St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-05-11
THE EIGHr-ltoUR DAY.

The eight-bour movement is progress
ing with a SmoOthnesS aud rapldity that
must be as much of a surprise to the
advocates of the movement as it has
been to its opponents. The industrial
commissions which were predicted as
the result OF an attempt to enforce the
eight-hour day have not materialIZed.
The country was better prepared for
the change than the most Sanguine
hoped for, and while in many sections
local reasons prevailed for a cOmpIo-
mise on nine hours as d working day,
yet practically the fight for the eight
hour day has been won. IIenceforth it
will simply be question of adjusting
local industries 10 the change that has
been effected, and we now can afford to
indulge in SOME speculationS as to what
abe outcome will be.
The eight-hour day is essentially for
artisans and mechanics, for it would be
next to impossible TO reduce it to prac-
tice OH farms. Farm work does not re-
quire so short day as work in factories,
because it is all outdoor work, and the
work itself gives opportunity for phySi-
cal. intellectual and spiritual develop
ment which is not afforded by factory
work. The conditions of industry, par
ticularly of manufacturing industry,
have changed so wonderfully within the
last twenty-five years that a shorter
working day is made imperative. Under
fhe old conditions the workingman
could put his soul into his handiwork,
and as the work progressed under his
Skillful manipulation there was oppOr-
tunity for SOul-eXpansiOn and intel
lectual development. When the work
man made the whole piece his work was
The creation of art, and, more Or less,
an Interpretation of the princi-
pies of science. But the improve
ments in machinery have revolution
5zed the Old conditions, until now
the workman is scarcely more than
an automat0n, and his labor a souless
drudgery. Now, instead of manufact-
IIring the whole article, his work con-
sists in making perhaps the one-hun-
dredth part of an article, and thus his
toll becomes mere routine. He has
SIMPLY become like any other piece of
machinery, the means to an end, and
has ceased to be in any respect an end
in itself. While he gets the means for
support, this day alter day of souliess
drudgery has deadening effect on the
spiritual and intellectual qualities. And
III addition thereto, the work in factory,
with its rapidly moving machinery,
makes heavy draft on mans physi-
cal and nervous system.
Therefore the argument. whether from
moral or hygienic standpoint, is de-
cidedly in favor of an eight-hour day
so far as it affects artisans and me-
chanicS.
The next important question is, will
the eight-hour day diminish production
or lower wagesP There is no light so
faithful or reliable as that which is shed
from the lamp of experience: and while
in this matter there is but small fund
of experience to draw upon, still that
little is favorable to the eight-hour day.
The NEST extensive experiment made
with the eight-hOur day has been in
Australia, where it was introduced in
Acoci anu hdc DCtsI III operation ever
since. The universal testimony from
that country is that during its fOrty-fye
years trial there has been no diminish
ing of the amount of work accomplished,
nor has it necesSitated a reduction in
wages. A large manufacturing firm at
Akron, O., which has experimental
with the eight-honr day for the last
flree years. is pleased with the results
Df the experiment.
Among the advantages claimed by
those who have experimental with the
eight-hour day is that it practically
eliminates all danger of strikes, and
that there Is nothing more expensive to
both capital and labor than strikes. In
The next place, the workman is capaci-
tated for better work, and. owing to the
longer physical rest and mental recrea-
sion obtained under the new system, he
IS enabled to do more work, and of a