Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1914-09-18
BRYAN DISCUSSES
E|GHT-HOUR LAW
Shows the Danger of Coupling Farm
Labor With Amy Other Form
of Labor
To the Editor:

10 the Editor:
The application of an eight-hour
law to agricultural labor of any
sort would be an irreparable injury
not only to farmers but to all classes
OF society. The first blow would fall
upon the farmers, it is true, but ulti-
mately it would fall upon the con-
sumers. 1t would kill the goose
that lays the golden egg" What
ever may be said of the merits or de-
merits of the eight-hour law as ap-
piled to other kinds of labor, agri-
cultural labor follows a different
law and faces different conditions
and has done so from time imme-
mortal. There have been many per-
iods of history when, under the law,
all other forms Of labor must be
stopped and the workmen sent to the
fields to help save the crops. because
1t was clear that the food for the en-
tire community was at stake.
The farming business Is seasonal.
In this it Is unlike most other kinds
OF work. No one Is so much the VIC
tim of the weather as the farmer. He
deals with greater uncertainties,
and stakes his future on the chances
of wind and rain and storm more
than anybody else. There are times
when he can not work. The weather
forbids it. Again for long hours, he
must put forth the most strenuous
efforts or lose the precious grain
on which his own welfare and that
of everybody else depends. No
effort in the past, balanced as 1t Is
by periods of enforced rest, and none
is likely to come in the future. The
attempt to couple up the great pri-
mary industry of farm ing with labor
in the store, the shop, the factory.
and the railroad, is an unnatural al
lance which ought to be opposed In
the interests of both parties In the
one there is a minute division OF
labor; in the farming, the workers
must quickly tBrn from one thing to
another. In the factory, the work
ers are housed in ill-yentilated and
unsanitary buildings; the farm
worker tolls in the open air under
healthful conditions. The nervous
system of the one is for long periods
subjected to the rumble of wheels,
the clatter of hamme rs, or the buzz
OF human beings which requires a
cessation of the strain; the other
works under the quiet of the open
country. The one works under a
driving boss; the other is his own
master The one has no interest in
the capital involved the farmers
entire property is at stake. The two
do not belong in the same category
and labor legislation for the two
should not be identical.
The bringing of these two things
together appears to be more for the
sake of votes than for the welfare of
the farmer.
At the experimental station we at
tempted an experiment to see how
near a 10-acre unit of rich Palouse
soil provided with house, fruit trees
and barn, would be a self-upporting
unit for a family. The experiment
was a failure. The operation of the
eight-hour law in state work made 1t
failure. verify believe that under
normal farm conditions, 1t would
have been an entire success.
In the dairy industry, the milking
periods are IL hours apart. 1t is
not necessary, on this account, that
the days duties should be more seri-
GUS or burdensome, and yet an eight
hour law would almost certainly be
invoked to require two relays OF
workers and thus destroy the In
dustry in this state.
Farmers are too slow to act in
their own protection. About one
fourth of our voting population is in
Seattle. When we add the votes in
Tacoma, Spokane, Bellingham. Gv-
erett, ETC., we see that the COW
counties" are not strong politically.
Il is not enough to ''he opposed to
the enactment of an eight-hour law
which would be applicable to agricul-
tural labor. Active work should be
undertaken to defeat the coupling
of farm labor with any other form OF
labor.
Yours truly,