The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-05-09
EIGHT-HOUR WORK DAY
HOW 1T BENEFITS THE TOILER AND
SOCIETY IN GENERAL.
Mr.. Gardeners Report on Bill PrOvid-
ing for Fewer Hours Work ON
Government Contracts.

WASHINGTON, May SIN view of the
recent eight-hour movement throughout
the country, the report made to the House
of Representatives to-day by Chairman
Gardner, of the committee on labor. on the
Gardner eight-hour bill and the subject OF
eight-hour legislation has a timely interest.
The bill requires a clause In all govern
ment contracts that the labor under the
contract shall not exceed eight hours daily.
The report says, in part:
.It is contended by the advocates Of the
shorter work day that the additional leis-
ure given to labor in every instance Of the
shortening of the work day, as 1t has been
shortened step by step from sixteen hours,
fifteen, twelve, eleven, ten and nine, and
in many instances eight, has resulted In an
increase of Temperance among laborers, the
requirement of better taste and new and
better desires, resulting in better homes.
better domestic felicity and a higher de-
gree of intelligence, with an increase of
laudable pride as to the clothing of them
selves and those dependent on them: in a
word. has increased their interests in home
and better social relations. raising their
moral status, and has made them much
better consumers OF the products of labor
and hence resulted in increased produc-
lions.
1.-The proposition that, without variation,
the elimination of intemperance, poverty,
pauperism, ignorance. crime and their ac-
~companying evils move parallel with and
proportionate TO the increase of the social
opportunities of the laboring class tands
without impeachment of it's historical ac-
curacy. No recognized authority to-day
combats the proposition that the condition
of the laborer has increased with every
reduction in the hours of daily service that
has, up to this time, been made. Nobody
is disputing that he has become a better
consumer with each reduction. No reason
able person would, for a mOment, enter
tain the proposition that the work day
should again be heightened TO fourteen or
twelve hours. When the hours of work
were so long that workers had no social
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 opportunity to enter. A
gentleman Of responsibility and exception
al opportunity for observation has borne
testimony that the shortening of the work
day has banished blue Monday
"a significant fact In connection with
the shortening of the work day at various
times during the present century Is the
ent1re silence OF the oder SchOOl OF eCOnO-
mists with regard to the effect of the short
er work day on society, business, industrial
conditions or the laborers themselves. It Is
nowhere claimed, in so far as your commit
tee is aware, that any reduction In the hours
of labor has had a detrimental effect on
business, on manufacturers, on labor as a
unit. or individual laborers. The advocates
of the short-hour theory. on the other
hand, trace the moral. social and financial
Improvement of the laborer to this cause
and allege that business was at no time
injured, but improved. IL affected, and that
production was stimulated and consump-
ton increased.
Economists who advocate the e%ight-hour
work day contend. with great plausibility,
that the shorter day results in an increase
of wages without an increase of price, as
greater consumption enlarges production
and the larger the scale of production the
cheaper the given article is produced; that
the laborer. when ne has the leisure. re-
sulting from the shorter work hours. has
new aspirations. ambitions and greater
personal self-respect, and. as before stated,
wants a better house, better furniture, bet
ter clothes, better food and becomes a
great deal better consumer: that the scale
of wages is controlled by the wants of the
laborer in any given state OF society, rath-
er than by the iron law of wages that
conditions IL the proceeds 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
status OF the laborer.
while there is still a variance OF opinion
on the general question whether modern
machinery and Methods so tighten the
physical drudgery of most occupations as
have an equivalent effect to the shortening
of hours in the conservation OF energy. or
whether such machinery and methods oper-
ate to so tax the nervous powers as TO be
equivalent in exhaustive effects to the
~lengthening of hours. your are
of opinion, after what has been said on
both sides. that the greater energy OF mod
ern employment Is at least an Offset to the
saving Of muscular force
The report also presents an elaborate re-
view OF the eight-hour legislation in all
the States and the previous e%ight-hour
statutes enacted by the federal govern
ment.