ANOTHER STEP TOWARD INDUSTRIAL JUSTICE
Another Step toward Industrial Justice THE Eight-Hour Law for railway trainmen just passed by Congress has been much misrepresented. During the many months of negotiations between the trainmen and...
...Congress, disinterested, under law bound to consider ONLY THE PUBLIC GOOD, was forced to act in the public interest...
...Then why impose upon the taxpayers of this country the heavy burden of this enormous program...
...had not then been worked up to the pitch of patriotic fervor that would countenance committing the country to this extraordinary and unjustifiable expenditure...
...editorials, alleging that our country is in danger from a foreign foe...
...Congress had all the military power of Germany, all the military power of England, of France, of Russia, of Italy, of Austria-Hungary, full in its eye at that time...
...EVERY WISCONSIN REPRESENTATIVE PRESENT VOTED FOR THE BILL WHICH BECAME A LAW AND AVERTED THE STRIKE...
...True, the American people may be influenced by the advertisements of the Bethlehem Steel Company, may be swayed by the headlines and editorials of the great metropolitan press...
...Congress has given men employed by the government or by contractors employed on government work, the eight-hour day...
...They came from the funds in the treasuries of the railroads...
...As long ago as July, 1913, in an editorial in this magazine, I said: "The wisdom of legislation providing for an eight-hour day, not only for women but for men as well, is no longer a debatable question...
...I believe in the eight-hour day...
...Who do you suppose pays for all this...
...All of the big newspapers, and some of the small newspapers, of the country were flooded with advertisements putting before the public the railroads' side of this controversy...
...It has been conclusively proven by our most eminent military and naval experts that our coast defenses are the STRONGEST IN THE WORLD...
...that the foreign hordes are sweeping across the country...
...BEFORE adjourning, Congress adopted and put into effect a military program that imposes upon the people of this nation the greatest tax burden for an alleged preparedness against an alleged danger that has ever been known in any country at peace with all the world...
...In many parts of the country this meant appalling disaster to farmers and particularly to fruit growers...
...Congress knew their battleships...
...It has been conclusively proven by our most eminent military and naval experts that we already have the STRONGEST NAVY IN THE WORLD, except England...
...THERE IS JUST ONE REASON AND ONE ONLY...
...works of fiction, running serially in the magazines...
...This is what has occurred since: The stage has been set, the scenery has been put in place, the music has been attuned, the curtain has been run up, everything that could possibly play upon the emotions of the American people has been set to work and paid for in order that this result might be produced: Picture shows...
...They may be deeply moved, the blood may tingle and the pulse quicken to the strains of hundreds of bands playing as hundreds of thousands of men and women march in parade...
...I believe they did right...
...Their labor is performed under dangerous conditions...
...This is not true...
...It fits into the commercial, industrial, and imperialistic schemes of the great financial masters of this country...
...If we need a navy large enough to protect us against England, then we also need to build forts and trenches along the three thousand mile Canadian border...
...advertisements...
...No advocate of "preparedness" has yet exhibited the hardihood to suggest a war with England...
...Their program was accepted...
...Then Congress will have to answer their stern, deliberate, second judgment...
...One year ago it would have been pitched out of the window as a piece of impudent graft...
...Their campaign for the past year has been prosecuted with all the power organized wealth can command...
...It has been conclusively proven by our most eminent military and naval experts that with modern submarines, portable long-range guns, and anchored marine mines, WE HAVE NO SUCH THING AS AN OPEN, UNDEFENDED COAST LINE...
...The President stepped in and sought to adjust the trouble and avoid the disaster about to be thrust upon the country...
...The railway managers were particularly obstinate and refused to concede the principle of the eight-hour day...
...but they do want a large Army, they do want a large Navy...
...They said if the railroads did not grant the eight-hour day they would quit work...
...It meant great damage to all business—even to the railroads themselves...
...THERE IS NOT ONE SUBSTANTIAL REASON WHY THIS CONGRESS SHOULD DOUBLE THE APPROPRIATION FOR MILITARY PURPOSES AT THIS TIME...
...He was not successful...
...To them "preparedness" is exceedingly good business...
...Why did not Congress THEN propose this great increase in appropriations for the Army and Navy...
