Denver labor bulletin., 1917-08-04

VI SdiuciS
without the means to enable them to
share in the consumption of this vast
product, reveals a charted industrial
and social system that justifies all the
demands of labor. including the short
er workday as well as specified rest
day.
! The general recognition of Sunday
as day of rest has the hearty support
of the men and women of labor, but
to secure one days rest in seven, what
ever that day may be, overshadows
the establishment of a specified day of
the week. Customs in industry are
difficult to dislodge where profits are
concerned.
In our intricate web of industry the
woof of personal interest exercises a
potent force against stoppage of la
Dor, in certain industries, even tho the
suspension for given day each week
might result only in the employment
of additional operatives.
| Our opponents, in their endeavors to
stay the progress toward a brighter
day for the wage earners assert that
the organized workers do not repre-
sent the vast majority of the toilers,
but we answer that our Federation
does represent the best interests of all
wage earners, as do likewise the relig-
ious institutions represent religious
thought, even tho their communicates
comprise but a fraction of the popu-
lation.
Our championship of shorter hours
rests upon a broad foundation and
seeks to permanently establish the
human being as the chief consideration
in all economic, political and religious
movements. Prior to the passage of
the Clayton law by the sixty third
congress wage Garner was regarded
by the highest judicial tribunal as
commodity, comparable with side of
beef or a load of coal. The Clayton
law declares that the labor of a hu-
man being is not commodity or arti-
Gle of commerce. Consequently upon
the incorporation of this fundamental
/ principle into a federal statute the
/ human being has been accorded his
rightful place.
The primal means of approach to a
higher standard Of living is thru a
reduction of hours of labor. The
standard Of living Of wage earners is
the basis upon which is determined the
/ general welfare and progress Of peo-
pie. With a low standard industry
itself intermittently languishes, our
commercial enterprises encounterinC
/ recurring periods Of violent fluctua-
tions. Economists who warp their
philosophy to promote political ends,
take no account Of the fact that with
/ increased production brought about by
labor saving processes without de-
creasing the hours of labor and pro-
/ portionnlly increasing the share of the
workers in the products of this labor.
results in a reduction in the number
of employed workers and consequently
decreased consumption by them. The
consuming power of the people as a
whole accurately registers the volume
of products necessary to supply our
wants. The wants of the masses of
the people are far in excess of the
amount they consume because of lack
of opportunity to work and because of
the inadequate remuneration of work
now performed.
! Organized workmen, thru their econ
omic power and influence, have estab-
lished in numerous industries the Sat
urday half holiday. as well as the
abolition of Sunday labor. The prin-
ciple involved in the half holiday is
that wage earners may have a period
of recreation each week. with Sunday
as the rest day. TO be spent as the die
tates of their desires may determine.
Running thru all the wage scales in
the organizations attached to our Fed
Grafton are found provisions calling
for time and one half and double time
/ for Sunday work. These provisions
are not incorporated from desire to
secure additional compensation for
Sunday labor, but rather to prohibit
il.
A high standard of living with its
ever increasing wants would add sta
bility and volume to commerce and
confer upon society inestimable bene-
/ fits. a rising standard creates new
wants and stimulates production TO
crafty them. a reduction of the
hours of labor adds to the number of
employed and with the means thus
provided the wage earners give inn
petus to every industrial and COM
mercial effort.
A large number of workers in en-
forced idleness and immense quanti-
ties of the products of our country
seeking foreign markets is an econo-
mic tragedy. Similar but more ag-
gravated conditions in other countries
have resulted in n constant stream of
immigrants flowing into this country,
ployers of labor for the sole purpose
of maintaining a permanent standing
army of unemployed still further in
tensifies the industrial problem.
Apply to this situation the rational
and equitable remedy of lesser hours
to the point where employment is
general and permanent among all
wage earners instead of sporadic, and
permanent prosperity will follow to
all the people.
The recognition of the principle of
one specified rest day in the accept
ance of that economic thought that
the income of the wage earners for six
days should be sufficient to provide
for the seventh day without labor.