But the
tendency has always been toward a shorter day. In a previous
chapter, the inception of the ten-hour movement was outlined.
Presently there began the eight-hour movement. As early as 1842
the carpenters and caulkers of the Charleston Navy Yard achieved
an eight-hour day; but 1863 may more properly be taken as the
beginning of the movement. In this year societies were organized
in Boston and its vicinity for the precise purpose of winning the
eight-hour day, and soon afterwards a national Eight-Hour League
was established with local leagues extending from New England to
San Francisco and New Orleans.
This movement received an intelligible philosophy, and so a new
vitality, from Ira Steward, a member of the Boston Machinists'
and Blacksmiths' Union. Writing as a workingman for workingmen,
Steward found in the standard of living the true reason for a
shorter workday. With beautiful simplicity he pointed out to the
laboring man that the shorter period of labor would not mean
smaller pay, and to the employer that it would not mean a
diminished output. On the contrary, it would be mutually
beneficial, for the unwearied workman could produce as much in
the shorter day as the wearied workman in the longer. "As long,"
Steward wrote, "as tired human hands do most of the world's hard
work, the sentimental pretense of honoring and respecting the
horny-handed toiler is as false and absurd as the idea that a
solid foundation for a house can be made out of soap bubbles.
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