shows that for twenty years it has
taken the proceeds Of ten hour daily labo,
10 support himself anu family; and th<
other slowsthat tha Eisht-Hour law can bt
applicable only to very small proportion
of the workinEmen OF the country. An,
person who will t:.kc the trouble to max
Ess Of the occupations Of men end womel
i'll this country, will discover that the eight
hour svstc1u, mt tf1o best, is Of no possible
relief or benefit to ninc.eea-twentiaths o
Sue reur:c Il is applicable principally, i
not exclusively, to ordinary .lnskilled labor
and 70 mechanical emplov.nen,s; but OF thi
!.ttvr class large and daily increasing
ls1uicr of skilled work.uen aro paid b,
the piece, and not by the day, and conse
a,iently the limitation operates to their iii,
advantage, and not to that Of their Gil
rloyers. There are, moreover, thousand
Of mechanics. and particularly in the MOI
skilled 1ranches, who work in their ow
>l"Is ard factories, and 10 whom this Ia
viii hc inapp'iea'ile, and who ri
totally disregard it, and, /
t!ein:s. still further enhance I'll
comparative v.,!uc Of their labor. As III
l'rn.nt stated, such system can never NJ
llv to agr;cnltaTists, nor to those engage
a';ou the wator, or in transportation
the latter including larsc proportion {
the population uf tv.ry city. The law, 1
s::st. can only relie-c from labor for tw
Avurs c,.ch day that comparatively numc
rsi'y sl':;.i' l,,"1n'rsi"n II tie people who's
l..i:e.r is csnaisa,c>l l,s tho ii.s and not d,
pendent upon a,3y special skill OF mechal
le:-1 education, Admitting, for arg',mon.
r.. that working inst eight honrs instes
,i ton each any will he direct relief
l"elv and mind, il does not directly OF int
1,ttl- contribute to the relief uf nleu who:
present trtn1le istllat il costs more none
:o1,1oyida thc 2ccese.11ies Of life than eve
tn. wages If ten hours will procure. II
reduction Of the hours Of labor must hay
.rc ri two effects: II the same wages al
paid. it mist add twenty per cent to Il
''ost Of the production Of the labor, whit
is necessarily taxed back on the cost Of Ii
i.:g: OF. if the wages 6c reduced in propo
.is,n to the honrs os labor, then the worh1n,
lEls himself in the receipt Of onc-fifth lc
wages. while The c.'st Of living, which nc
,'1cee,ls The earnings If ten hours, renai
us il IVES, In either case, then, the rcdr
tion in production, or tho additional cs
t the production, falls npon the workin
mcn Of the country, by increasing tho il
quality lctwcen wages and the cost Of L
is,::. md i; no relief in any sense.
The eo<tof living is in the cost of p1
,.uction # the essentials of domestic col
fu1t ind maintenance. This cost Of p1
iuctiun is made up u two taaia itans-t
cost OF L.bor md the cost Of materi
Each lusoscr aEd workman can, by lit
,tnly. ascertain the proportion of the C
q i'll he has to buy Tor the support Of hi
self and family. which goes to labor
ti4at which is in the price Of
material employed Let him t
,is 1ous and shoes, his cloth,
Lis carpets. his cooking utensils, and nil
;.rticles cf his household furniture, and
qL!rr why t.sr cost III the material in
thest il 80 excessive when compared Y
iAst Of I6boz: and let him asl himself
toes not tend inevitably to his impoTer
,uert ~ pay one dollar and seventy ce
lor 1nete,i>l when the Halnr may lie had
one dollar: and whether it is not this e,
mous ezcesa over :he necessary cost Of
u.Ate-izl, which he pays On I'll Le buys,
Is eonsun4ing Lis earnings, and leaving
poorer every day. Let him compute
much lie world Save N his weekly Ell