The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1900-12-29
SHORTER .Wo|Rk|DAY / Q !! 4 |
PHILOSOPHY OF THE MOVEMENT
FOR SHORTER HOURS.
The Average Trade UniOMint Merely
Looks Upon the Surface of Things.
More Leisure Hours Create New
WantH-There EnsueS II Gigantic
Commercial stimulus. and Creates
a Market for Many Products.

When millions Of people, distributed
throughout the civilized world, are
striving for a specific objective point,
il may fairly be- assumed that the
thought forces impelling them are
worthy of being dignified by the name
of a philosophy. !;
1t does not necessarily follow that
each unit in the mass Of a popular
movement is philosopher. The soldier
may aim his rifle truly and be ignorant
Of the strenuous craftsmanship placing
him on the battlefield. The mason who
helped lay the foundation of st. Peters,
possibly had no glimpse of the grand
eur of the architects conception. Not
every sans culotte could rightly define
liberty, equality and fraternity"
But every great objective manifesto
tion has subjective, an astral body
as it were. which in it's verify it's most
impressive feature, and through the
psychic vision be denied to most of US,
yet we may be sure that if we only had
eyes to see, this inner structure is there
to be seen.
We say we know a friend. What is
= it we know? We recognize his out
ward physical semblance, the shape Of
his features, the color Of his eyes Or
hair, the sound Of his voice, his trick
of speech and gesture and gait. If
absent, we may recognize his handwrit-
ing. the turn of a phase, his expressed
opinion on given subject. If we hear
Of an act done. noble or otherwise, we
may say, "Its just like B."
But after ALL what part Of the man
is it that we know from these super
fetal tokens? The real man dates back
beyond our ken. Heredity has shaped
the convolutions Of his brain, ingrained
his instincts, refined or brutaliZed his
nerves. Environment has coated him
with a surface veneer, probably labeled
him Mahommedan or Christian, but as
HeintZman wrote Of the prostitute, he
has all the generations of men back of
him and what he is as a result of a
thousand subtle influences which we
cannot perceive.
AS in the individual unit, so in the
collective individual, which we call So
ciety, and in the industrial, political
or social expression of collective activ-
ity. 1t is this puzzling inner reason
for things which is to be sought for in
NexpIAnat tton III ef;nai sphenunlslta:A y.
J. Now, take the open, apparent fact OF
the widespread organized movement
for the shorter workday. Ask the first
shorter workday?''
He may reply truthfully, "Oh, because
it's a good thing.
Question him further: why is it
good thing?" Very likely the answer
will be, "Oh. it will put the unemploy-
ed at work, and productive processes
have been improved that we must re-
duce the hours of labor to give all
chance"
80 far, 50 good" you say to him,
"but if wages are paid out of the pro-
duct Of labor, why reduce the amount
of production? Why not rather try to
get for the slaborer his proper share Of
production, and thus the more produced
the more to be divided and that the
greater the labOrer's share and conse-
quently the better off of himself and
family?'
Just about at this point there is liza
BILE to be a hitch in the argument, and
while you will probably not shake your
fellow unionist's faith in the shorter
hour movement, because he can point
to the fact that high wages and short
hours go together, the inner reason for
this condition of affairs is not so plain
ly evident.
Suppose we dig down a bit and see if
we can find the working philosophy