Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1912 — Labor’s Victory [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Labor’s Victory

Secure Work Day of but Eight Hours

By P. J. FLANNERY

ONE thing at a time. When. the eight-hour workday has been extended more generally to those industries throughout the country- which have succeeded thus far in obtaining only the nine-hour day, and on the whole, have reason to congratulate themselves upon this measure of success, it may be seasonable to consider whether the eight-hour day marks the limit to labor’s aspiration in this direction. In the industry represented by the international union of interior freight handlers and railway clerks the nine-hour day has been quite generally established. It is felt that this marks a distinct triumph of organized effort, and while of course it is recognized that the eight-hour day in this, as in every other industry, is the ideal toward which organization must constantly strive, those of us who have just entered into the enjoyment of a nine-hour day have hardly begun to agitate for less than jeight hours. The irresistible tendency in even- industry like our own is toward the acquiescence bv the employer in the eight-hour plan. Under a system of ten-hour shifts or of nine-hour shifts there is left out of the twenty-four hours a period of four ®r six hours for which there is some difficulty in providing. \\ ith the twenty-four-hour day divided into eight-hour shifts there is an equal division into three parts, which is found most convenient to regulate and maintain. The employer has found also that he can get at least as much and as good work out of the eight-hour man under ordinary conditions, as under the old system he could get out of the ten-hour man. The agitation for a reasonably shorter work day, it may fairly be said, has been conducted by organized labor with prudence as well as zeal. Certain industries have been fortunate enough to secure shorter work davs sooner than others, and those in which the eight-hour day has been established permanently may be expected to devote more of their energy to assisting the nine-hour industries in the effort to obtain the eight-hour day before concentrating all their efforts on a still shorter work day for themselves.' ‘ I believe that it will be some time before there will be anything like a general demand for a work day of less than eight hours, although labor

will strive to obtain the Saturday half-holiday, which, in practice, will amount to a substantial reduction of the week’s schedule.