Denver labor bulletin., 1917-08-04

sire shorter workday among
other things so that there may be
opportunity for leisure and recrea-
ton. They desire to terminate
each days labor with sufficient
vitality left to enjoy the society
OF their fellow men, to study so
as to better prepare themselves
for the problems which face them
as wage earners, and to enjoy
some OF the blessings which the
Almighty has so bounteously
spread at every hand.
The American wage Garner has
known from practical experience
what it meant to labor from sun
to sun, what it meant to give most
OF the waking hours to hard man
ual toll, what it has meant to re-
turn home so tired, so exhausted
from the days labor that all their
being cried out for rest.
The trade unionist has learned
that housing conditions, the quail
ity and quantity OF the food, the
sanitary conditions of the shop,
wages and hours OF labor affect
not only his immediate physical
well being and reflect themselves
in his offspring, but that they very
largely influence his length OF life.
| know of no statistics more
striking or more convincing of this
fact than those presented by the
cigarmakers and printers unions
from their record Of death benefits
paid to members.
In 1888, 81 per cent of the union
cigarmakers died OF tuberculosis.
In 1911 this had been reduced to
20 per cent. In 1888, the average
age at death of members of this
union was thirty-one years, four
and ten days. In 1911 the
average at death had been in
creased to fifty years, one month
and ten days. In 1900 the average
at death of members OF the Typo
graphical Union was forty-one
years and three months, and in
1915 it was practically fifty years
and eleven months.
During these periods the eleven,
ten and nine-hour day had been
displaced for the eight-hour day
and the wage rate had been con-
siderably advanced, in some cases
being almost doubled.
Wages and hours of labor and
the conditions which they estab-
lished had reduced deaths from
tuberculosis over so per cent.
They had heightened the life OF
union cigarmakers nineteen years
and had heightened the life OF
printers over nine years.
1t is because of these and similar
facts that the trade unionists see
something more than dividends in
wages, see their very life and that
Of their descendants determined
BY the money in the weekly pay
and profoundly influ-
enced by the hours of labor dur
ing which they are called upon to-
toll under modern industrial con-
The trade union movement be
lieves that man was made for
more than mere labor,
eating and sleeping. They believe
that opportunities for self-devel-
opment are as important as labor
and that unless the wage Garner is
afforded opportunities for recrea-
ton and self development that the
standard OF the mass of our people |
will go downward and backward |
instead OF upward. and forward.
The term may not adequately |
describe the ideal, but for the pres
ent let me call it the ideal OF
standard of living - the ideal
which the trade unionist has in
mind when he endeavors to in
;rease his earnings and shorten
lis hours of labor.
The trade unions believe that
childhood should be dedicated to
growth, play, and education,
youth to character building and
manhood to the development of
he highest qualities of citizenship.
The wage earners' standard of
living, which rests SO largely upon
the wages received and upon the
hours of labor, determines the
physical, mental and moral foun-
iations OF the masses upon which
the structure of our American in
Stitutions must rest.
The masses of those who labor
IN our industries constitute the |