Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-05-01
STRIKING P0R SHoRYER noun,

| STRIKING FOR SHORTER HOURS
To-day has, by previous agreement,
been set apart for the beginning OF gen.
eral movement throughout the country to
reduce the hours OF labor from ten TO
eight. 1t has the conntenauce of several
OF the labor organizations, but none OF
them are committed to 1t, and the move
hlent Is not general. Ia nearly every i'm.
portant manufacturing town there will
probably be strike or walkout OF labor
ers to force employers to adopt the eight
hour plan, but in this action it is not
shown that they have the sanction OF the
central authority Of their societies. Mr..
Powderly, the head OF the Knights OF La
Dor, has pronounced against the move
ment, not as an undesirable change but
es premature and unwse effort to OBJ
tain 1t. The walkouts that will occur to-
day, which have been threatened IL en-.
ployers refuse the demands OF men for
eight hours, will take place by the loca; as
semblies and lodges of the labor unions,
each acting for itself, and apparently
without the appreciation or dsapproba
ton OF the central authorities. There is
not, therefore, wide enough concert of
action to make the movement of to-day
one much to be feared, or one that prom
ises immediate success.
The men who encourage this movement
are likely to defeat themselves by asking
two much. They want ten hours nav
for eight hours work. II granted. this
would be equivalent to an increase of
salary 20 per cent. The state OF trade
does not seem to be such as to authorize
general advance Of 20 per cent. in
wages. No other season Of the year is
months, May, June, July and August ARG d5 |
the dullest in the year, and when little or
nothing Is doing 1t Is the height OF the |
injudlcIous to attempt to enforce an ad.
vance OF wages. Were the strike
merely for a reduction OF hours OF
work, with proportionate reduction
OF pay, 1t would probably be very gener-
ally assented to, for there is no promise
of business to make 1t necessary to work
more than eight hours day. Indeed,
employers would welcome it, for it would
limit production, at time when the de-
mand is limited.
The principle of less work and more
leisure is q good one. The extraordi-
nary use Of machinery has made 1t posi-
BILE for small number OF men to do as
much work to-day as an army of hand
workers did fifty years ago, To still give
employment and support to the men who
must depend upon their labor for
their llvings, it Is necessary that the time
applied to production be limited, or the
markets of the world Will be gorged by
Accommodations of goods and wares.
In demanding merely reduction In
the hours OF labor, the men who make
1t are governed by wise instinct But
they fall into an error in attempting to
enforce the payment of the same rate OF
wages for eight hours production as
when they worked ten hours. The trade
and commerce Of the world cannot be
regulated by such arbitrary rules. A SUI
pefior law to any ever enacted by men
controls 1t, and will not be set aside by
any resolution to make eight hours an
swer the purposes of ten, AS well try TO
make the sun do his diurnal Journey in
twenty hours instead of tweny-four,
In time, as the world of trade adapts
itself to the new condition of things,
wages win rise to their present rate; but
that action cannot be forced, 1t must
take place of its own will, and any at.
tempt by artificial means TO hasten it
viii bring on dis ster.