Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-04-16
FOR SHORTER HOURS.
President GomperS Makes a Strong
Plea for Less Work Per Day.
HIS SPEECH INDORSED BY 600 MEN.
Their Help Asked to Carry Through the
Eight-Hour Movement. r
MAYOR GOURLEY WAS AT THE MEETING

Over 600 workingmen gathered in Imperial
Hall last evening to hear President Com
pers, of the Federation Of Labor. discuss
the eight hour movement. Mayor Gourley,
President William Weihe and Secretary
Martin, of the Amalgamated Association,
occupied seats on the platform. Mayor
Gourley opened the meeting with short
address, at the close of which he introduced
President Gompers. The Mayor in his re-
marks said &c, 900, 900 men and women, the
great wage working class, were affected Dy
this question; capital and labor are welded.
They cannot be divorced. Their interests
are intertwined. Capital without labor lies
dormant. Labor without capital becomes
paralyzed. Each must recognize the neces-
sity of the other, and each should at all
times recognize the rights of the other. He
recommended arbitration IN the settlement
of labor difficulties. When introduced
President Gompers said:
MR.. GoMPERs' SPEECH.
1t is well that His Honor the Mayor, has
called attention to the relations which should
exist between capita! and labor. No doubt the
interests between capital and labor are iden-
tical but do wish to say that under the pres
tolists and laborers are not identical. Far be
1t from me to stir up strife but it is my purpose
at all times and under all circumstances to call
attention to evils as they exist regardless Of
my wishes to the contrary.
From time immemorial history shows a con-
tinuec struggle of people to obtain better con-
ditiOns, and SO the struggle is on to-day. 1t was
from slavery TO serfdom and so on to the pres
ent economic wage system. Now, they say
man can work or cease to work when the de-
sire takes possession of him. This, however, is
but theory. 1t is true, man can cease to work
when he pleases, but he can't work when he
pleases. The statistics compiled by Carroll ID.
Wright. Labor Commissioner, show that 1,000-
900 ablebodied men and women are walking the
streets to-day looking for work and not able to
find it; children being dwarfed in mind and body
and people tending to degradation from idle
ness working people compete with each
other for work, and women and children are
supplanting, men. As to the statement that
men would spend the extra hour or two they
classes drank to excess. Those who have too
much money and don't know what to do with
their time. and those who have no work.
SHORTER HOURS WOULD PAY.
1t will pay the wage worker and employer.
In support of this is fact that America and
England where the working hours are the
shortest, can compete with any country in the
world, and the employers are more successful
and prosperous than any other. Such an
animal as a.millionaire could not be found in
China. India or Spain. Where people work
long hours there is a laxity in improvements in
machinery, ETC., and perhaps no machinery at
all. Where men are cheap there is no necessity
for machinery. Only a country where there is
the very best of improved machinery and great
est inventions could produce men that owned
Sl5O. 100000.
Dull times are the result of people having no
money. who are the peopleT' he added. I'VE
are the people. the wageworkers." The work.
ingman must consume, and, if he has no money
to buy, times become dull. The rich, he said,
of poor countries. where long hours are worked,
are comparatively poor to the rich of countries
where the hours of labor are shortest To re-
duce the hours of labor gives the opportunity
to thousands to get work.
The speaker appealed to his hearers to help
on the trade that has been selected in this
country to make the advance on May l, $780,
and to help them to victory in their struggle
for an eght-hour work day. On that day, in
England. 100000 men; in Germany. 800, 900; in
France, O,O0O and in Belgium, Holland. Itaiy
and Switzerland, loo. 00O each, will send en- |
to the workers in America to in |
sist on eight hours as days labor.