Denver labor bulletin., 1917-08-04

employable may have the opportunity
to engage in useful occupations.
It wants complete elimination of
child labor.
1t wants higher wages.
1t wants higher standards.
These demands, economically ju. t.,
and productive of an elevated manhood
and womanhood, with a consequent
higher standard of citizenship, meet
the bitter and unrelenting opposition
of the directors of industry.
The day has passed, however, for the
wealth owners to lay claim to any spe-
cial privilege or divine sanction for an
unfair share of the wage earners' prod
uct. The wealth produced by the
workers must be distributed so that
the workers shall share more justly
in the products of their toll if this
country is to maintain its power and
influence as a government for and by
the people.
This congress was instituted for the
purpose of setting aside a day of rest
from labor because business has re-
fused to recognize the interests of
God or man, and the imperious direct
ors have so wound their coils of mer-
cenary support around the church in
stitutions as to make it a Herculean
with the teachings of the Nazarene.
The complexity of the present day
commercial organization hides from
view all but a small portion of its
beneficiaries, and even tho these latter
may individually profess the most
pious views as to the Sabbath Day and
its observance, yet they continue to
profit from its non-observance.
The development of the institutions
of this country will be retarded and
perverted and the government itself
cannot advance toward more sub
stantial freedom unless greater oppor-
tunitics are afforded all wage-earners
10 earn not only a livelihood, but in
addition fortified to assume and meet
the responsibilities demanded by
American standards Of living, accom-
panied by the total abrogation Of that
financial cult, which clothes property
with the robes Of divinity Wealth
equitably distributed among its crea-
tors, coufers upon society manifold
blessings, but with its current running
in direction Of the few, just in the
same proportion Of its trend Will
there be injustice and want TO the
many.
Our Federation in its struggle for
shorter hours bases its faith on the
correctness Of its economic principles.
II fully comprehends its vantage point
in this knowledge, but because accord
ing rights TO workers will decrease
the privileges which employers have
usurped. the labor movement is aware
that its critics and antagonists will
contest aggressively its increasing in
flucnce and achievements. The shorter
work day is the goal toward which all
labor is advancing. The strikes in
F.,A To-
higher wages are the concrete mani
festations Of this principle and evinces
the pressure of economic law.
Employers and others of allied in
tercsts in their tortuous and lop-sided
political economy, have assumed that
the reduction of hours leads to higher
costs of production, idleness and dis
sipation, but the American labor
movement has demonstrated beyond
the pcradvcnture of doubt that these
assumptions are baseless and false.
Our Federation insists upon its de-
mand that the hours of labor shall be
shortened to the point where all en-
playable persons may be afforded an
opportunity to labor. We are con-
scious of the breadth of that statement,
and fully comprehend the dire predic-
tions against such n policy by the IA
vorcd few, yet we are justified in our
contention for the application of n
principle that seeks the greatest good
for the greatest number. Wherever
the organized labor movement has es-
tablished the shorter workday and at
least one day rest in seven, the OBJ
jections of employers have been dem
onstratcd to be unfounded. Costs of
production have been decreased and
higher standards of living have been
made possible for the workers.
The long hours of labor of the pres
ent with the constant development of