St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-05-02
JORN SWINTON
Gives Three Reasons Favorable to
the Eight-HOur Day.

the Eng hts Hour Day.
Out of the thousand arguments that but
treSs the demand for a short work day here
are three. First it is a moral elevator.
When the hours of labor in England were
the longest, the degradation of the laborer
was the lowest, Just as the working day
has been shortened, time and again. so
have the working masses risen out of the
slough. We all know their debaSed condi-
ton between 1920 and 1850 under a four
teen hour system; we all know til e change
that is being wrought since one-third of the
time has been taken off.
We are constantly being warned that if
the eight-hour day is adopted. the working
people will wallow in drunk enness and
riot Take the experience on that point.
When the working hours in England were
fourteen, SOttiShneSS was the bane of indus
try, and drunken Saturday night was fol-
lowed bysoaking Sunday, ''black" Monday
and blue" Tuesday. 50 that it was often
impossible for the sunken hordeS to work
over five days Of the week. After a long
struggle hours We're reduced to twelve, and
sOttishnesS diminished. Not satisfied with
this. ten hours were demanded and finally
won, when again SOttishneSS was enor-
mouSly decreased. Not yet satisfied, the
rule of fifty-siX hours of work per week
THAT is. ten hours per day except Satur-
day, there being a half holiday Saturday,
was obtained, when once more there was
all Immense
DECREASE OF SOTTISHNESS,
which does not now prevail to one-half its
former extent and even ''Black Monday"
Is becoming unknown. 1t appears that the
budget sent to parliament a few days ago
that the revenue of England from the sale
Ne 1l,,, |, i1,cf o1n
was nearly So, 100000 less than for the
previous year, and that, within
the past ten years the re-
cepts of the government from
this source have decreased 50, 500, 900.
Right straight along for forty years, with
the decline of working hours has gone the
consumption of liquor. Here are facts not
to be disputed and in them there is lesson
of overwhelming importance to mankind.
We have had the same expert
ence in Our own country.
There is far less sottishness among
our working classes than there used to be
when the days labor was two to three or
four hours longer than it now is. The in
dustries that work the fewest hours suffer
the least from drunkenness; and l base
this remark upon extensive investigations
that nave made. The brown-stone cut
tiers, the glass workers and several other
trades have for years had the
eight-hour working day; the
cigarmakers are to follow, re-
ducing their time-hOur day to the eight
hour system on the 1st OF July; the brick
layers and Stonemasons of this city have
had the nine-hour day for over year, and
very slight inquiry will show whether
this shortened time has brought about
RIOT AND DRUNKENNESS.
The general reduction of the working day
to eight-hours will according to all an
alogy and experience, still further reduce
the besotting mania. and still further raise
the moral status of the masses. One does
not need to look far to find the reason for
this.
Secondly. the shorter day is an economi-
cal elevation. There has been great deal
of sarcasm flung at the old couplet.
But it is a fact sustained by all
The longer the hours the shorter the pay.
Whether you work by the piece or by the day.
statistics. Wages were at their minimum
in England under the fOurteen-hOur day:
they rose when twelve hours were eStab-
lished: they rose again under the ten-houl
system; and yet they rose again when the
Saturday half holiday shortened the weeks
work to tifty-siX hours. He who denies
these facts does it in the face of volumes OF
official data, full of the details.
We have had the same experience in our
own country. Wages are much higher than
they we're forty years ago, with longer
hours, and it is inevitable that they must
rise under yet fewer hours. Those indus
tries that work the fewest hours have the
highest pay; those that work the most have
the lowest. and to this law there is no ex-
cepton. Some Of the eight or nine hour
industries nearly double the wages of those
with twelve or fourteen hours. [ could
give hundreds of illustrations Of this law,
which is not hard to comprehend. The
rates of wages are fixed by the men out OF
work; and, by reducing the unemployed
gangs, the pressure Of idleneSS upon labor
is diminished.
INCREASED EMPLOYMENT.
The reduction of the hours to eight will
give employment to the million men who,
according to the recent official report of the
national bureau of labor. are wasting theil
lives in the vain search for employ
ment, and thus the consuming power
of the whole people will be enlarged, to tine
advantage of all industrial pursuits. Under
machinery and long hours. the supply Of
labor so far exceeds the demand that the
troll of the market.
The notion that with shorter hours must
come lower wages is based on an error-the
error that the wageworker gets The full price
of his labor as measured by the value OF
its product. Renee the undue proportion
that goes to capital in the shape OF
rent, profit, dividends and interest
and there is no trouble about
raising the proportion that goes to wages
In the next place. there is the argument
from mechanism. The greater part of the
I =, ~,
old fashion of handicraft, but by machinery
through which new industrial forces have
been let loose upon mankind. Few of us
realize how vast have been thu
strides in this direction, how far man
nal labor has been displaced
and how radical is the revolution that is be
ing wrought. Within the past twenty
years the mechanical resources of the worlt
have riZen from twelve million horse powe
to thirty million. In our own country
within the last fifteen years, or since
1870, the horsepower of mechanism
has doubled, having risen from
2,3OO,0 900 to 4,500,000. Now, one
horse power is estimated as the equivalen
of ten men; so that thus, within thes
fifteen years, there has been added to tn
resources of the capitalists, who own TIN
engineering of our country, the strength o
90. 900, 600 slaves! Surely it was
A SMALL THING
from an industrial point of view to abolsl
negro chattelism, i'll presence of such
tremendous increase in the power of CAPT
tai. This growth Of mechanism has no
stopped but is advancing with ever-increas
ING momentum. Labor-savng inventions
as may be seen from the reports of the
patent office. or by the observation of an.
man that looks into the mines, mills, fac
tories. and workshops of the country ar
advancing to the supreme control of all oul
main industries, including even agricul
tire through which 10000, 900 of GU
neople look for the means of life. Illustra
tions of this fact crowd upon my mind
;,utt have not the room here to give then
The working people must find som
.oaans OF dealing with these Transforming