The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-05-09
EIGHT-HOUR LEGISLATION.
Bill Affecting Government Contracts
FavorRbIy Reported.

FaNorRbiy Reported.
The bill making eight hours a days
work on contracts for the Government was
favorabiy reported TO the House yesterday
from the Committee on Labor by Repre-
sentative Gardner. The report accompa-
nying the bill gives an exhaustive resume
of the policy of Congress in dealing with
labor legislation.
The report says: Whatever tends to
increase the capital employed in produc-
tion increases the demand for laborers
and even If it were true that the shorten
ing of the working day resulted in no in
creased consumption and no increased out
put per hour it would require greater nat
ural forces, more means of production
(that is capitaD to produce the supply
for given demand. Hence the shorter
day will necessitate the use of a greater
amount of the means of production leap
itaD and would furnish additional EN-
ployment to labor-that is, employment to
more laborers. And if this be true, as
commended by modern writer's, that the
shorter day results in increased wants,
consumption among the laborers, hence
an increased market, and hence greater
production, there is called into productive
activity the same amount of additional
capital, employing the same number of
additional laborers by whatsoever theory
measured.
No recognized authority today combats
the proposition that the condition Of the
laborer has improved with every re-
duction in the hours of daily SER
vice that has up to this time been
made. Nobody is disputing that he
has become better consumer with each
reduction. No reasonable person would
for moment entertain the proposition
that the work day should again be length
ened to fourteen or twelve hours When
the hours OF work were so long that the
worker had no social opportunities they
resorted to stimulants for solace and the
saloon for society, where they encountered
an iron law for spending which could
not be disregarded without loss of caste
IN the only society which they had oppor-
tunity to enter. A gentleman of respon-
s1biiity and exceptional opportunity for OBJ
servation has borne testimony that the
shortening of the work day has banished
blue Monday
"A significant fact in connection with
L
times during the present century is tie
entire silence of the older school of econo-
mists with regard to the effect of the
shorter work day on society. business, in
dustrlal conditions, or the labo, ers them
selves. 1t is nowhere claimed, in SO far
as your committee is aware, that any re-
duction In the hours of labor has hal
detrimental effect on business. on manu-
facturers, on labor as unit, or individual
laborers. The advocates of the sho.t-hour
theory, on the other hand, trace the moral
social, and financial improvement of the
laborer to this cause and allege that buyi-
ness was at no time injured, bu; improved,
If affected. and that production was stimu-
lated and consumption increased
ECONOMISTS who advocate the eight
hour day contend with great plausiblity
that fhe shorter day results in an in
crease Of wages without an increase of
price, as greater consumption eniarges
production, and the larger the scale of
production the cheaper the given article
is produced; that the laborer, when he
has the leisure resulting from the shorter
hours, has new aspirations ambitions, and
greater personal self-respect. and as be-
fore stated, wants a better house better
furniture, better clothes. better food. and
becomes a great deal better consumer;
that the scale of wages is controlled by
the WanlS OF the laDoTer IN any given
state Of society rather than b. the iron
law of wages that modern men cease to
work under normal conditions IL the pro-
ceeds of their labor do not satisfy their
normal wants; that, therefore, the social
, status of the laborer controls the law of
wages to as great an extent as the law
OF wages controls the status of the laborer
while there is still a variance Of opin-
ion on the general question whether mod
ern machinery and methods so tighten the
physical drudgery of most occupations as
to have an equivalent effect to the short
ening of hours in the conservation of
energy, OF whether such machinery and
methods operate to so tax the nervous
powers as to be equivalent in exhaustive
effects to the lengthening of hours. your
committee are of opinion, after what has
been said on both sides, that the higher
tension Of modern employment is at least
a full Offset to the saving accomplished
in muscular force
The report also presents an elaborate re-
view of the eight-hour legislation in all
the States, and the previous eight-hour
statutes enacted by the Federal Govern
ment