Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1869-12-31


EIGHT HOUR Law.
From Senator Morrill's Speech
Much Of the labor Of our country is performed
in connection with lab0r-saviug instruments and
machines, moving at liked rate Of speed. which
cannot be increased and continue o. .urn out
good work. Il Is plain that when these ma
chimes, involving a large outlay of capital, run
only eiEh, hours instead Of ten per day only four
tifths OF the usual amount Of work will be done
The products OF all such establishments would
thus be increased In cost as well as diminished
in qusutity twenty per cent How many could
20 on under such a regimen,
A division Of labor Is all that sustains the
price Of days work here above that Of the low
est European standard. Break down the me-
chanic arts and manufactures, and return all
that are therein employed to agriculture, and
Americans would soon become merely rude CON-
petiiors Of the barbarians on the Danube or Of
the wild hunters Of the forest.
But workingmen have right, singly or By
association, TO set their own price upon their
labor. Time is tie working mems capital ex-
c.usiyely, but they must remember that if not
discreetly used it cannot be stored up and It's
value in the twinkling of an eye departs forever
They have right in time Of peace to stipulate
for wages in gold or its equivalent. Paper mon
ey is their bane. They have the right to Join
cooperative unions. Beyond wages a partici-
patton in some annual share Of the profits Of the
business wherein they are employed would Sc
cure their hearty good Will TO do the most and
not the least in their power. and not only pro-
mote the welfare Of workmen, but it would in
the end prove beneficial to all those vino might
he induced to furnish capital .or enterprises On
such terms.
The great advantage we have hitherto main
,aiped in the United States in favor Of the Ia
boring masses, and which it should be our high
est ambition still to maintain, is that wages are
much higher here than in any other country, or
in point Of fact nearly twice as much as else
where. But will il not be too much to attempt
to keep wages at the maximum American point
and at the same time to dispense with consid-
cradle part Of the labor? Surely it is nothing
less than lighting the candle at both ends
Abundant wages, the vision Of which attracts TO
our shores ten thousand emigrants per week, are
within our grasp; but stinted labor is a species of
thriftless saving, of fruitless economy which no
rising nation can afford, and is a fearful symp-
tom that our growth has about reached its cul-
mnation or that its declension has already COM
menced. 1t may prove the beginning Of - a
mastery inactivity that preludes decay and
death. t. spend the capital Of the country
without supplying the waste would prove equally
ruinous to non capitalists and capitalists When
capital becomes scarce, as a matter Of course it
grows dear, and less Of il is within the reach Of
those who obtain it by labor.
We may have as a people the ability for CON-
ing ages, it is to be hoped, to indulge in high
rate of wages, but it will be disastrous to in
dulge at the same time in a low rate of labor or
time. There can be no prosperity without work
Our reputation people of universal industry
has been honestly won, and the proposal to re-
duce our measure to an inhexible standard Of
eight hours per day for the weak and the strong,
the dull and the dextrous, or 70 curtail our ag-
gregaie products by more than one fifth, if this
rule were to be universally adopted and applied
to machinery as well TO men 1T will be TO deDase
our character for industry Just we have de-
veloped our highest powers; and the debasement
will occur at that most inauspicOus moment, the
close OF war drawing heavily on our national
capital. when every brain and every muscle Of
our country should be actively at work ior the
B speediest reparation Of the ravages Of the con.
/ fict. Needing additional labor most of all else
| in every State and Territory of our broad land
we have presented insiesd-whai? A propcsi-
ton 10 diminish what labor we have, which in
/ point OF statesmanshp may be ranked on par
with such measures as lower the standard Of A
bushel Of wheat from sixty to fifty pounds, or to
paper money below par, or such as legalize a
standard of clipped coin. The naked proposition
is TO support forty million people and do the
work of only thirty-two.
The hereditary principle, ''ouce baron al
ways a baron, once cobbler always a cobbler, -
copied from the unprogressive ages of ancient
times, and depressing the lower classes quite as
much as it elevated the upper, as unfolded in
the rule that every member of a family must
follow the particular calling of his father, and
which still largely prevails in Europe, is ban
shed in America rs much from the ranks Of
manual industry from learned professions and
official stations. Liberty has emancipated the
energies and the genius of the American people
from the slavish routine Of all such soul-debas-
ing perpetuities.
When men are under q master they are in
capable Of enterprise or economy. and lose. ac
cording to the old Greek poet, half their virtue