Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1894-05-25

now "a plenCl1ul subsistence increases
the bodily strength of the laborer, and
the comfortable hope of lettering his
condition animates him to exert that
strength to the utmost Looking
around him, the true father Of modern
social economics found that in Eng
land, where the wages were better than
in Scotland, the workmen were more
active, diligent and expeditions.
Before long the old view Of the cheap
est labor and the longest hours was 10
longer considered tenable In 1777 Ar
thur Young became a convert, and Ben
jamin Franklin emphasized the fact
that low pay is by 10 means equiva
lent to cheap work, but rather the con
trary.' When, SO years ago, McCul-
loch and Senior, who had conservative
ideas, with an inclination toward the
side Of employers, pronounced them
selves unhesitatingly the advocates of
the newer movement, they gave all i'm
pulse to this most important matter
the reduction of working hours. In his
''Principles Of Political Economy Nc
Culloch wrote that the experience Of all
ages and nations ''proves that high
wages are at once the most powerful
stimulant to exertion and the best means
of attaching the people to the institu
lions under which they ive.''
Studying hours of labor in the six
teenth century, we find that the work
man and his employer were bound up
in traditions. There was trace of serf-
dom left, and serf never did his best.
He was not working for himself. He
shirked toll and was idle when he could
be. When zachine production came to
the front, methods of work underwent
a violent change Machinery was in
vested capital, and the more a wheel
could turn or stamp pound the more
interest, it was supposable, would be
derived from the investment. Working
hours we're prolonged. There were days
when the laboring hand put in his 10
and even 20 hours. The excuse was that
the machine did the work and the at
tendant looked on. Children were TO
take the place of adults AS to the men,
| it was held that the last moment of the
days labor was as valuable as the first.
We do not think at all that way to-
day: We give to tools all their credit,
but we know that a man is always the
| superior of any conjunction of iron,
steel or brass. What actually did take
place when the human being was held
secondary to a mechanism was that the
man and his family deteriorated, land
it came to pass, to use the words OF
Sir Robert Peel, THAT that great
achievement Of British ingenuity by
means of which factory machinery at.
tanned such perfection became, instead
of a blessing to the nation, it's bitterest
curse
Legislation then interviewed, for il
was time to lower the working hours i1
a factory. seventy-five years ago opera
tives in the English textile industries
were employed regularly from 90 to 100
hours in the week. Today the working
hours amount to 56H hours per week.
In 1912 the working day of al
classes of men in the mines, with WON.
en- and children, was between ii an6
Is hours. In 1890, women being entire
ly excluded, it was from 81 to 50 pei
! WCCh AA0 A1CSu pCiSS4OHSu SDGCCl
that john Bright ever made was in op
position to the English manufacturers
and mine owners who wished to have
the Limitation of hours of labor re
moved. It is pleasant to find that Ma
caulay as far back as 1916 made tell
ing speech in favor Of the 10 hours bill
He asked: -
"Would you treat the free laborer O.
England like mere wheel Or pulley
Rely on it that intense labor, beginning
in early life, continued too long ever.
day, stunning the growth Of the body
stunting the growth Of the mind, leav
ing no time for healthful exercise, leav
ing no time for intellectual culture
must impair all those high qualitie
which have made our country great
Z Your overworked boys will become
feeble and ignoble race Of men, the par
j ents Of q more feeble and ignoble prog
eny. = Il. !. ~ y. ... s.
\ Mr.. Brentano, who has studied exac
conditions and is q firm believer in th
Il advantages Of higher wages and shorte
hours, is conscious that Improvement
. are not at once manifest when man.
wages are suddenly advanced Their
may probably arise waste, but gradual
q II cores Discrimination