Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-06-08
=. o,n.-, -iIl hardly Be- able % stand

The others win hardly b able 10 Sand
0u =, - /. an exceedingly good indication
a. .se working men asking for lever
horrs instead OF for more pay. In hard
.;uoss such demands ara never heard OF
s.csnt from employers Who are some
,;mes Compelled BY lack Of orders to
Give their men very much shorter hours
than they would like, accompanied.
however, with proportionate decrease
OF nav. The half.holiday movement
shows that the machinists have reached
that comfortable point in the struggle
Tor existence where they can
stop and breathe a moment Few,
very ieT,---of the toiing mass
we call working men ever reach 1t. For
most ofthem the struggle never relaxes
its ierceness. In their homes there are
as many little mouths as one pair oil
hands can get bread for working from
daylight till dark every day In the
week, and II any change were 10 De
made, probably the majority, ins tead oil
a hslf.holiday, would choose its equiva'
lent in money to procure a few addi-
tional comforts for the wife and little
ones. To many persons outside OF pro-
fessed philanthropists, who have occa'
sionally, with sympathy or sadness,
given a few moments thought to the
condition of thousands OF their
fellow beings who are confined
to the dull and deadening round
OF twelve hours work a day
fer six DAYS in the week, the success OF
the machinists in their effort TO in
troduce a new and freshening element
into their lives will be genuinely graft
fying. That speaker at Saturdays
meeting who told his fellow workmen
that in reducing their weekly hours OF
labor from GO to 81 they had added sew
eral years to their lives, was entirely
within the bounds OF truth. They have
not merely gained half day week for
healthiul recreation, they have made
life consist of something besides the
hours OF work aud sleep. There must
be many among them to whom the
privileges OF this half holiday, six hours
IN the week not devoted to money'get-
ting, will be the occasion OF an awak.
ening OF dormant faculties which Will
make better men and better citizens oil
them.
In many other trades similar move
ments are in progress, though mostly
with a view to the abatement OF not
more than one or two hours from the
working day. The tea dealers and gro
GERS clerks have succeeded in persuad-
ing many OF their employers to close
their stores at s O'Clock in the evening.
For some OF the clerks who 10 on duty
at 5 o'clock in the morning the days will
still be long-longer by three or four
hours than any man or woman
ought to be required to work.
The retail clothing statesmen also
demand a concession in time from their
employers. The journeymen BARRIERS in
most OF the uptown hotels have asked
to be allowed TO quit work at 8 O'Clock
instead of 9, and will probably succeed.
Probably the car drivers are the worst
abused men in the world in respect to
working hours. The average horse rail-
road superintendent seems 10 think that
from fifteen 10 eighteen hours day is
a fair DAYS work for driver.
Not long ago a car driver on the
Third-avenue line told Times reporter
that he had not seen his children by
daylight for two months, for he not only
left his home before daylight and return.
ed long after dark, but he did this Sun.
days as we'll as week days. Any appeal
fora relaxation from this cruel require
ment is met by the unanswerab!e obj9c
ton that such matters are governed by
the inhexible laws of supply and de
mand, and that no mere human horse
railroad Superintendent would venture
to upset the time honOred practice,
common to all trades, of getting the NEST
for the least money.
So long as these demands for half.
holidays aud earlier closing are reason
able we have heard of none that
wers not entirely so-those who join in
them show their manliness by it. 1t is
a good thing to see a man thinking some
times about himself and not always
about his employment or his employer
the habit OF n slave.