"
In 1865 Steward's pamphlet, "A Reduction of Hours and Increase of
Wages," was widely circulated by the Boston Labor Reform
Association. It emphasized the value of leisure and its
beneficial reflex effect upon both production and consumption.
Gradually these well reasoned and conservatively expressed
doctrines found champions such as Wendell Phillips, Henry Ward
Beecher, and Horace Greeley to give them wider publicity and to
impress them upon the public consciousness. In 1867 Illinois,
Missouri, and New York passed eight-hour laws and Wisconsin
declared eight hours a day's work for women and children. In 1868
Congress established an eight-hour day for public work. These
were promising signs, though the battle was still far from being
won. The eight-hour day has at last received "the sanction of
society"--to use the words of President Wilson in his message to
Congress in 1916, when he called for action to avert a great
railway strike. But to win that sanction required over half a
century of popular agitation, discussion, and economic and
political evolution.
Such, in brief, were the general business conditions of the
country and the issues which engaged the energies of labor
reformers during the period following the Civil War. Meanwhile
great changes were made in labor organizations. Many of the old
unions were reorganized, and numerous local amalgamations took
place. Most of the organizations now took the form of secret
societies whose initiations were marked with naive formalism and
whose routines were directed by a group of officers with royal
titles and fortified by signs, passwords, and ritual.
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