Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-05-08
CONDITION IMPROVED
Production Stimulated and Con-
sumption Increased.
REVIEW OF LEGISLATION

In view of the recent eight-hour move
ment throughout the country, the report
made to the House of Representatives to-
day by Chairman Gardner of the commit
tee on Labor, on the Gardner eight-hour
bill and the general subject of eight-hour
legislation. has timely interest. The bill
requires clause in all government con-
tracts that the labor under the contract
shall not exceed eight hours daily. The
report says In part:
1T is contended by the advocates of the
shorter day that the additional leisure given
to labor in every instance of the shorten
ing of the work day. as it has been short
ened step by step from sixteen hours to
fourteen. twelve. eleven, ten. nine. and in
many instances eight, has resulted in de-
crease of intemperance among laborers. the
requirement of better taste and and
better desires, resulting in better homes,
greater domestic felicity and higher de-
gree OF intelligence. with an increase of
laudable pride to the clothing of them
selves and those dependent upon 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 pro-
duction.
Blue Monday Banished.
1.-The proposition that without variation
the elimination of intemperance. poverty,
pauperism. ignorance. crime and their &C
companying evils move parallel with and
proportionate to the increase of the social
opportunities of the laboring class stands
without Impeachment of its historical ac-
curacy. No recognized authority today
ccmbats the proposition that the condition
of the laborer has improved with every re-
duction in the hours of daily service that
has up to this time been made Nobody ia
0lSnntlnP harnnn n hot
sumner with each reduction. No reasonable
person would for moment entertain 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 social opportunities they
resorted to Stimuants for solace and the
saloon for society. where they encountered
an iron law for spending which could not
be disreSarded without loss of caste in the
only society which they had opportunity to
enter. A gentleman of responsibility and
exceptional opportunity for observation has
borne testimony that the shortening Of the
work day has banished blue Monday.
Production Stimulated.
"A significant fact in connection with the
shortening of the work day at various times
during the present century is the entire
silence of the older school of economists
with regard to the effect of the shorter
work day on society. business, industrial
conditions. or the laborers themselves It
IS nowhere claimed, in SO far as your COM
mittee is aware. that any reduction in the
hours OF labor has had detrimental effect
on business. on manufacturers. on labor as
a unit, or individual laborers. The advo-
Gates 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 in
jGred, but improved. If affected, and that
production was stimulated and consumption
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 la
borer, when he has the leisure resulting
from the shorter hours, has new aspira-
tons ambitions, and greater personal self
respect, and as before stated. wants a bet
ter house. better furniture. better clothes,
better food, and becomes a great deal bet
ter consumer; that the scale of wages is
controlled by the wants Of the laborer in
any given state of society rather than by
the iron law Of wages that modern men
cease to work under normal conditions IL
the proceeds of their labor do not satisfy
their normal wants; that therefore the So
cial status of the laborer controls the law
OF wages to great an extent as the law
of wages controls the status of the laborer.
Review of EiEht-HOur Legislation.
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 shortening
of hours in the conservation Of energy. or
whether such machinery and methods op-
crate to so tax the nervous powers as to be
equivalent in exhaustive effects to the
frightening of hours, your committee are
of opinion. after what has been said on
both sides. that the higher tension Of mod
ern 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 government
Transfers of Real Estate.