Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-14
A MULTICHARGE CANDIDATE.

The expectation that David Bennett
| Hill will be the next Democratic candidate
for Governor in New York is stated by
our New York correspondence to be lead
ing feature of political gossipin that State
If the assertion is true it presents a re-
markable illustration of the versatility OF
the New York leader, in the matter OF
| candidates..
The argument is that since the nomina-
ton of Fassett the Democrats need the
| candidacy of the man who can most thor
oughly arouse the enthusiasm of the wire
pullers and wheelhorses of his party. As
for Hill himself another successful cam
paign for Governor would, it is thought,
make him beyond peradventure the Presi-
dental candidate of the Democracy; while
if he should fail he would have the soft
cushions of his Senatorial seat to break his
fall. Nevertheless, when all these con-
vineing political considerations are given
due weight, the spectacle of Governor
Hill running for everything within reach
cannot fail to provoke the sarcastic COM
ments of the opposition. The man who,
having filled a Governorship for two
terms, combines at once the functions of a
Senator-elect, Presidential aspirant and
third-term gubernatorial candidate, makes
pale the Intellectual fire of Bully Bottoms
ambition to hog all the parts in the cast.
If Hill should be made the Democratic
candidate in New York this year, it would
afford ground for the charge that the
Democracy of New York is confined
within the raiments of David Bennett
Hill That would furnish new and ex-
planatory reading of the famous declara-
tion: 81 am a Democrat, which would
thus be shown to mean 81 am Hill man."
MINERS AND THE EIGHT-HoUR RULE.
Mr. John B. Rae, the President of the
United Mine Workers, in an interview
elsewhere, makes some pointed statements
concerning the effort to establish the eight
hour rule, which was undertaken this sea-
son by the Federation of Labor. His
statements have distinct significance as
bearing on the future course of labor Or
ganizations on this issue.
Mr.. Rae refers to the fact that the
miners organization was the one desig-
mated by the Federation of Labor to lead
in the demand for eight hours and that
the effort failed. He adds that in the
future his organization will select its own
time, and consult its own circumstances
for making such a demand. This is
coupled with very emphatic criticism of
the policy of putting the burden of the
conflict on a single industry or a single
section; which is feature of the move
ment which the DISPATCH pointed out
early in the year.
This expression may fairly be construed
to imply that the eight-hour movement
has been indefinitely postponed so far as
the miners are concerned. There was this
excuse for trying to make the miners take
the lead: that as their labor is largely paid
by the ton or bushel, it was the department
in which the least bitter opposition might
reasonably be expected from the employ
ers. But it was also the industry in which
the loss from diminished product, if there
were any, would fall most largely on
the workingmen; and for that reason it is
not surprising if the miners are disposed
to consult their own leisure in trying to
enforce it against themselves.
We do not take such an avowal to indi-
cate so decided a lack of harmony with
the Federation of Labor as might appear
at first blush. But it is decidedly imbued
with the idea advanced at the English
Labor Congress, that each trade or indus
try is qualified to settle the eight-hour
question for itself