Waterbury Democrat., 1901-06-25
THE SHORTER WoRKDAY.

l To the Editor:
 | As some people do not seem to re- | alize that the shorter workday is ne l cessity and not simply a luxury, kindly allow me to present the matter | in what seems to me a plain A, B, C
 manner. 1t may seem very
 simple to some, but simple at it
 may seem, there are many who have never even thought l the matter over. With our great pro- ductive capacity, through improved | machinery, etc, those who are en- | ployed at the present rate of hours are l doing all the work, while others are | kept out of employment. So With an ! army of people constantly seeking the l places of those who are employed, 1t l is clear that those employed cannot
 obtain wages enough to buy their snare of the product of their labor. And if they cannot buy goods it is plain that
 business suffers and that few goods 1 will be made until the others can be
 sold. Neither can the wage earner have anything to say about the condi-- l tions under which he shall work. If l he asks for more wages or complains l of conditions such as unjust treatment or arbitrary rules, he does so with the I Knowledge that there are others look l ing for his place if he is not satisfied.
 and thus the wage earner, under these 1 conditions, is unable to obtain suffl- cient wages, or, generally speaking,
 proper treatment, for he is practically | at the mercy of his employer.
 l I am speaking of labor as a class,
 not of the individual, who through | cl-i oh ir1f1 (which by the way should never have l to be used to obtain an honest liying) l is able to obtain more than his neigh l Dor, and often forgets that if his
 neighbor can obtain more, that he him. | self can obtain still more if he pos l sesses extra skill or influence.
 As those out of employment arc l about all members of our families, we
 are supporting them to come to the l door of the place where we are em- l ployed and seek our jobs, which fact
 prevents our obtaining sufficient wages l to enable us to buy our share of the product of our labor, and goods are l shipped abroad while people who made 1 them are unable to buy them for the
 reason above stated.
 Our political speakers tell about our productive capacity being so great 1 that we are not only able to supply l our own market, but we are obliged I to look for further foreign markets to dispose of our goods.
 | Then the people applaud, without l stopping to think that we are supply l ing foreign market while the masses l of our people are getting barely a liv-
 ing. And that, instead of. supplying, we are not supplying our own market l for the reason that our own people do
 
 | they need. thus making it necessary | to look for a foreign market on which | to dispose of goods that our people l actually need themselves but cannot | afford to buy.
 How many of our laboring people are able to buy what they really need to make life worth living ? Or to hire
 proper medical skill, etc? Or to buy what the physician says is necessary
 when they seek his advice?
 Some seem to think that it is only the unskilled who are out of employ | ment. This is not true. But sup
 pose thatait is trues Some say that | the man without a trade or experience in work requiring skfli cannot hurt. or take the place of the more exper- fencedt or skil1ful man and consequent ly his being out of work is no c0neert: of the more competent or experienced
 man.
 This is mighty uncharitable, sell fish way to look at it. 1t is equivalent to saying, who cares for the suffering
 of the man at the bottom of the lad der. Some may not care for him or
 wish to notice him, but the fact that
 he cares for himself (for no one else
 seems to care for him), compels us to
 notice him, and as time goes on will fo fnr is
 easily seen that when he is out of en-
 ployment every one else is injured by There is little demand for him owing to thel fact that with the present.. hours of labor and facilities for turn ing out work those employed are do-. ing all the work and he is without any
 and when he obtains it it is at a very
 low price. Able bodied men are com.
 monly hired for $1.25 per day and Q
 great many are working for less.
 So we will take this man who is hired for S1 125. Receiving only $1.25
 per day he crowds himself (and his
 employer helps him) into the place of the ,$1.50 man in the hope that after getting more experience he, too, will
 receive S1.50. Usually he fails to get it, but may succeed in getting perhaps $1.35. But he has brought the other fellow down and perhaps out in order to lift himself a little. The other fei- low gets his eye on the job which paid | S20O and crowds in at $1.75. This man in turn crowds onto the job of the S2:75 man at $2.25. The 1925 or $2.5O
 man though perhaps not as valuable q
 man as his $3.50 neighbor gets his
 neighbors $3.50 job at $500.
 The man who displaced our $1.50 man and receives himself $135 is himself displaced by a still cheaper | man, and so the whole operation is
 being continually repeated, thereby l dragging the wage earner lower every day, while the goods he has to buy do
 not lower in proportion to his wages,
 because most of them are controlled by 1nonopolies. So the $3.50 wage earner, and many another, seeing that | he cannot earn as much as formerly,
 decides to start in some kind of busi-
 ness. It may be store, and the busi- ness man is crowded; he also deter | mines to make doctor or perhaps 9
 lawyer out of his son, and they, too, | find their professions overcrowded.
 And so every one along the line suf- fers, but seldom stops to think that it l is traceable to the fellow at the bottom of the ladder and that the greatest