Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1922-12-20

ESA ISszW lucd OF Wnlt II IS
like to see Ger
SHINES many's industrial
colossus, Hugo SHINES, sitting in the
Reichstag and hearing himself de-
nounced by Q Social Democratic
leader.
The Rockefeller of Germany, the
man who owns mines, steel works,
strct railway systems, banks and
newspapers, also finds time to be
member of the German legislative
body.
l heard him vigorously scored by
D1. Rudolph Breitscheid, one of the
;atellectuals in the Social Demo-
cratic party, the biggest party nu-
acr:cally in Germany.
It was a ncvcr-to-be-forgotten
cacne, not only because of the per-
sonality of the men involved, but be-
cause they represent clashing inter
csts in what is looked upon as one
of the most important and bitterly
contested problems of present-day
Germany.
Brcitcheid started out by excori-
ating the German Peoples Party as
a SHINES party.
Il warn you," said Breitscheid,
Eointing long menacing finger at
SHINES, that the working men and
women Of Germany will not allow
you and your kind to tear down the
eight-hour law or to destroy the
cight-Eour principle"
All the time Breitscheid is speak
ing, SHINES shows that The dynamic
existence he has been leading in pill
ing up vast riches has begun TO tell
on him. His dead white face never
hsows trace of color; his hands are
never still. ~
SHINES did not reply to Brett
scheid. He simply listened. l. i,
One Of the first things the work
ing classes won in Germany, when
the republic was established, was
the enactment into organic law of
the eight-hour statute.
Managers Of great industrial ple/:s
have always sneered it was merely
IN excuse to work more than eight
hours and get double pay for over
time.
Not long ago at meeting Of Ger
man industrialists SHINES made
speech in which he said if the Ger
man mark was ever to be stabilized,
if Germany was to pay the repara-
tons demanded by the Allies and
thus get rid of the armies of occupa-
ton, if she was ever to set her own
house in order, she would have TO
produce more goods and to do this
her people would have to work
longer hours.
He said no one would dream of
distributing the letter of the German
eight-hour law, but German work
men would simply have to make up
their minds that for the next 10 or
Is years they would have to work at
least 10 hours day. And he didn't
stress very strongly anything about
getting extra pay for extra hours.
This speech was at once taken up
as a challenge by the labor forces all
over the country. There are per-
haps 12 million men and women who
belong to labor unions. And the
most of them are affiliated either
with the Social Democratic, the
Centre, the Democratic or the Com
munist parties-which together have
4 big majority in the Reichstag.
The Social Democratic party as
party formally declared itself against
any tampering with the eight-hour
law or the eight-hour principle.
But the SHINES proposition isn't
dead yet. SHINES is bulldog for
peEEinacity.
In the meantime other big en-
ployers of labor have been feeling
out their workmen with two new
propositions: ~ ~
First-they would continue to
pay their men for the regular eight
hour day. But for the extra two
hours they would pay them in goods.
For instance, a worker in a sugar re-
finery would be paid overtime in su-
gar; q worker in flour mill in flour.
SeSpnd- payment in products is
obviously impossible in many indus
tries. For instance, an employe in
rolling mill wouldn't want to be paid
with steel bar. In such cases en-
ployers would pay the men their
overtime in marks.
1s....z4......- 4 :, al, -. ,,1,oea of Gar.