...At that time I was met with THE SAME ARGUMENTS which are now being made against the eight-hour day...
...There is not a man in the United States Senate (and I think not a single man in the House of Representatives) who would have had the hardihood one year ago to propose such an increase or to suggest an appropriation of such magnitude for military purposes...
...and that England's navy will be smaller at the end of the war...
...The railroad employees have been patient and long-suffering...
...Congress was thrown into a panic...
...Why, because the national imagination had not then been fired...
...Nor did they have the additional advantage, enjoyed by the railroad companies, of placing huge, flamboyant placards upon the walls of waiting rooms at railway stations setting forth the case for the railroads before the traveling public...
...It has been painted in lurid colors—motion pictures showing New York's splendid edifices toppling to destruction under the shots of enemy guns, the enemy garbed to convey the idea that they are Germans...
...It is claimed that Congress acted "without due consideration...
...They set a day to quit work in case the railroad managers refused them the eight-hour day...
...The courts have held again and again that rest from labor one day in seven is 'essential for health, morals, and general welfare.' ''The courts will ultimately hold that it is vital to the health and well being of the toiler and for that reason vital to the general welfare that the state should limit the hours of labor for the day as it limits the days of labor for the week...
...What has occurred to change the perspective...
...HOWEVER, RAILROADS GENERALLY YIELD TO NO PRINCIPLE OF PROGRESS THAT IS NOT FORCED UPON THEM BY LEGISLATION...
...Their span of life is short and full of grief...
...I WONDER THAT THEIR JUST DEMANDS WERE NOT SOONER MADE...
...They made no demand whatever upon Congress...
...The railroad employees demanded the eight-hour day from the railroads, not from Congress...
...Our Masters of Capital have succeeded in imposing another dangerous and expensive burden upon the American people...
...The dawn of a better day would never brighten the path of workmen were it left to the railroad managers...
...Impudent Graft Congress Stampeded Into An Astounding Military Program...
...The eight-hour day will come, and come soon, to ALL of the workers of every state in the nation...
...Then, as now, we contemplated with horror the spectacle of one-half the people of the world at the throats of their fellow men...
...The railroads and some other large employers are slow to learn, but abundant experience has shown that for the trades, professions and crafts where skill, courage, caution and close attention to business are required the eight-hour day is the maximum for efficiency...
...The shippers and the passengers were made—in the last analysis—to finance a publicity campaign to influence their own judgment upon ONE SIDE of this great question...
...Congress acted...
...Nearly eight hundred million dollars is the measure of the load which goes upon the bended backs of the American people this year...
...If it is necessary now why was it not necessary one year ago...
...But how about the taxpayers who make no profits out of the manufacture of munitions of war...
...And yet one year ago the European war was at high tide...
...It has been proven conclusively by our most eminent military and naval experts that an over-seas expedition against us is PRACTICALLY AN INSUPERABLE UNDERTAKING...
...No one is foolish enough to propose that...
...All this may appear at first glance to be of no importance...
...One year ago Congress appropriated for all military purposes, the sum of $429,234,515...
...the Bethlehem Steel Company doubtless made its contribution of millions of money...
...The efforts of the vendors of the instruments of death to enhance their profits, to make new and continuing markets for their products, had not then borne fruit...
...This campaign was conducted with money that really belonged to the people...
...Within the short space of twelve months for precisely the same military purposes, the Congress of the United States is stampeded into appropriating NEARLY TWICE AS MUCH...
...Congress knew their naval strength...
...volumes written to show New York and New Orleans and San Francisco already captured...
...the columns of the newspapers given over to a spurious propaganda, and all this has been done with the definite object of terrorizing the public and forcing the enactment of legislation for the great military and naval program...
...It was paid for out of the bloody profits made from shipping arms and ammunition abroad within the last year...
...Did it...
...The question of the eight-hour day for skilled employees WAS NOT NEW...
...But in the light of what occurred after the strike order had been issued, and what has happened since Congress took the matter into its hands—and acted—its bearing upon this controversy will be understood by every citizen...
...It passed what is known as the Eight-Hour Day Law for men in the employment of railroads in interstate commerce, engaged in moving trains...
