Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-02-04

| tTnmcut efupiOye Knew ~. EmplOyee. ne Sdlu
| are forced to work more than eight hours day
through the fear Of their employers or the ex
| ecutive officers over them. He believed there
were some who were willing to work more than
eight hours and deprive some other working
men of the opportunity to work. but there
the facts to justify the statement that employees
were compelled against their will to work more
| than eight hours a day. He referred to pro
| tests made against the violations Of law and
never, he said, been enforcd in letter and spirit
| under any administration.
ACTIVITY BEFORE ELECTIONS.
| He remarked upon spasmodic endorsements
of the law just before elections. In 1882 and
1888. he said. the bricklayers ON the pension
| building worked ten hours a day and up to
| juno, 1884. just before election, when some one
found out that there was an eight-hour law.
Mr. Oyster read from The STAR OF that day au
order increasing pay to the rates prevailing in
| tine city and fixing eight hours Us a days work.
/ lie thought IL was strange that this law, which
/ had stood on the statute book, was not thought
of until just before election. Still ut that time
men were working there under contract and
! continued 10 work ten hours day at less than
the prevailing wages. The contract system was
a way Of evading the law.
In relation to statement to justify viola
| tons of the law that men were paid for over
; time he said he had never heard because men
u
leSsened the offense. He reviewed briefly the
/ agitation III England for shorter hours and said
men who were overlookers were brought as
witnesses before parliamentary committees TO
testify in behalf OF the employers that working
men did not want the shorter hours. Men
holding similar positions here, foremen and
assistant foremen, were brought forward to say
that the workingmen are not demanding eight
hours a day. The federation, he said, in
dorsed the Cornell bill, with q few slight
| amendments.
Those who oppose the eight-hour bill are
mostly Of the employing class. The Federation
| OF Labor sent in memorial to the Senate adj
| vocating the bill and it was printed together
with n letter from a large ship-building con-
tractor, who said if the bill became y law it
builders in this country to build the naval
vessels needed by the government under the
| eight-hour system. The speaker thought that
these men could build ships then under the
contract system, and just ~ well Is the govern
ment could.
EIGHT HOURS AND POLITICS.
The eight-hour Law agitation had a great deal
more to do with the results of the recent cleo
ton than it WAS generally credited with. He
referred to movements in Europe, speaking of
the action taken by Emperor William. VIVA.
the workingmen in this country should do, he
said, was to carry the matter into politics. The
General Assembly Of the knights Of Labor, the
American Federation and other organizations
had Endorsed the bill. but they depended a
great deal upon the organizations in this city
TO push it. In fact every organization Endorsed
this bill because it asked for the employe of the
government what workingmen were asking
from their own employers
THE EfGHT-HoUR RESOLUTIONS.
At this point Mr.. Blake. from the committee
on resolutions, reported the resolutions drafted
by the committee. The preamble set forth
''that law was enacted in 1868 which was in
tended to limit the hours of labor on public
work to eight per day, and which, if fairly in
terpreted and honestly executed, would so limit
and regulate the hours of labor of employees of
the government; that said law has not been en-
forced in accordance with it's true spirit and in
tent but, on the contrary. has been shamefully
evaded and f1agrantly violated almost continu-
ously from the date of its passage, by executive
officers or their agents, in permitting or COM
pelling laborers, workmen and mechanics en-
ployed by or on behalf of the government to
work more than eight hours per calendar day
and is being thus evaded and violated at the
present time; that in compliance with the
request of the organized wOrkngmen of
the country, the House of Representa-
tives passed a bill Oh. r. g91), which.
with the amendments recommended the
Federation of Labor unions, will remedy
the defects of the original law as construed by
the courts and the law officers Of the govern
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The resolutions were adopted unanimously.
THE SCHOOL BOOK QUESTION.
The committee also reported series Of reso-
buttons, which were adopted, setting forth that
as .'the House Of Representatives, in response
to the netitions of the entire bodv of oroan;zed
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