Workmen's advocate., 1890-05-17

sufficient to support the same, and be- cause his wife works at washing or sew ing and is thus prevented from fulfilling her household duties, can naturally have little taste for culture, for the joys of family life, for the duties of a citizen, or the consideration of the graver problems of the world His stupidity craves at best to be stimulated by alcoholic drinks and the pleasures of the beer saloon. As matter of course, his only capital, his strength, Is permaturely exhausted, so that at forty years of age he is an old man, providing he is still alive. Two to four hours less of work each day will do
 wonders for him. He will not be so exhausted in mind and body that he has
 not strength or inclination for domestic
 or public duties and he will have time
 to devote to these.
 6. He will learn the power of union, of organization. He will see what hi- therto he has not gotten through his head, that only shoulder to shoulder with his comrades, with those who are | situated like himself, who suffer like | himself and have the same interests as l he-that only in union with these he
 can accomplish anything, that by him
 self he can effect nothing, but with his
 brother workers everything! Each for
 all, and all for eachw The significance
 of this motto will become clear to him,
 and he will act accordingly in the fu- | ture.
 | If the readers of this little pamphlet
 would ponder well over its contents,
 and if they would consider life as it ac-
 tually is, they would soon be convinced
 that the immediate results of shortening | the hours for work would prove as ad- 1 vantageous to the workers as we have
 striven to depict them.
 If any one ask whether these salutary
 results would be lasting or not, whether
 the circumstances causing the misery of
 excessively long hours would return or
 not, whether the mitigating effects of
 shortened time obtained through en-
 forcement of the eight hour law would
 remain any length of time whatever, we
 must answer unhesitatingly, "No" | And why? Because the accursed capi-
 talistic system of production from which
 we suffer, renders illusory and perish
 able all reform which may have been
 obtained under favorable conditions. In
 this fashion: When the eight-hour law
 should have been in force for time, it
 would gradually become evident that
 the hands were accomplishing just about
 as much work as they used to in and 10
 hour days. And good reason why. If
 1 can run mile in 15 minutes, it does
 not follow that can run 20 miles in 20
 times 15 minutes, or 5 hours; the longer
 l run the more become exhausted, un.
 til Irequire perhaps 30 minutes for the
 last mile, where it was only 16 at the
 start. The same is true as to labor. A man
 working 10 to 12 hours per day does not
 accomplish as much in the last hours
 as in the first With shorter time, he
 will be fresher, stronger and better able,
 and will perform more work per hour all the way through.
 . And further: The employers, in their
 anxiety to make up for small losses oc- casioned at first by shortening of time, will redouble their efforts towards i'm proving their machinery.
 . Finally: The ranks of cheap labor will , ever continue to receive accessions , through the tide of immigration. . The consequence will be that gradu- 1 ally-if nothing occurs to prevent-the
 old conditions will have returned. By . l uCSiCCS lhC ldbOl Ol OuC OpCIdUlNC dlbCl ! another will be found superfluous; for , the shortening of time will have quail
 fled the workmen to accomplish more - per hour than before, and as much, per- , haps, in 8 as formerly in 10 hours; im- 7 proved machinery, dividing the work in , parts, and immigration will moreover f have had their effect. And in the course
 of few years sooner or later, accord e ing to circumstances-the time will come , when the supply of the commodity v "labor" again shall exceed the demand; when again will begin that pernicious & turmoil which must end with general crash, with the ruin of innumerable l. lives. This is what must come to pass @ that is if nothing occurs to prevent. i If this be true, some one says, what is | the use of struggling to gain the
 eight hour law? Why not go farther $ and insist upon measures to at once and
 efficiently ameliorate the unfortunate :. condition of things? "To ameliorate Il the unfortunate condition of things" n there is no more effective means than n the shortening of time, which at least n would give some years of relief. r But to REvoLUTIoNIzE the affairs of to- n day, is the true way and the only way @ to bring reliJ, genuine and lasting re- :, lcf 10 the acorking people!
 F Are you ready? Forward, then! We
 are with you. Where is the coward t that would draw back? Form your bat a tallions; to arms! Have you not weap- # ons enough? There are the arsenals of r the counter-jumper militia stocked with s military stores, repeating rifles and am- 2 intuition. Fling the police in the gutter, e the militia in the river! Drag the venal 2 politicians and corrupt judges from their e seats, chase the capitalist hyenas from It the town, the priests from the churches! e Go through the country and arnnse the