...but when it is known that many American citizens felt impelled to march in fear of a penalty—the loss of wages or of being discharged—it alters folks' attitude as to the impressiveness of such demonstrations...
...I had given this matter consideration years ago when I secured the sixteen hour limitation for railroad employees—the best I could get at that time...
...Their agents worked through chambers of commerce, manufacturers' associations and other organizations of business men, induc-them to pass resolutions condemning the demand of the trainmen, and memorializing Congress to enact legislation to empower the Interstate Commerce Commission to fix the hours and wages of men employed on railroads engaged in interstate commerce...
...Then the railroads inaugurated a strike against the public...
...Their calling takes them away from their homes at all times of the day and night, in all kinds of weather...
...Theirs is a hazardous business...
...And there is not a Senator or Representative who would then have dared to vote for such an appropriation—not one...
...The people may be under a certain vague fear and in doubt now, but when they see that their fears have been played upon, when the tax burden comes, when the weight begins to press down, when Congress doubles on every member of the family the cost of sustaining this military program, then members will be called to account...
...And these millions did not come from the pockets of the railroad managers or the railroad owners...
...All practical experience shows that shorter hours means better health and higher efficiency of employees, the quality of the work and the character of the output more than offsetting any loss from cutting down the working hours of the day...
...The danger of an attack upon our country has been made to appear very real and very imminent...
...Millions of dollars must have been expended in this campaign...
...Twelve states limit the working day of miners to eight hours in one day...
...There are many members of Congress who represent states where there are great munition plants...
...And our financial interests WANT such a great military program so that this country will have a big Army and a big Navy that may be used to protect their speculative investments in foreign countries...
...Everything that could appeal to the Congress of the United States to make an extravagant and unprecedented expenditure of the people's money for military purposes existed twelve months ago just as much as it exists now...
...Congress may have thought it expedient to vote for this increased appropriation at this time...
...This was their right—a right long judicially declared to be theirs...
...In other words, shorter hours means stronger bodies, greater physical efficiency, a higher degree of mental alertness, keener and more intelligent concentration on the machinery and material handled by the wage earner, fewer accidents, added time for home life, rest, recreation, and reading, all making strongly for moral, mental and physical improvement...
...And why...
...Let the wage earner take heart...
...Every Congressman who was alive to the issues of the day must have been fairly familiar with the arguments pro and con on the subject of the eight-hour day...
...What is the result...
...Now that appropriation is PRACTICALLY DOUBLED...
...But at that time $429,000,000 was appropriated...
...The railroad trainmen had no such resources to enable them to carry on a publicity campaign to shape public opinion in favor of their own demands...
...During the many months of negotiations between the trainmen and the railroad managers, the railroad companies conducted a tremendous campaign in an effort to influence public sentiment against the granting of an eight-hour day to their men...
...Had the railroads accepted this principle there would have been no trouble...
...They refused to accept freight for shipment, especially perishable goods...
...They have seen their brothers in other less hazardous callings secure the eight-hour day without a struggle, but they have been held to a day of indefinite hours so long as it did not exceed sixteen, and in cases of unforeseen trouble their day might exceed sixteen hours...
...It was not forced to act because of any demands upon Congress by the workingmen or by the railroad managers, but because the public interest demanded immediate action...
...The interests that are behind this "preparedness" program in the United States do not fear Germany, do not fear England, do not fear any nation on this earth...
...Not only actual war, but also preparations for war bring a golden stream into their coffers...
...Why, the Du Pont Powder Company had a hand in it...
...The larger the appropriations for military purposes the better satisfied are these members...
...What do we want of an increased Navy and an increased Army such as this great military program provides...
...What changed conditions warrant doubling the appropriations of a year ago...
...There is absolutely nothing in the situation, nothing in the conditions that can be made to justify placing this extortionate tax burden upon the people of the United States...
...It is because our munition makers and armor plate makers are eager for the profits...
...Why, then, tax the people to build a navy BIGGER than England's...
...and everything that could strike terror to the hearts of human beings was taking place on the battle fields across the Atlantic...
...At this point the President put the matter up to Congress for its consideration...
...This "Eight Hour Law" has been called a "Force Bill" enacted under the demands of organized railroad workmen...
Vol. 8 • September 1916 • No. 9
