St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-07-05

hours, the average for America eleven
hours. ToilerS are OrganiZingtO secure
a further reduction to eight hours a day.
When that change is brought about
revolution in industry will be seen as
great as that recorded in the nineteen
centuries from Cato the censor. But
some, especially among the capitalists.
tell us this change should not and can
not be realized. They say that such
change, if possible, will result in many
disasters to capital and in degradation
to the toiler. Let us now consider some
of those objections in the light of
past changes in the hours of labor"
First it was argued, he said, that with
eight hours toll the worlds needs could
not be supplied. He showed how with
every lessenlng hour of toll there was
some industrial improvement that many
times compensated for it. In Old Rome
one person out of twelve ground flour.
enough to feed all of ancient Rome.
The cloth-making machinery of the
world enables the servant girl OF the
present to possess more and better
clothes than the wife of julius Caesar.
Added knowledge enterprise and Skill
are able to more than make good any
loss of production by shortening hours.
A second objection. he said, was that a
reduction would destroy capital. He
showed the fallacy of this by noting the
increase of capital in Minnesota and
the United States with constantly de-
creasing hours. A third objection
raised was that it would permanently
reduce the average wages of the toilers
by one-fifth. Finally, he said, when
every other argument is exhausted.
men cry out petulantly: An eight-hour
day is wrong: it will only give the la
borer two hours more to hang around
saloons and spend their earnings, while
their wives slave eighteen hours at
home. 1t is the mud which men, know
ing nothing of history or of the nature
Of the millions throw to blind peoples's
eyes. Referring to the past he illus
trated how temperance had increased
closing he said: IAN eight-hOur day,
when realized, will come with such
further moral and intellectual advance
among the masses as will cause the
practical realization of the Christian
dream of Gods kingdom on the earth.
May God speed and all good men ana
women work for its coming.
Mons. Baker led the audience in
singing the "WOrklngmen'S Marcel
laise," during the intermissiOn between
the speakers. G. 5. barrow, of Chi
cago, had been referred to ever since
the programme was first announced, by
those who love Fourth of July OratiOns,
as great speaker, and the crowd was
tlptOe with expectation as his name
was announced with fiattering intro
duction. The Chicago lawyer stepped
out on the platform a very ordinary
looking man, till he had spoken. Not
very large in statue, with a moderate
voice, his true worth was realized only
as the audience found themselves
drawn to him by his magnetic power
of oratory. He looked like the
pictures we have seen of Henry Clay.
His bearing and style of address was
what one would imagine was similar to
that of the great orator.
He opened with few preliminary re-
marks about the glorious Fourth in
general, spoke OF how up to the first
day of Americas independence certain
individuals had held that they had the
right to rule all other individuals. The
brave Americans of that day declared
political equality. The day was fit
time to advocate reform. He haG no
use for the potriot who in his patriot
ism could see only the bright side and
would not look at the dark. Nor of the
one who thought so much of his own
country that he could not think of the
poor and down trodden races of other
nations To be a citizen of the world
was better than to be citizen of the
United States.
Nothing done by human beings was
without error. The constitution
of the United States possessed
imperfections. 1t had been amended
time and again. The grandest thing in
that constitution was that it left us the
power to amend it. Another amend
negro with political power. 1t would
take another amendment to declare
woman the political equal of the negro.
That constitution with its amend
mentS had gained fair degree of po-
lltical freedom, but not economic free
dom. No man could be really free UNI
less he was allowed the privilege to
gain his daily bread. While the people
of the United States were politically
free, economically the vast majority OF
them were dependent on their fellow
men.
In speaking of the wealth the United
States had gained. the milliOnaireS that
had grown up, and of all her boosted
power, he said while a hundred years
ago we had few of the miliOnaires we
had few of the paupers. 1t was as dark
on one side as it was bright on the other.
He said he would urge the eight-hour
movement simply as an eXpedient. as
nothing else; as flag of truce which
the tired general raised aloft for little
time of rest. He would liken it to an
olive branch which the champions of
1ah or hold INF RI nanital Not that thpU
would gain all their rights by gaining
that. but part of them. He wished it
understood that he was not casting any
reflection OH any capitalist III the United
States. II think as much of
them as I do of you," said
he. MANY of them are striving, as you
are striving, for the corrects solution of
this problem" This eight-hour day,he
held was merely mode of bridging
over the gulf between the present and
the time when the problem was solved,
and there was no longer strife between
labor and capital.
The orator then went into an acute
analysis of the economic question,
clearly setting forth the condition
as he saw it. He claimed labor
was commodity. Its value was
gouerned by supply and demand.
If all men worked but eight hours. more
would be given work. This would call
all idle men into employment. The
women and children dragged from the
home and the school to the factory
could be released. 1t did net mean,
either, that the capitalists were to be
injured. If more wages were paid out
more products, in proportion, would be
sold. Many people, he said, asked him
if with eight hours work he expected
to get ten hours pay. owe say moth
ing about wages. but l will prophesy
that the wages will increase"
After answering many of the objec
tons raised to the eight-hour day the
orator closed and was responded to by
storm of applause.
Rev. j. A. Henderson, the famous
colored preacher and orator of st. Paul,
made short address on 1.-The World as
Eight Hours Would Make It." He
opened by saying: