The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1871-09-23

cannot and will not reduce wages. On this
point let the voice Of the great metropolis
be clear and pronounced.
No revelation in Political Economy that
has been made in the last century can CON-
pare in practical importance with the neces
sity imposed upon leading Labor Reformers
Of first teaching the laborer that wages are
governed BY the cost Of living, and not by
the quantity Of work performed. II men
we're paid according to what they do. then
those who work the hardest would always
get the most. But the fact is precisely the
reverse. Those who work the hardest al
ways get the least, as a rule, especially If
the employ ment is very disagreeable. If
the worker we're paid according to what he
did, the matchmaker OF Waltham or Elgin
would be paid the same as The matchmaker
Of Switzerland. But the watehmakers Of
Massachusetts, and Illinois are paid what it
costs to live in those States, while the watch
maker Of Switzerland is paid only what il
costs bis class to live in Switzerland. No
fact is bett RWn to the educated class
than tAis: is more persistently and
Infamous Pesenied in the interest
Of the end yclass by the New York
Tribune and World, the Boston Post and
Advertiser, and the Chicago Tribune and
Times, Leading Republican and Demo
cratic organs.
Whether one ought to have as much pay
for eight as for ten hours labor would he
AIR question to ask, if we we're paid all
We really earn in ten hours. Those who
ask this question assume that we are, and
that we shall be over-paid if we do not &C.
cePt a reduction Of twenty per cent for
eight hours.
Our wages, however, are not Just com
pensation, and with the advantage Of i'm
proved machinery we are probably averag-
ing from twelve to fifteen hours production
for only len hours pay; and in exceptional
cases We find operatives earning, in two or
three hours each day all that they receive,
leaving the remaining seven or eight as
clear profit for some employer or middle
man, standing between them and oonsum-
ers.
To those, therefore, who ask g. whsther
We expect as much for eight as for ten
hours r it will be proper to reply with the
question whether we must continue to toll
ten hours for only Eve or six or seven hours
wages p
To prove, however, to the entire salts
faction of the masses that eight hours can
not and will not reduce wages, all labor
paid for BY the public upon Nationa, State,
county, city and town works, must first
adopt this rule OF eight hours 1t will not
do for those having charge of this labor to
offer those employed eight hours, il they
will accept twenty per cent. less. and to offer
full pay for ten hours. Such arrangements
are to be denounced as frauds, several of
which have already been offered.
II il takes ten hours labor TO secure ten
hours pay, We must Of course work ten
hours. If it takes ten hours pay to secure
eight hours work, then that must be paid.
Give those who have charge Of public works
full liberty to do anything they please about
wages. 6at under no -sdresssuaf fGncos wqaApls
ever as rule, to work more than eight
hours per day.
Ii you could force the City or State Of
New York to adopt seven hours the man
agement would still be obi ged to paw the
old len hour rates.
On y satisfy the wage classes that their
wages are perfectly safe, and they are ready
for the next Legislation necessary to secure
the more general adoption Of the system.
A general adoption OF eight hours will
cause wages to increase, and thsls the only
way by which wages can ever be perma.
nently increased without increasing to
corresponding extent the cost Of production.
The moral and natural causes that make
men dearer, alwsys make things cheaper.
Dear men are the cheapest, and cheap men
are the dearest. 1t s easier for the Amer.
lcan laborer to obtain The result Of dear
labor here, than for European labor 10 se-
cure the results of the cheaper labor there (;
and this is why the worlds migration tends
towards America.
1t will be still easier for the laborer to
earn after the leisure We propose has had
time to increase wages.
To increase the wages AMI the intelli-
gence Of the laborer, so that cooperative
labor shall eventually supersede the wages
systemic reduce the profits on human
labor so that the capitalists shall become
laborer, and the laborer capitalist-to
secure a more equal distribution of wealth.
so that Poverty shall finally be impossible.
is the great idea Of the Eight Hour move
ment It will revolutionize tie Political
Economy of the past, and the professors Of
the future will teach its teachings.