St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-05-02
HENRY GEORGE
Sees a Wider Distribution of Labor
in the Eight.Hour Day.

Sees q Wider Distribution OF LABOR
in the Eight.Hour Day.
The movement for the reduction of the
working day to eight hours deserves ear
nest support. 1t is step towards securing
to the masses something of the benefits
which advancing civilization ought to bring
and making human life fuller and higher.
That creature so wonderfully endowed as
man, placed in world 50 well stored with
all the material his needs require, should
spend the greater part of his conscious life
in the effort to maintain existence is a
thing so monstrous that only long habit
binds us to its folly and wrong. The high
est qualities of humanity can only develop
when the material wants are satisfied, the
most precious flower of existence can only
bloom in leisure, and yet, to the great MA
jority of men in our highest civilization
real leisure is a thing unknown. For the
few hours of the working day which re-
main to the man whose faculties have been
Oh the strain for ten or twelve hours are
not leisure, nor vet is there leisure in the
DAYS and weeks and months of involuntary
idlenesS which the vicSSitudeS of our in
duStrial organizations force upon hundreds
of Observation-Disclosures accompanied by
wearing uncertainty and racking anxiety.
MORE EXHA USTING THAN TOLL.
For true leisure the faculties must be
fresh and care must be absent. According
to such authorities as Prof. TherviS Rogers,
the working day in England, six centuries
ago. was only light hours; yet even in the
absence of all the inventions and improve
mentS that since that time have so enor-
mously increased the productive power Of la
Dor, the working class enjoyed rude COM
fort and an exemption from the harrasSing
dread of not being able to make a living,
which, dispite the low level OF civilization,
made their condition in all the essentials of
healthful and happy human life far superior
to that of millions of their descendants in
this wonderful nineteenth century. What
indeed, We may well ask, has the material
progress of which we are SO boastful really
done Tor the masses of men, it to get what
is after all only a bare living they must work
longer than their fathers, six centuries ago?
Surely it is time that the great body OfipeO-
pie should, i'll increased leisure and Iessened
care, begin to reap some advantage OF all
that the generations have done to render
matters plastic and force Obedient to human
will. Without this, our civilization is but
deluSlOn our advance but a toll OF SYST
plus. Aye! 1t is worse. The tendency of
THE MINUTE DIVISION OF LABOR
that is becoming more and more character
istic of modern Industrial methods is to
make the task of the Individual workman
more monOtonouS and less to bring into
play those higher qualities Of judgment and
skill whose exercise is necessary to intel
lectual health and development. The
workman is becoming a mere tender Of ma
chinery, and his work the doing over and
over again Of some single one of the many
processes required for the production of a
single article. This tendency, which is of
the nature Of modern industrial improve
ments, would not be of itself to be regret
ted, if the gain in leisure to the workman
was anything like commensurate with the
gain in productive power. But if it in
wolves no reduction of working hours, its
effect must be to degrade the worker, and,
in spite of public schools, to lessen popular
intelligence. Even if the reduction of the
working day involved temporary decrease
in the production of wealth, it would still
be a measure of wisdom and prudence.
BUTT does nothing of the sort. When glut
and stagnation are popularity attributed to
lover production" when hundreds of thou
sands who would gladly be at work
STAND IDLE,
reduction of hours. even if it proportion
ately leSSened the efficiency of labor, would
bring no general loss. But instead of les
SEEMING the efficiency of labor, reduction
of the working day must increase it. The
great agent in production is not muscle, but
mind. 1t is not by virtue of these powers
that he shares in with the animal, but by
virtue of the powers in which he rises Sill
perior to the animal. that man is the pro-
Queer, the bringer-forth. He may not, by
taking thought, add cubit to his stature
but he may, by taking thought
avail himself OF the mighty strength of Ma
lures forces. and convert her raw material
into the forms that minister to her own de-
sire. To human power in this direction
there seems, practically, no limit In the
light of what has been already accomplished
by discovery and invention, who shall set
bounds to what. discovery and invention
may hereafter do. The proposition to re-
duce the working hours is a proposition to
secure the masses more leisure, and is thus
IL proposition for the increase of popular
intelIigence-that faculty which is alone
competent to remedy the
GLARING INJUSTICES :
which now attend the distribution of
wealth, and from which increased power in
the production of wealth must proceed. Its
effect will be not only to equalZe in bet
ter manner work and leisure. but to in
crease the efficiency Of work. and thus make
more leisure possible.
The reduction of the working day to
eight hours involves no reduction of wages.
Under the conditions that exist wherever
land has been made private property and men
who have nothing but the power to labor
are consequently found in cut-throat conf
petition to sell their labor power to some
OF human w riy tl,nr
''leave to toll" the general wages must be
governed by what the IabOring masses must
be content to live on. II the working day
was increased to sixteen hours wages would
not rise. If they were reduced to six hours
they would not fall. But the longer the
working day the less the ability of the
workers to discover and remedy the wrongs
OF which all are conscious. The shorter
the working day the greater the power. In
the attempt to limit the working class to
eight hours, the labor associations are taking
the
MOST HOPEFUL STEP
they have yet attempted. But may it not
we'll be asked why the Inauguration of this
| beneficent reform should be left to The eff
| forts of voluntary associations? If the
state may wisely prohibit labor for more
than six days i'll the week, why may it not
prohibit labor of the same kind for more
than eight hours in the day? There is
nothing that can be urged against a COM
!, pulsory elght-hour law. Yet no matter to
what undue length Sabbatarianism may
have sometimes been carried, the day of
rest has been the most precious of boons
that Christianity has given to Western civ
| ilization. But for this compulsory law.
promulgated centuries ago in the Sinaitive
wildnesS, workingmen would. under the
conditions that now exist, be toling seven
days instead of six for no more pay THAI
| they get now and would find il
even harder to reduce working hours
JOHN J.. JARRETT
Sees in Crushing Competition an