St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-26
WENT ON RECORD.
But Not Very SwiftIy-The Cham
Der Discusses the Eight-Hour

BUT Not Very SwiftIy-The Cham
Der Discusses the Eight-Hour
Day.
The chamber of commerce very deli
lately and daintily took up the subject
Of the recent eight-hour resolution of
the city council. There was a long and
diplomatic discussion, and finally the
directors went on record, by vote of
80 to 4, as favoring the eight-hour day
with eight hours pay. D. D. Merrill
offered the following resolutions:
Resolved, That in the opinion of this cham
Der, the payment of laborers and employees of
he city for ten hour s. work, when they only
work eight hours, is an injustice to the tax
PAYERS.
In connection with this, James Suy-
dam made motion that the committee
Oil taxes, city and county officials should
be requested to find what would be the
additional cost of the city's work on
account of the passage of the eight-hour
ordinance. This resolution was not
considered to bear sufficiently upon the
question, but 1t was received and re-
ferred to the proper committee without
any debate. On the Merrill resolution
here was long and rather interesting
discussion. The most of those who
favored the resolution were careful to
say they did not oppose the short
hour principle, but they did not
believe in paying for work that
was not done. There were some who
observed that the time for agitation of
this question was either too early or too
late. Last spring, when both political
parties went on record as favoring the
patinn tQl-nn xunn16 houA ho0r, bn
time for fighting it, but now there was
nothing to do but await the action of
the mayor. This almost had the effect
of referring the Whole subject to COM
mittee, but vote was finally reached
and the resolution adopted, as follows:
Yeas-P. Berkey, William NJ. Bushnell, H.
A. Castle, G. Clark, M. B. Curry, D. Day. j.
Fl, Davidson, G. r. Finch, William Foulke,
Il. Gordon, 9. w. Hackett, George II. Haz-
gard. o. E. Holman. A. NJ Lawton, j. D.
Ludden D. d. Merrill, w s. Morton, Charles
Peet, j. Q. Quinby, P. Reilly, A G. Rice. L.
W. Rundlett E. Simonton, K Smith, W. A
Somers, L. X. Stone, j. Suydam. A. S. Tall
madge, r. B. Wheeler A. II. Wilder-33.
Nays-C. G. Andrews, II. P. Hall, w. P.
Murray, T. Reardon-4.
Many explanations were given with
the votes. Those voting yea said they
favored the eight-hour system, but they
could not vote for paying for more time
than the men worked. Mr.. Reardon,
voting nay. said he believed in reducing
the salaries of officials rather than the
pay of the laborer.
This was followed by another resolu-
ton, presented by j. Suydam. to the eff
feet that the resolution passed shall not
be understood as meaning that the
chamber is not in favor of eight hours
as days work. This was passed.
The committee on streets reported
the fact that the reason the Great
Northern road was not compelled to
bridge at Lexington avenue was that
the road was built before the street was
opened; the committee believes the
Mil waukee road will bridge at st. Clair
street. There was long discussion of
the Selby avenue bridge and the method
of paying for it. The general senti-
ment was that new and equitable sys-
TEN of paying for bridges should be Sc
cured, and this sentiment was ex-
pressed in the adoption of the following
resolution by II. f. Stevens:
Resolved, That the committee on streets,
roads and parks be. ana they are hereby re-
quested to consider and report upon the eX-
pedleney of adopting uniform system of
raising funds for securing sewers, bridges
and parks, and if deemed expedient to pre-
sent plan for such action.
James Suydam was received as a
member of the chamber.
e. Bach, of Aberdeen, was present
and outlined business scheme which
is being advanced for the interests of
the farmers of South Dakota. He
wishes to form stock company which
shall purchase sheep and let them out
to the farmers. giving them a certain
number of years in which they can re-
pay the principal and interest. Mr..
Bach wishes to have stock taken in this
city. j. j. Hill has slgnified his inten-
ton of subscribing $1,000.