THE EIGHT-HOUR DAY. [Massachusetts Labor Bulletin No. 29, January, 1904.] THE EIGHT-HOUR LAW IN THE STATES AND TERRITORIES. Arizona.-Eight-hour legislation affecting mines. Colorado.-Eight-hour day upon public works, in smelters and mines. Connecticut.-Eight hours for all labor. District of Columbia.-Eight-hour day upon public works. Illinois. Eight hours' labor upon all work, except in farm employ ments. Indiana. Eight hours a day's work, except in agricultural labor and domestic service. Kansas.-Eight-hour day upon public work. Maryland. Eight-hour day upon public works, except fire department, Bay View Asylum, city jail. Massachusetts. Provisional 8-hour day for public employees. Missouri.-Eight hours a day's labor, except for labor employed by the month and all farm labor. Nevada.-Eight-hour day upon irrigation works, in mines, public works. New Mexico.-Eight-hour's work upon public highways. New York.-Eight hours a day's work. This does not prevent an agreement for overwork at an increased compensation, except in Government work and reservoir construction. Ohio.-Eight-hour day upon public works. Pennsylvania.-Eight hours a day's labor. Act not applicable to agriculture, services by the week, month or year. Eight hours in penal institutions (political jobs). Eight-hour day upon public works. Porto Rico.-Eight-hour day upon public works. Tennessee.-Eight-hour day upon public highways and public works. Utah.-Eight-hour day upon public works, mines, and smelters. Wisconsin.-Eight hours in manufacturing and mechanical establishments on all day contracts. Wyoming.-Eight-hour day in all mines, State, and municipal works. United States.-Eight hours upon Government work and irrigation works. "The Eight-Hour Day" (U. S. Department of Labor Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, vol. 11, 1905): By the letter of the law, the hours of all laborers and mechanics engaged in the construction of the Panama Canal are limited to 8 hours in any one calendar day, whether employed directly by the United States or by a contractor or subcontractor with the United States. 15 "The economic and social importance of the eight-hour movement," by George Gunton: There are various ways to make conditions in a measure endurable. Laws against child labor substituted by adult labor. Laws that women shall receive the same wages as men. Law shortening the working hours in all industrial institutions. After the introduction of the 8-hour law, more hands will be required (if reduction of hours is above a rational limit to expect same output) and the large per cent of workingmen idle will be drawn upon. With a large part of the reserve army of the unemployed gone wages will rise. The increase in consumption will help trade. "Fact, theory, and argument," by George E. McNeill: Men content with working 10 hours a day at manual labor will be content with low wages, because the excess of time devoted to labor will unfit them for the associations and inspirations that create new wants. In those occupations where the most hours per day are required, the wages of the men are so low that the wife, mother, and child are forced to work to supply the necessities of life. It is cheap labor more than any other fact that most endangers our institutions. The mistake of the wealthy is that they consider their direct interest in the cheap labor they hire and not their direct interest in the dearer laborer who buys what they wish to sell. Mr. McNeill was deputy of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor from 1869-1873. "Hours of labor," by George E. McNeill: The experience of England and of this State (Massachusetts) shows that production has increased with each succeeding reduction of the hours of labor. In the cotton mills, of England, five persons in 1867 produced as much as nine persons in 1835. England has found that increased leisure for the operative has brought increased wages, increased invention, increased production, and increased consumption. "An appeal for eight hours," by J. Henry White: Four hours is long enough to do the world's work, if all the drones were made to take a part. Man always has and will continue to invent machinery for the purpose of saving time in the production of everything necessary to the comfort and happiness of the race. The first that should be benefited thereby are the inventors, after them It is a lamentable fact, the people, allowing capital a fair amount to pay for its use. however, that in the present state, capital takes the largest part, leaving barely a living, and oftentimes not that much to the actual producer. Wealth is fast accumulating by its enormous profits. "The meaning of the eight-hour movement," by Ira Steward: When the masses are fully satisfied that one-fifth less time for labor does not mean a loss of one-fifth of their wages, they will be ready to vote for the 8-hour system. Nothing ever revealed can surpass to-day's necessity of revealing to the working classes the fundamental truth in labor reform, that merely reducing their hours of labor to eight per day can not reduce their wages. Admitting that two hours' less time would result in one-fifth less production, a reduction is unfair in that they had not been paid what they really earned in the 10-hour system. The wages received are not an equivalent for labor performed or the Astors and Belmonts would not be possible. "Bill to regulate the hours of labor." Speech of Hon. E. C. Baker, in the Senate of Massachusetts: Personal liberty shall be extended to our own children who are deprived of the right to regulate their own employment, the right to command some of their own time, so to take care of their health, so to improve their moral and intellectual powers and faculties as to fulfill their destiny as men. "The eight-hour movement," by Judge John P. Altgeld: The arguments offered in connection with the 8-hour movement in brief are: I. That