The Saint Paul globe., 1897-10-02
a LECTTyMATE STRIKE.


ernment by injunctions there and be-
cause the element Of forceful violeace
was long since eliminated from their
contests for amelioration of laborS
conditions, we have heard little of the
prolonged strike of the stationary en-
gineers of England and of the patient
waiting struggle they made to secure
an eight-hour day That, even though
this struggle has gone against the
men, the day will come when eight
hours of manual labor will be the gen.
eral measure of a days work is as GER
tain as that ten-hour days succeeded,
after more strenuous efforts and under
far more unfavorable conditions, the
era when twelve and fourteen hours
was deemed a day. It is sixty years
now since that fight was made and
won, and it is one of the facts of it's
history that it received it's greatest as
sistance from the simple order Of a
Democratic president that in all gov
eminent work ten hours should consti-
tute a days labor. Martin Van Buren
I2cto IIldI QlSClIlCLIOu 10 Ills CIGull, With
others that are emerging from the
cloud of obloquy with which his oppo-
nents in and out Of his party clouded
his great merits. 1t is not too much to
| say that after Jefferson, he was our
greatest Democrat.
All are familiar with the ordinary ar
| guments for a reduction of the hours of
labor to eight day; the increased ef-
! ficiency of men whose energies are not
exhausted; the opportunity for mental
| improvement and the increase of op-
| portunity for employment But there
are other and more public reasons that
must have consideration. The unit
| of all government is the home. Any
| government is but an aggregation of
these units and it's character is deter
| mined by theirs. Consider what, un-
| der modern conditions, must be the
homes in communities where ten
hours labor is demanded of workers.
! The home must be either in the tene-
ments in the crowded part of the city,
or in the suburbs. If in the former,
the rentals compel the scantiest hous-
| ing possible, and we have the over
| crowded tenements, cheerlesS, depreSS-
| ing, foul, degrading, in which no spirit
! of home can exist. Such quarters be-
come social plague spots. The alterna-
tive is the suburb, with a cottage, but
with good air. ample breathing space
{ nd conditions 70 n To i7oo
the home spirit.
But from the suburban home to the
| shop is a long distance. Even where
electric cars shorten distance, two
hours of preparation are needed to put
the workman at his bench by o'clock.
There is the breakfast to be prepared
and eaten, the midday lunch to be made.
! Quitting at 6, home is not reached uu-
til or later, and the home work is
rarely over by g. The result in the
home of a ten hour day in the shop is
fourteen-hOur day for the housewife
and a tWelve-hour day for the man.
We have in such conditions forces at
work initiating against the duties and
|
life that the suburban situation af-
fords. The fathers influence is but lit
tie felt in the rearing of the children;
they see but little of him except on
Sundays or holidays. Add an hour OF
his presence in the home at either end
of the day, and You increase by so
much his influence in developing the
character Of children who will be-
come citizens of the state By so
much you diminish the hours the
mother must give to toll, giving her a
ten-hour day in place of twelve. 1t is
considerations such as these that lend
a public interest to the eight-hour
movement and Joined with economic
considerations, will force its adoption
against the opposition of conservatism
and selfshness now opposing it.