Workmen's advocate., 1890-05-17
THE EIGHT-HOUR STANDARD
 WORKDAY.
BY ALEXANDER JONAS.
(COntinued,)

Let us think. What is the root of the trouble? The commodity "labOr" is owing to the causes we have set forth, in the market in such uast quantity, that it greatly exceeds the denadnd.
 How shall we begin?
 There are various ways. In many States the workingmen have succeeded in obtaining law against child labor in factories This is good, for the children's places must be filled by adults. In other states law has been enacted that women shall receive the same wages as men for performing the same task. This also is good, as are many other provisions. Bnt the principal thing, under existing cir cumstances, is for the legislature to pass law shortening the working hours in all industrial institutions, and to pro. vide severe punishment for each and every transgression of this law.
 There is no fixed length of the work day in the factories or shops of this country; it is generally from ten to twelve hours in duration.
 If we take into consideration the sud den crises through which the condition of things is always made worse-we may estimate the number of men constantly idle at from ten to twenty per cent. of the total.
 These must not only receive assistance as from trades unions, but, if non-union men, must greatly depress wages by their constant appeal for employment.
 Now, If with one grand, unanimous movement, all laboring organizations should at a stroke obtain the establish ment of the eight-hour work-day, the prove of inestlmable blessing to all toilers, male or female.
 We can sum these up concisely as follows:
 1. After the introduction of the eight. hour rule, the same amount of work will have to be accomplished per day as when the days were of ten or twelve hours in length. This will require more hands to be employed, and the ten to twenty per cent. of workingmen idle, the proletarian reserve army of the capitalists, will be drawn upon until it disappears entirely The commodity, "lobor," acN no lonqer exceed the demdnd.
 ?. As result the price will rise, that is, wages will be increased despite the shortened time. Yes, even if at first employers should wish to pay less for eight hours than formerly for ten hours labor they would be compelled ere long to give more, for the cheap hands, the workers ''at any price" who once hung around and besieged them, would be missing and the bosses would have but the alternative to accept more moderate profits or to shut up shop. That they would choose the first there can be no question.
 8. As a consequence of better wages and the employment of men hitherto idle, the demand for goods manufactured will increase. The workingmen will once more be able to buy themselves something, to consume something, thus causing trade to brighten up, by which the employers will also profit.
 i. Over-production will be avoided, for the shortening of hours will retard the senseless manufacturing and piling up 1 of goods that the market has no call for. As a result, crises and their pernicious consequences will occur less frequently. 5. The workingman will become a | human being. The man who tolls ten. twelve or fourteen hours day and comes home at night exhausted to find no domesticity, because he does not earn