St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-11-15
Kearney. Neb., Nov. 70, 1885.
EIGHT HOURS DAY.

A minneapolis Writer Considers the
Subject in Several Aspects.
To the Editor of the Globe.
The old song of ''eight dollars day"
is now about to give place to that Of ''eight
hours day." All the great labor organi-
cations, as now seems almost certain, will
soon be united in demand for eight hours
as the standard and usual time for bodily
labor per day.
And why not? One man of high char
acter objects on the ground that ''eght
hours will not exhaust mans strength"
What an objection! Why should any hu-
man being, having a soul or the rudiments
Of soul in him, be expected to give his
whole strength to mere bodily toll? This is
one proof that low ideas, brutal ideas, are
not confined to low or brutal men.
But what is the use of working ten hours
a day when eight hours will produce more
than can be consumed or sold? A reduction
of production would be an absolute benefit
in all branches of trade. If eight hours, as
some think would lesson the surplus on the
market, would give relief just as surely as
abstinence from food or drink would bene-
fit the glutton or the drunkard. The chan
nels of trade are gorged with commodities.
and, therefore, we hear daily complaints of
slow movements of merchandise at low
prices.
But if, as facts of general import show.
eight hours day would so quicken the ac-
tivity, both bodily and mental, of our
workers as to prevent the diminution of
products, who could doubt the absurdity of
working ten hours or the great benefits of
the eight-hour system?
On the contrary, the interests of human
ity demand that all men should have some
strength and vivacity of body and mind left
for mental and moral effort. Time for
study should be allowed to every human
being, and he who will not use time in max
ing some effort at self-improvement, should
be treated as man not deserving respect.
ECONOMY. @
True economy demands that every man
should have time for chores. for attending
to the numerous details pertaining to the
purchase and caring for of provisions; for at
tention to his family in all their relations to
himself, to each other and to society, and to
the repairs suggested by the old proverb:
"A stitch in time saves nine"
These considerations are enough. pay
no attention to the inSelent question::
What would they do with leisure time if
they had it," If | make any reply to such
a question, it is who made you a judge
over US? Mind your own business. Facts
show, however, that men who have some
time, bodily strength and mental vivacity
left do not spend their time and money in
saloons. They go home and enjoy them
selves there.
Why should not all shopkeepers and cap
italists favor the custom and the law that
would free them from excessive attention
to business? Why should not friends of
the education Of the masses Join in the de-
mand for spare hours for the masses? And.
above all, why should not every Christian
cry out with loud voice in favor of change
that would give time for all men, those un-
der the pale of the church as well as these
out of it. to perform their religious duties?
Here is one of the strange things of the
day. Ministers of religion should see at a
glance that taking off some of the daily
pressure of life which is now confessedly
abnormally great, would favor the great in
terests of humanity. They should plead
with trumpet tongue for the diminution of
that incessant toll which brutalizes and i'm
poverishes the N asses, and is producing a
dreadful increase of insanity and crime.
These are the general considerations
which present themselves as favoring the
eight hours-a-day" reform. What do you
think of them. thoughtful reader? x.
Minneapolis, Nov. Il.