The wageworker., 1910-09-02


1t is well known that in the early
days of the present factory system the
days work extended usually to four
teen or sixteen hours
This long day existed for all work
ers-the skilled and the unskilled, the
children as well as the men and wo-
men.
The workers had not yet learned to
organize, and as individuals they were
utterly helpless to effect change in
the hours of their labor or in the scale
of their wages.
There were, of course, no laws TO
protect them, and so they lived entirely
at the mercy of their employers.
The normal conditions that existed
little more than half century ago IN
England and elsewhere throughout the
world of the factory system are equal
led today only in certain plague spots.
When one reads the stories OF the
misery and oppression, the long hours
and low wages of those days, one won
ders how the workers managed to live
at all.
How much the condition of the work
ers generally has been improved it IS
by no means easy to say, but we DO
know that the condition of the workers
has vastly improved wherever they have
learned to value unity.
In those trades where the men have
known enough to fight for their rights
and to stand together there has arisen
what some sc.ffers like to call an
"aristocracy of labor"
And if in certain trades there are
indeed aristocrats of labor, it is simply
because they have had intelligence en-
ough to fight together, to pay dues to
one organization and TO battle always
with unity and solidarity.
And what they have done all other
workers can do. ....
The "aristocrats hold no patent on
their method of action, and by acting
in the same manner all other toilers
can win all the "aristocrats' have
won.
Now it is difficult to ascertain just
how much union workers have bene-
fited by higher wages.
In that matter there is always the
question as to the increased cost of
living which makes difficult any COM
parson of wages here and abroad or of
wages now with those of forty years
ago.
The best one can do is to compare
wages and hours today in one trade
that is organized with the wages and
hours in another trade that is un-
organized.
This has been well done by the de-
partment of labor at Washington and
the figures gathered by that depart
ment show beyond dispute the enor-
nous benefits that have come to labor
as result of organization.
Consider for one moment the fol-
lowing facts:
We all know that the workers in the
iron and steel trade are poorly organ
ized, and we find that the hours of
labor in this trade are from sixty to
seventy-two per week.
The hot blast men in all parts of the
country work about eightyfour hours
per week.
On the other hand we all know that
the stone and granite cutters are well
organized.
When we look up the figures of their
hours we find that they work about
forty-eight hours per week.
The bricklayers, the carpenters, the
hod carriers, the painters, the paper
hangers and the plumbers are highly
organized trades; and when we in
quire into the hours worked by these
men we find that they rarely average
more than fifty hours per week.
These workers then are the aristo-
Gratis of labor simply because they are
well united in their trade, are loyal to
their organization. pay their dues and
fight common battle.
1t would be difficult to find an argu-
ment in support of unionism so potent
MS this one.
To find one set of workers like the
stoneeutters working forty-eight hours
per week and another set of workers
in the iron and steel trade working
eighty hours per week should alone be
enough to convince every toiler in this
wide land of the value of unionism
But this is not all. The hot blast
men who work an average of eighty
FOUR hours per week obtain only about
16 cents per hour for their labor.
The stonecutters who work on an
average of fortyeight hours per week
receive an average of 40 cents per
hour.
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