The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-27
A DAYS WORK.

A DAYS WORK.
 For good sound sense commend us to the following from q recent issue of Dixie" of Atlanta:
 The eight-hour day is a fraud. What ran laboring in his own behalf is satis- farmer the artisan or iaborer who works alone. and who profits by the measure of his efforts that he endangers his physi- cal energies by working more than eight hours day and he wifi laugh at you, and leugh heartily. too. The truth is that work. good steady work. never harmed any one. Of course. there are some ern- ployr1ents that arc extremely fatiguing, but in most cases modern methods and mechanical inventions have rinimized ex- cessive huH.an effort and 1t Is utter non sense 10 place the limit of reasonable endurance at eight hours per day-and the truth of this Is proven by the ma T who iabors wholly In his own behalf. He works ten twelve and even fourtee hours. and then stops with sincere re, gret that the daylight Is so soon gone. of the waking delegate and lazy work rnap--one Is hunting trouble and the oth- er Is trying to get rid of it. So the idea appeals strongly to both.
 As remarked. that Is sound sense. and It goes to the root of the whole matter. We cheerfulfy admit that eight hours of regular work out of twenty-four Is enough, provided all the conditions are favorable to such limitation. but man cannot always control his conditions. Sir Edward Coke, the great English jurist | said:
 Six hours in sleep. in laws great study Four spend in prayer. the rest on Nature TX.
 and stili later Sir william Jones divided the day in this way:
 Seven hours to Jaw. to soothing s'umber seven:
 Ten to the world aliot. and all to Heaven. This was English lawyers idea of a days work, but how many practising at- | torneys are there who do not work more than six or seven hours day? It might be, that Judges like Coke and Jones could | limit their time In their own way. but | we apprehend that c successful Ameri- can lawyer would find his business slip ping through his fingers if he should confne his legal hours to six out of twen- ty-four. His clients would look out for a man who would give more time to their interests.
 But suppose some lawyers union should issue 6 mandate that no attorney should give more than eight hours a day to his profession, would the courts and the judges submit to it7 If not. why not? If arv ,,rio1 cr AnAv oe yr,ay, ha. a ri0hf to prescribe days work why should 1t be confined to physical labor? Why not take in the lawyers and the doctors and all other professional men? The reason Is because they are not so short-sghted as to bind themselves to work or not to work at the dictation of some walking delegate.
 As we have stated, if conditions were such that no man would be required to work more than eight hours a day. and if that were satisfactory to employers contractors and others. it would all be And we assert, as a fact. that no sound | healthy man is injured by ten hours of manual labor out of the tweEty-four
 Many do it. not only farmers, but per sons engaged in other occupations. and are none the worse for it. They would enjoy more rest, of course. If conditions admitted it. but as they do not the work
 ts done and nobody suffers from 1t
 As second proposition We assert that
 a days work Is matter to be settled
 solely by and between employer and em-
 ployes. If they mutually agree on eight
 ten or twelve hours. and agree on the
 terms. that should be satisfactory and no
 other human being has a right to inter-
 fere. The assumption that a man shall
 only work eight hours a day if he wishes
 to work longer and gets pay for it, or
 that an employer of labor shall not con-
 tract with men for longer Hours if he is
 willing to pay for it--both assumptions
 are untenable. unjust and ty-annical. And
 so we get back to the starting point that
 a man shall be allowed to work as many
 hours as he is willing to do, and as many | as he gets maid for