St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-05-02
SHORTER HOURS OF WORK.


Among the many panaceas which
were proposed in the legislature for the
ills, real and imaginary-and more the
latter than the former-Which affiict, or
are supposed to affiict, humanity, was
one which passed the house, but suffo-
Gated in the rarefied air of the senate,
which provided that eight hours of labor
should be days work on all public
works. The bill received the votes of
number of men who class themselves
as Democrats, and who, if questioned,
would assert that they believe as the
cardinal doctrine of their party in
equal rights to all, special privileges
to none," but who seem to lack the fac
ulty of measuring all legislative meas
ureS by this just standard. They evil
IDENTIFY fail in this case TO see that giving
to one class of laborers the right to de-
mand eight hours for days pay was
gross and manifest injustice TO the in
finitely larger number of laborers who,
in private employments, have TO work
ten hours. The GLOBE, believing that
the course of human progress lies in the
direction of the securing by all men the
maximum of comfort with the minimum
of effort, will welcome, as an evidence
Of progress, the day when by universal
consent eight hours shall constitute
days labor. But, as a Democratic
paper, it does not believe it right to Sc
cure this privilege by legislation to
small class of labOrers to the exclusion
of the rest. 1t is not the purpose of this
article to discuss the eight-hOur move
ment, but to notice the argument for
the bill presented by one member,and
Democrat at that, who claimed that, as
the amount Of work to be done was a
fixed factor, with the number of men and
the hours of labor the movable factors,
it was clear that, if the hours of labor
were reduced one fifth, the number of
men must be increased one-fifth. This
would relieve the community of the
pressure of surplus of labor which is
one of the aggravating features of our
economic condition. The fate of this
bill shows the great difficulty and UNI
certainty of attaining relief through
legislative enactmentS, and should
teach us that such efforts should be
made only after all others had failed.
Assuming that the object sought was
that stated by the member i'll the argu-
ment quoted, the GLOBE suggests that
the same end can be much more eilica-
ciOusly attained in a simpler way, re-
lieved from all the dangers attendant Oh
running measure through the legiSIa-
tive gauntlet. 1t is safe assumption in
these days of tools that all men nSe i'm
elements i'll their productive efforts. 1t
is also a fact that the tendency of our
times is to increase the efficiency of the
tools so as to obtain from their users the
maximum of product. Naturally this
results i'll more product from the same
amount of muscular force, and this
again results in the diminution of OPP
portuuities for employment 1t is clear,
then, that If the tools of labor be dImin-
ished one-ffth in capacity, labor will
produce one-ffth less of product. and,
as quantity of product is relatively
a fixed factor, it would follow
that more men must be employed to
supply the demand. AS an Illustration
which will apply to all cases, the GLOBE
refers to the force Of men engaged III
street cleaning, VINO use as their i'm
plements a shovel with blade ten or
twelve inches wide, and a scraper
whose blade is fourteen inches in
width. AS these men are en-
ployed on public works. the illustra-
ton is the more apt. 1t is per-
fectly plain that if these tools were mar
rowed one-fifth the men could do but
four-fifths of the work they now do, and
there would be place made for the one
fifth more men required to do the work.
And so on through all the trades the
same method would produce like re-
suits. 1t is probable that the laws of
compensation would continue to operate
even on this humanitarian effort, and
that increase of cost coming from de-
creased productiveness would have to
be made good by the consumers; but, as
previously remarked, we are not dis
cussing that phase of the general queS-
ton.