The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1910-05-20

that arise on the air from large employ
ers of labor the minute it is proposed
to reduce the hours of labor for men
and women who toll? Distinct visions
of "the poorhouse over the hilr' loom
on the horizon and the wall of agony
that goes up is something awful. Ev-
erything will 60 to the e~ernal bow
vows if the working day is decreased
one single minute. In view of the dis.
tinct advantages that have accrued to
the industrial life of the country over
the Inauguration of the eight hour day
in so many of the trades, it seems rath.
er odd that employers should continue
through the medium of the press to
bamboozle the public with their pitiful
plea for long workday. But they do
it and they fight like good fellows to
beat back the inevitable. They are
apparently blind to the proven economic
fact that decreasing the hours of tot
increases the working efficiency of the
toiler. They listen not at all to the
argument of the worker that he is en-.
titled to a portion of the day for rest,
recreation, or to do with what he wills
All they know is profits" and they
think that longer workday means
"more profits" and their whole argu.
ment is based on that unsound economic
basis.
! When the constitutionality of the
ten hour law for women workers in the
state of Illinois was being argued in
the courts, the attorneys for the man
women in court and made pitiful plea
that those women if the law was up
held would be unable to make living
wages and would consequently have no
savings to invest.
Some time ago a hearing was being
held by congressional committee on
an eight hour bill and representatives
of railroad and manufacturing interests
made the brazen statement that "in
their opinion working men would be
better off if they worked twelve, four
teen and sixteen hours a day"
Anything goes as argument with the
avaricious employer of labor who can
see nothing an inch beyond the end Of
| l.
| fits"
A rumor that the machinists of the
Northwest were perfecting plans for the
Inauguration of the eight hour work
day in their trade has reached the ears
of the iron and metal foundrymen and
manufacturers and they seem much
perturbei about it. The burden of their
cry is that they cannot run on an
eight hour day basis and compete with
the manufacturers in the eastern states,
who are working their men ten hours a
day. The proprietors of the Sumner
Iron Works, in newspaper interview
last week which was half plant and
half threat, warned their employees and
the general public that the splendid
business they have built up in this city
would be threatened with heavy shrink
age if not total annihilation were the
eight hour day put into effect. They
could not meet competition and run at
profit on q shorter workday basis and
the whole screed was an obvious at
tempt to scare their employees and
ALLEVIATE public sympathy from any
eight-hour demands on the part of the
workers. A summary of the machinery
installed in the various manufacturing
plants of the city was given with the
inference, of course, that this neces-
sary and praiseworthy contribution to
the Industrial life of the city would
instantly cease if they were forced on
an eight hour basis.
1 Nine years ago the Sumner plant,
then an insignificant institution in
equipment and volume of business as
tompared to the present time, was on a
ten hour basis. The strike for a nine
hour day came. Then, as now, the pro
prietors set up calamity howl They
would be ruined If the plant was forced
to run nine hours instead of ten. "Why,
they told the strikers, "you have
killed the goose that laid the golden
egg Why couldn't you let we'll en-
ough alone" There are plenty of peo'
pie here who can remember the cry
that went up at that time, and who
comparing the argument of today with
that of nine years ago, discern a sus'
picion similarity of wording. The out
come of that fight was that while the
Sumner plant became an open shop
concern IL had to finally go on the nine
hour basis instead of ten. Did thu
company go brokei Not much it didn't
A great share of its prosperity has hap
pened since the nine-hour day went int
effect. The owners themselves tell th'