labor-saving machinery has so greatly increased production that the same amount of labor is no longer required and that the laborer should share with the rest of the world the benefits which this machinery has conferred upon mankind. While it has increased the wants of men, it yet has increased to a much greater extent production. S D-62-3-vol 25--55 11. The labor saving machinery has so far supplanted human labor that there are more than a million of men in enforced idleness. With reduced hours they could again be employed. III. Workmen, women, and children are kept in a state of physical and nervous exhaustion, so that intellectual, social, and moral improvement is retarded. It creates a demand for stimulants and leads to drunkenness. IV. The effects are still more marked upon the children. The children of the laborers not only become incapable of doing the best work, but they make a low grade of citizens, become inferior men and women physically, mentally, and morally. Society at large; that is, the State, suffers from the condition. V. When one class of people is confined to and is exhausted by manual labor and another has the advantages of intellectual training, the former class will soon be absolutely in the power of the latter. VI. The constant concentration of the mind upon one thing narrows it to that thing. When the laborer worked by hand he could rest at times; now he must work while the machine works. The constant and regular draft on the nervous system causes him to wear out with the machine and mostly sooner. Human muscle and nerve can not compete with steel unless given plenty time to recuperate. VII. Reduced hours would add 15 to 20 years to the average life of the laborer. Long hours mean low wages; low wages mean cheap men; and cheap men mean low civilization. "An argument for an eight-hour law," by Walter S. Logan: The Laissez faire policy. -Individual liberty is the paramount consideration and individual effort the paramount force. Leave everything to individual choice and let the hand of the State be felt only when individual liberty itself is in danger. Thomas Jefferson, John Stewart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Ad. Smith, Huxley say that the system of government which this school of philosophers and economists advocates is neither a monarchy, an aristocracy, nor a democracy, but an autocracy, a government of the policeman, and that the only function that it leaves to the State is to hang murderers, jail thieves, and restrain assault and battery. It counts humanity as separate peas in a pod, each a sufficient pea unto itself, whereas in truth and in fact the individual in our developed and complete civilization is rather like a pebble in the conglomerate rock, having an individual existence, yet firmly cemented into the larger mass. LETTER FROM A PROGRESSIVE. The following copy of a letter received at the headquarters of the Granite Cutters' International Association, December 21, 1912, will not only be found self explanatory, but of great interest. It is truly a humanitarian document which will find a responsive chord in the minds not only of all workers, but of all employers who agree that the best interests of production require conservation of the minds and lives of the workers whose activity guarantees the greatest and best productivity: Mr. JAMES DUNCAN, WM. J. CRAWFORD & Co. (INC.), International President Granite Cutters' International Association, Quincy, Mass. DEAR SIR: For several months the writer has wished to write to you and explain some facts which we are sure will interest you and your fellow members. There are few firms in the country who have kept a comprehensive cost system extending over a period of more than 30 years. Just 32 years ago, in January, 1880, we commenced to keep this record of the value of each man and the exact cost of each piece of work, and we have kept this ever since. In the part of this work which will interest you we have a page for each granite cutter, and following each entry of the piece of work he takes up is the day and hour commenced, the day and hour finished, the entire time consumed, the wages we have paid, the quarry bill, and a column for loss and a column for gain. In this way we are able to raise a man's wages from time to time as he proves his worth. We do this without request from the men, and in this way we obtain the highest efficiency, and we can not remember when a man has asked us to raise his wages. Now about the fact that I think will be of particular interest to you. This cost system extends back to the time when the day was 10 hours, and it shows that the same man under identically the same conditions, accomplished more, of exactly the same kind of work when he was working 9 hours, than he did when he was working 10 hours, and again when the hours were reduced to 8 hours this same man accomplished still more in an 8-hour day than he did in a 9-hour day, or a considerable amount more than he did when the day was 10 hours long. My observation of the conditions, and I am with our men from 8 a. m. until 5 p. m. is this, that as men work to-day at the granite cutting trade, an 8-hour day is too long, and I believe that any good granite cutter (and I mean by this a man who uses his brains as well as his muscles every minute) could do just as much work in 7 or even 6 hours as he does in 8. This may sound radical, but from close study I find that 16 hours for "rest and refreshment" to a granite cutter is not sufficient to make him approach his work in the morning in a perfectly rested condition. We are glad to watch the efforts of a Matthewson, Johnson, Joe Wood, or any of the other star pitchers, and we would think McGraw, Griffiths, or Stahl, beside themselves to put any one of these men in the box for two consecutive days, of about two hours each day. Now what granite cutter does not put as much of his brains and muscles into his work