, 1879-06-22

| ~A~A ~NA NeNAA ooA F4NVf "A~~~As ~~@~-~~~~ -
| their partisan associations.
THE POLICY or REDUCED PRODUCTION.
! We had some remarks faw days ago or
the subject OF the anticipated strike on tht
| part of certain workmen in this aud othel
cities for reduction Of the time Of work tt
eight hours per day, but holding on to ter
hours pay, We have received nots frou
one Of the loading men of the Eight-Hou
League of this city inolosing soma resolu.
| tions framed at Boston meeting by one
Ira STEWARD, with notice that TINT party
will be in Chicago to address the Eight Hour
meeting on the Fourth Of July. The reso.
1utions and remarks Of STEWARD ore fur
uished us, with the Endorsement that they
are the "most mastery statement that has
ever been made by any living man on the
subject of ten hours' pay for eight hours
work.
The resolutions are too long for insertion
entire, but, excluding what is old and what
is repetition. the essential argument present
| ed by them is thus stated:
| Resolued, That the only way by which the in
i
increased, without reducing Its purchasing power
or increasing the cost Of production, is through
| reduction OF the hours Of daily labor.
l.. Reso!red,. That the extraordinary increase OF
American exports within two three years should
| be regarded with profound modification. because
they are tue result Of tho decreased earnfnga and
increased poverty necessary for American laborers
| to undersell, discharge, and make paupers OF
| European ]aborers. And the lower wages At homo
! necessary to capture foreign cmployments are the
+ lower wages necessary to destroy hons employ
ments.
Resolved, That tho congratulations nnblushtngly
indulged by American statesmanship over our in
creusing exports are sufficient evidence that It
fails to comprehend the almost infinite difference
between capturing the Worl ids employments
through competition, and creating new employ
ments through higher civilization Whatever that
meuns1.
Eesotrtd, That eight hours OF 1ess hours will cre-
ate days works; and how many days works must
be created will be revealed when the statistics Of
idleness sufficiently thorough and extended to,
cover the whole civilized world.
f. Resolued. That these two measures arc not
American: or English, or German. or French, but
they belong to the political economy which begins
with tho dea that :. Our country is the world and
our countrymen are all mankind" Aud for their
final vindicatton confidently appeal to the bet:
ter educated public opinion OF the civilized world.
The classes Of persons whose hours of
labor. will be reduced by this proposed
change ara comparatively few. They en-
brace but q limited portion Of the labor of
the country. The rule is totally inappicable
to the. agricultural producers, and to E
majority of the skilled 1aborers, to the
mercantile, navigation, transportation, and
miningpopulation- Nevertheless thesemen of
the League speak, predict. threaten, and COM
mand as vociferouslv as If they represented
the human family, and the hopes and inter-
ests Of mankind vera in their hands. Like
all self-appointsd leaders, they will probably
find that when the time for faction is de-
clared, their assumed constituency will be
wanting, and the world will move on undiB-
turbed by their noise.
In his admirable "Sophisms of Protec-
ton" BAsr1Ar devotes large space to the
discussion of the opposing theories of
abundance and scarcity, and which is the
better for man and. for society. In the first
proposition presented by this Boston orator,
it is laid down as a fundamental truth that
production of wealth is excessive, that
labor is producing too much property, and
therefore production must be reduced. The
doctrine leads up to tho theory that each
country must produce the least that can
supportit; that an excess Of production for
export is evidences that each man is produc-
ing mora than his share; that the true
measure of labor is to ascertain the least
amount Of what the whole population can
subsist on, and Of the number of!workmen,
and, dividing the hours needed by the given
number Of workmen to produce the
minimum quantity to be produced, the
answer will be the: required number Of
hours to make days work, 4 reduction of
the hours devoted to production is as direct
an effort in the way Of scarcity as if there
were limitation placed on the number of
men to bs employed
To speak Of a reduction 1t the hours Of
labor without corresponding reduction of
wages, or an increase of the cost of produc-
ton, must be utterly fallacious unless it in
o1ude the al1-essentia1 point of scarcity Of
ths things to be produced by labor. !
The surplus products of this country for.
which there is no home market represent
cd by the I" balance Of trade J" must give en-
ployment to fully half a million of workers.
The proposition of this Boston idiot is to
stop producing and shipping those balance
Of trade products because they compete with
Ehe products Of European laborers. His
dea carried into effect would throw half
million of men out Of employment and add
70 general pauperism: The pressure of
5hoss unemployed men for work would
:orce down the wages Of al the
'thers who were still. employed. The
,reat oversight made by those who ad-
7ocated a condition Of scarcity as opposed to
me Of abundance is In forgetting that labor
8 o means and not, An end. Labor is q
means whereby man individually and col
ectively aims to secure for himself the con-
umption Of the largest possible sum, or
weight, or number Of the comforts and good
hings of thus Life j; and any policy that tends
0 bring about scarcity, as opposed to, an
bundance, is clearly directed to defeat the
nd of all labor. The general reduction OF.
is Of necessity step in the direc-
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