The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1913-11-20
HEAD OF AMERICAN Fedora
TIoN OF LABOR HEARD BY
PEOPLE OF EVERETT.
Long Hours and Low Wages lnvarl
ably Go Hand In Hand, Declares
Samuel Gompers.

President Samuel Gompers of the
American Federation of Labor told an
audience that filled the Everett thea
ire to overflowing, what had been ac'
complished by organized labor and
made plea for stronger unions.
President Gompers was introduced
by e. p. Marsh as "The Grand Old
Man of Labor" and sopke in part as
follows:
81 can't understand why the work
ers in the industries that predominant
here fail to ally themselves with their
fellow workers. | mean the timber
workers who work from one to TWO
hours longer than any other trade.
Perhaps they want to be independent;
perhaps they wish to express their
dignity, or show their individual lib
erty and work longer hours for less
pay to do it.
Lonq Hours and Low Wages.
at is the universal rule that those
who work the longest hours are al
ways the workers who receive the
lowest pay. If you doubt my state
ment, take your place with those who
enter their places of labor earliest in
the morning and leave latest at night
and you will see that they are the
ones who receive the lowest wages.
"Do the number of hours of labor
automatically reduce themselves?
This is brought about Through the
efforts of the men of toll. In prim-
tive times men worked from sunup
to sundown and in the summer they
worked long hours, AT other times
of the year their hours were shorter
for their days work was done when
the sun went down.
"In the latter part of the eighteenth
and the beginning of the nineteenth
centuries a light dawned after CEN
turies of darkness. Machinery and
tools began to be discovered and ap-
Piled, but the working day still ended
when darkness came for the oil in the
urn or the tallow candle was not suf-
ficient for the successful operation of
machinery.
Held Machines Responsible.
"a century ago the mining, trans
portation and making of coal into gas
became an industry. With this arti-
ficial light the hours of labor length
ened. People were compelled to work
as long as they could stand, until they
became desolate, weakened and nearly
destroyed. Many persons held the
machine responsible for this condi-
ton and endeavored to destroy them.
Labor evolved a better method
than the destruction of the machine.
We decided by concentrated effort to
reduce the hours of labor 1t is ad-
vocated by some that if a man works
shorter hours he will spend his spare
time in the saloons and become de-
bauched. There are two classes of
people who can't find work and don't
work, and those who work such long
hours that they are crushed in spirit
and revert to other spirits to enliven
them, constitute the first class. The
second are the men who have so much
money that they have nothing to do
but get drunk The man who works
doesn't require artificial stimulants,
and you will find less intoxication
among the middle class who work
eight hours a day than you will among
the multi-millionaires.
Wages Determined by Cost of Living.
at is a fundamental law that a
man will get in wages just enough
to buy the necessities of life. The
man who works eight hours has de-
cent home with a piano and pictures
on the walls. But will you find
these things in the homes of the long
hour workers? What use has this
kind of man for a parlor or a pi-
ano? He is not home long enough to
enjoy them. He must work, work, all
the time and he works harder than a
prisoner works for crime. Music in
terferes with his sleep and must be
eliminated. If a man is satisfied
with living on crackers and cheese
and red herrings his wages will soon
descend TO just enough to buy these
things.
1--WE have the genius TO harness
the powers Of the world and to live
for a better, brighter day to give
our children educational advantages
and keep them away from the mills
the mines and the factories. But
these things do not come for the mere
asking.