The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-11-06
THE EIGHT HOUR LAW.

other questions not Immediately in- yolving the betterment of working conditions. surely there will be no worker who will view with opposl- ton the proposal to establish gen. eral eight hour law for men and women workers throughout Alaska.
 That question is to be submitted on the ballot which will be given citizens tomorrow. and while it is technically merely an expression of opinion, it is obviously the clear and manifest duty of each and every worker to vote in support of 1t. There is no reason why the eight hour day should not be general.
 There are always more than sutfi- cient persons to do all the work and the shorter shift necessarily involves the increased employment of larger number of men. The chief trouble with the vote upon the eight hour day is that it entities those who are not even indirectly affected by it to vote just the same as a man or woman who is. And it IS the main objection to the submis- sion of all labor matters to such an expression by a conglomerate cleo torate that all except the workers accept or manifest a tendency to ac- cept the view point of an employer in opposition thereto.
 The eight hour day is a reform in working conditions. It is not the ultimate object of the labor movement. After time it will be wholly accepted as. necessary inn provement in efficient working con- ditions and will be general.
 Where there is any effort made to conserve efficient the labors Of the workingclass, the wiser employers long ago have conceded the measure. They know that far from diminish ing their profits, they increase the speed of productivity and the eftici- ency of the working operations, and accordingly the volume of the pro- duct of labor.
 Indeed one of the reasons why in- dividual independent firms have been able to make headway against the trustified organizations which tend otherwise to control industry, has been because the wiser inde- pendents have made study of the labor problems they were called upon to face. They improved working conditions in order to i'm prove the efficiency of the workers, and by this means they obtained more efficient and more productive worker. They did not agree to the shorter work day because 1t was an actual amelioration of the workers condition of labor. They did so as a business proposition because they got more out of the workers.
 That is not why the workers sup port the eight hour day. They shorten the workday first in order to diminish the number of unem- ployed and thus lessen competition automatically on the job, and they support it because it actually gives them more leisure and decreases the exhaustion, follows from almost all labor in these days of stress and speeding up.
 It is an amelioration. But it is merely d step which very soon will be demanding a more advanced movement upon the part of the workers.
 Reverting to the employers standpoint, the eight hour day is found to work out in exactly the same manner as the ten hour day or the twelve hour day laDor laws They really do not affect at all tn capitalist situation. They are strong incentives to improve the quality of the work and the quantity of work per labor hour. Henry Ford knows that; the government after most ex- haustive tests found that the eight hour day had precisely the result claimed by some of it's employer-of- labor advocates, that the efficiency of the workers was almost imme diately improved. while with the longer day even the steadiest and commonest labor was badly impair ed.
 In fact where the eight hour day had come to be accepted and recog- nized, there are few employers who would willingly return to the short CT day. They find that while there are more men employed, the per | capita production is also increased. i