The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1916-09-01
ACHIEVEMENTS
OF LABOR
BY Samuel Gompers,

by OdlNNtl jumpers
Labor Day, 1916, brings to the
workers of America the right to cheer
and confidence in the trade union
movement. There have been tests
and crises that have proved its funda-
mental principles; there have been
opportunities that have tested its
practical efficiency. Through them
all the trade union movement has
made sure progress and gained in
confident vision Tor the future.
Every national and international,
every local union affiliated to the
American Federation of Labor has
made definite progress in securing for
its members greater advantages in
those things which are fundamental
Of betterment in all relations of life.
In some organizations the success has
been phenomenal.
Taking the labor movement as a
whole there has been greater progress
in securing the eight-hour day or the
shorter workday than in any other
similar period of time. The meaning
Of these viitories can be interpreted
only in the light of full understanding
of the meaning of the eight-hour day.
The shorter workday is something
more than an economic demand. 1t is
demand for opportunity for rest, re-
cuperation and development; things
| ;,1,
drudgery.
The workers whose whole periods
are short are essentially different
from those who are so worn by toll
that they have neither energy nor
mind for other things in life. They
become more energetic, more resource
full workers with keener mentality and
greater producing power 1t newt
ably follows that the short hour work
ers are the best paid workers. With
every reduction in hours there is al
ways a corresponding increase in
wages. Wherever demands for the
shorter workday and higher wages
have been presented and urged by
organized workers during the past
year, they have met with success.
These economic gains have a potent
relation to the social side of life.
Shortening the period of work
lengthens the period for development
and for all of the other activities that
belong to the normal individual. In
creases in wages give the workers the
means for taking advantage of the
increased opportunities of the shorter
workday. The workers of short hours
and better wages become very diff
ferent citizens from those who are so
exhausted by the daily grind that they
have neither the time nor the energy
for thought nor aspiration. These
: gains mean better homes, better food,
better clothing; time and opportunity
for the cultivation of the best and the
highest that is possible in the life of
man.
Economic achievements are the
basis upon which the workers can
secure social and political progress.
The power which secures these
achievements is the power that will
secure justice for them in every other
relation. Shorter hours and higher
wages give the opportunity and the
, means to live better more purposeful
lives.
Power through economic means
political power. There must be an
economic basis in order to give po-
litical activity reason for existence
!. and a program. By organizing its
economic pwoer to secure political
! protection and by adhering strictly to
non-partisan political program, the
American Federation of Labor has
S won glorious Legislative victories.
t The object of legislation which or
? ganized labor has sought to obtain is
g always to establish larger and better
t Organized labor does not seek through
legislation to do things for the work
= ers that they can do for themselves
k 1t only seeks to establish for them op'
:, portunities. This principle applies to
e workers in private industry. In the
= case of workers in governmental EN-
). ployment where the government is the
r employer and conditions Of employ
!. ment can be fixed only by legislation
then the organized labor movement
!. seeks to do something more than es
/, tablish opportunity 1t must secure
legislation regulating conditions Of
} employment
!; The record of the legislative achieve
{ ments of the labor movement since
1906, when the non-partisan politica
Il party was inaugurated, is one of splen