every day as these stars exercise? The shrewd manager knows he can get the best results from a man whose brain and body are not fatigued. We employers of granite cutters can learn a lesson from them. Once in a while there is an Edison who can work long hours profitably; but they are conspicuous by their rarity. The short life of the granite cutters is due not to the dust alone, but to the hard work incident to the trade. Again, what are the hours of the men whose salaries soar into the five-figure mark? Few, if any are at their offices more than four hours each day. Let the union and the employers get together on this question. I am going to try this experiment on one man in the near future. I am going to tell him that I have his record for the past year, we will say, at 8 hours, and I am going to pay him the same wages for a month or six weeks, and wish him to commence at 8.30 instead of 8, and quit at 4.30 instead of 5, and I do not wish him to exert himself one whit more than before, and I will give you the record of the result. A granite cutter should receive the highest wage of any of the industrial trades. His work is hard and exacting, the danger from dust is great, and your $4 minimum is none too high. I am with you in every effort to better the condition of your members, whom I am glad to say represent a very high degree of intelligence, and are conservatively advised. Very truly, yours, WILLIAM J. CRAWFORD, President. EIGHT HOURS FOR WORK. [John Ray.] Sir John Fortescue, chief justice of the King's Bench under Henry VI, attributes the existence of some of England's free institutions to the fact that the common people enjoyed greater leisure than those of other countries. The 8-hour day prevailed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries between daylight and dark. The dominant cause for the prolongation of working hours was the new and large expenditure on factory buildings and machinery, the increase of fixed capital, and the determination to get as much out of the machinery as possible. The same influence operated in agriculture. In Norfolk, which had already undergone the transition to the capitalistic system of cultivation, hours increased before the rest of England was similarly affected. The day seems to have lengthened as the application of capital in the industry increased. In a single lifetime the very tastes of the English workmen changed, losing in vital energy, at the same time contracting various disfigurements. Within the last 60 years it has been discovered that even from the standpoint of the manufacturers' own interest a grave pecuniary mistake has been made. They found that the human machine had higher productive power after a certain limit with an extra hour repose rather than with an extra hour of work. On all occasions of hour shortening whether to the 11-hour day, the 10-hour day, the 9-hour day, or the 8-hour day, was obtained a slight increase of production either immediately or after 6 or 12 months' trial. A general reduction of hours occurred in the English textile trades by the 10-hour act of 1847. First reduction of hours in 1816 by Robert Owen, the Socialist, from 16 at one time to 10 hours in 1816. John Alexander, one of his old workmen, found no falling off in production. This is accounted for by an increase in cheerfulness and alacrity. He makes no mention of improvement of speeding of machinery, but attributes all to the improvements of personal efficiency. Owen successfully competed with all rivals. The "last hour" profit principle was absolutely refuted. Dr. F. Schuler, Swiss factory inspector, in his report shows that after the 11-hour act was applied to Switzerland in 1818 the output fell somewhat at first, but rose to its former level after the introduction of paying a premium on the amount produced and a slight speeding of machinery. Workpeople earned as much with diminution of work hours as before. In weaving the results were even better than in spinning. Though paid the same rate per piece the men earned as much as before. Better work was done in a tannery where hours were reduced to 10 without fall of production. INDIRECT ARGUMENTS FOR SHORTER HOURS PRODUCING GREATER EFFICIENCY. The time gained from the mills was by no means given to the public houses. It was only the shorter day that first gave workpeople either time or spirit for any other recreation than the ready but dangerous ones supplied in the public house. The reduction on the hours of the West Cumberland blast furnacemen from 12 to 8 hours increased the membership of the local temperance societies 50 per cent. Men and lads improve themselves by attending technical classes. There is a striking and increasing dislike to working overtime since work hours have been shortened. Leisure is much more valued, because more useful. It is now long enough to do something in. (Bushill & Soms, Coventry.) The first effect of the 10-hour act in England was to develop an immediate fervor for mental improvement. Attendance at night schools increased 50 per cent. In 1849, 50 night schools were opened in Leeds. Mr. Ray says: If we are justified in expecting the gift of leisure to spread an active desire for mental improvement, we are even better justified in expecting this spread of mental improvement to result in very substantial gains in industrial efficiency. Sir William Fanhairn, the engineer, says: The more difficult parts of work can not be trusted to any but a well-educated man. There are many kinds of manual work that need a good deal of planning and thinking and are as much work of the head as of the hand, and for that sort of work education is an obvious advantage. Prof. Ely: It has been ascertained that with no noteworthy exception the higher in any district of the United States the per capita expenditure for schools the higher is the average of wages, and therefore by implication the higher the production of wealth. |