The Irish standard., 1900-05-12
EIGRT-H0uR MOVEMENT.
the Report of u Congrcxsi0n-
al Committee.

Washington, May On view of the
recent eight-hour movement through
out the country the report made to the
house of representatives Tuesday by
Chairman Gardner, of the committee
! on labor, on the Gardner eight-hour
bill and the general 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:
ut is contended by the advocates of the
shorter day that the additional leisure
given to labor in every instance Of the
shortening of the work day, as it has
been shortened step by step, from 1G hours
to IA, u, IL, ten, nine, and in many instances
eight, has resulted in a decrease of in
temperance among laborers. the acquire
ment of better taste, and new and better
desires, resulting in better homes greater
domestic felicity, and higher degree of
intelligence with an increase of laudable
pride as to the clothing Of themselves and
those dependent upon them. In word,
has increased their interests in home and
better social relations, raised their moral
status. and has made them much better
consumers OF the products of labor, and
1.-THE proposition that without variation
the elimination of intemperance, poverty,
pauperism, ignorance, crime and their ac-
companylng evils moves parallel with and
proportionate to the increase of the So
cial opportunities Of the laboring class
stands without Impeachment of its his
torical accuracy. No recognized authority
to-day combats the proposition that the
condition of, the lahorer has improved with
every reduction in the hours of daily serv-
ice 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 en-
terrain the proposition that the workday
should again be heightened to IA or IL
hours When the hours of work were so
long that the workers had no social oppor-
tunities, they resorted to stimulants for
soace and the saloon for society, where
they encountered an iron law for spend
Ing which could not be disregarded without
loss of caste in the only society which they
had opportunity to enter. gentleman
of responsibility and exceptional opportu-
nifty for observation has borne testimony
that the shortening Of the workday has
baniSlled blue Monday
"a significant fact in connection with
the shortening of the workday at various
times during the present century is the
entire silence of the older school of econo-
mists with regard to the effect of the short
er workday on society, business, industrial
conditions, or the laborers themselves. 1t
is nowhere claimed in so far as your COM
mittee is aware, that any reduction of
the hours Of labor has had a detrimental
effect on business, on manufacturers, on la
Dor, as unit, or individual laborer. 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, if affected, and
that production was stimulated and con-
sumption increased.
Economists who advocate the eight
hour 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 he has the leisure, re-
sulting from the shorter hours, has new
aspirations. ambitions, and greater per-
sonal self-respect, as before stated, wants
4 better house, better furniture, better
clothes, better food and becomes 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
modern men cease to work under normal
conditions if the proceeds of their labor do
not satisfy their normal wants; that there
fore the social status of the laborer con-
trolls the law of wages to as great an ex-
tent as the law of wages controls the status
Of the laborer.
''While there is still variance of opinion
on the general question whether modern
machinery and methods SO tighten the
physical drudgery of most occupations as
to have an equivalent effect to the short
eniag of hours in the conservation of en-
ergy, or whether such machinery and
methods operate to so tax the nervous pow
ers as to be equivalent in exhaustive eff
fects to the frightening 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
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