The examiner., 1886-03-20
A PLEA FOR EIGHT HOURS.

The eight hour law now pending before the General Assembly ought to pass. It is in the interest of both capital and labor. Each will be the gainer by it's becoming law on the statute book. The idea is just here. Fifty years ago man employed at certain piece of work spent fourteen hours per day in toll and received therefor S1.50 or $2.00 Within fifty years vast inn provements have been made in manufac- turing. Facilities for turning out work have increased, and abundant new devices in machinery,-labor-savin so called have been invented. All these facilities and inventions do not in fact "saye laboro for any one but the capitalist, unless the results of eslabor-saving'' are divided be- tween capital and labor equitably. For example, year ago man works at cer- tain employment in which, to turn out given amount of work, he is compelled to labor ten hours per day. A machine is in vented, by the aid of which, tended by this same man, the same amount of work can be turned out in four hours less time. In other words, the same man, with the machine, can to-day perform in six hours the same amount of work for his employer which year ago without machinery re- quired ten hours. Why should not the s1abor saved" in four hours inure equally to the benefit of the workmen as to his em- ployer. Neither of them invented the machine, neither is entitled above the othel to tue benefits of it's results. It is illogical to say that, if labor is employed fewer | 1. 4I,n
 should be proportionably less. What makes the decrease in hours employed Improved machinery. What has capital to do with improved machinery and it. benefits any more than has labor? They
 are both on the same footing, and if th
 weight is in favor of either, it is to be cas
 for labor, because it is labor,-often skilled labor alone-which invents new processes and improvements in existing mechanisms
 Who ever heard of the president of one of our boss foundries in Waterbury invent ing sHabor-saving" machine His salary
 and dividends take up his whole time.
 The records of the Patent Office show that
 his mechanics, his laborers, inUent, and his Company claims the invention because
 it was developed while the mechanics were
 in his employ. Why, then, should not } labor stand an equal chance on the machine with capital, and each divide with the
 time saved, wages remaining the same and !, offsetting dividends on stock remaining also the same? This is natural justice. } Were it otherwise, mechanics and work
 men who invent improved machinery, are only Knocking their own brains out"
 The Oaks Ames' plough had better give place to the old pole and crooked beam of
 Vrigils' Georgies. The world of mechan- ics would stand still, if labor did not in : vent. Capitalists should encourage inven- ton. shorten the hours of sslaborn in pro- portion as labor invents, pay "living'
 wages to labor for its results, whether one } hour per day or sixteen, and trust to the '] average good sense of mankind in business for dividens, and to the Almighty for the ) sseonsciences of just men made perfect.o
 naa,.-z,na.a 1yQga akefburY ought to see the point and embrace the chance. But capital is often so ignorant that it only knows enough of the alphabet to sign a check, while labor under it is regular subscriber for the Scientific American. In the same way, the parson in the pulpit frequently know less of God in practice than the weeping and contrite sinner in the pew. Equally, in the Alpine glaciers, you can touch the solid ice with one hand and pluck violets with the other. Such are the contradictions in this distorted world. All will be well when they are reconciled and made one. OcTAvo.
 Waterbury, Conn.