Eight Hours A Day

From t eS.l. Kvcn mg Puit In the current numbor of OU and Neto are some entertainiug rcmarks upon the scherae of certain luborors to restrict the hours of the laboring classes to eight a day. The writer dosires to know why cight hours more than -■■ 'i d, or five, or two? Thero is nothing in the uature of things, notbing in the división of day and night, ncthing iu tho vitality and. vigor of the human nerves and museles, nothing in the average constitution ut man, thut prescribes how long he may èmploy his physioal powdre usufully tif himsoli' and öthers in work. "Allworland no pluy," we know, " inakes Ja':!c a dull boy ;" but all play and no work is still more detrimuntal, aecording to tho saino proverbial wisdom, which says " that an idle brain is the devil'g workshop." How, thoii, bLall xru find the proper medium 'i 'ihe rulo which an old pbiloiopher has laid down for hinisulf, eight hours i'or wurk, eifht hours to sloep, and eight hours play, may bo exculluut in given circumstances, but is net susceptible ot' general application. It may suit a small nuinbor of in door labprezs in cities, for whom eight hours vvo.rk in thoir couiinod, ill ventilated, unfii' -■■ e Bhopi, is h ittuch as the physical systein can well bear; but other classes muy and must work longer if thoir labor is to be at all efficiënt. A farmer, for example, who not only works with bis hands, but witli his arins, legs and bnok, must begin at early Kght and only ledve off aX clark ; otherwise he win gec' ró crops, or liis stock will be ín & vary sorry coudition ; and no laws of the State or combinations with other farmers will relievo hini of the nocessity. " The seasons themselves," says tho writor in Old and yete', 'thefrost and the heat, tin: wimls an'l the rain, the MinrisH and sunset, appoint his long dtiy. if all agricultural Ltborers should combine togethor and refuse to work more than oight hours a day, the whole of society would beruvolutionized It would, indeed, ondee the present circumstauces, be impossiblo to toed the world. The grain erop and evory other erop would necessarily be diminished. Butter could not be made for less than a dollar a pound, and llour would be worth twenty dollars a barrel. Notone farmer in a hundred who would not be obliged to givo up his farm, or limit himself to such kind of agricultui'ttl operation and produce as ho could attend to liimsulf alone, with no other rosult thun tho smallust posible living." What is true of tho cultivator is true of other classes of laborers. The mechanic himself might g-;t on with eight hours work, but could the mechanie's wife, wlio has his breakfast to prepare ' befoie he goes to work and his supper after he comes home, with any :imount of housecleaning, sewing, baby-tending and what uot in the interval V Surely, the strong, activo, vigorous man will not demand. moro for himself thau he will allow to his feeble, dependent and often unhealtliy partner? But with eight hours only for tho domostic labor, wlio is to rise boi'ore the sun to make the fire, put on the kettle, wash the children, to send them to school, &o., die., &o., and who is to ba bnsy far into the night with similar and no less neeJi'ul tasks ? Ilni;hold work s said to be "still beginning, nover endng," and if our wives and daughters, or, vhen we can afford it, our demestics, nay quit labor when their eight hours re done, what housekcuping is practical 'Í Vork must begin before breaklast, and it annot end till we go to bed. Are we to ïave no more ever.ingguostsand evening ntertainments? Is uo one to ride out in he Park in the cool of tho day beause ha coadunan has already perlormcal his ight hours service? Must we all of us valk to the theaters or the opera 'r ür, he merchant, tho lawyer, the physician, who must work more than his eight ïours, to do his duty to his follow, shall ie not havo the assistane of an occasion1 ride 't In a word, raust all the estabished customs, institutions and relationhips of society be changred in order to onform to an arbitrary and impracticab'e ule which certain classes of laborers soe it to demand 'i As the eight hour law cannot bo ap)lied to the farmer, nor to the extens;ve lass of domestic laborers, so it cannot be applied to tho most important branches of mercantilo and professional labor. 'Thevarious classes of thinkers," says OUl and New, " would bo glad enough if ;hpy could limit their lou-continued work to some shorter period : editorjs of nèwspapers, news-gathcrers.book-makfrs, awyers, ministers with sermona to write, schools to examine, people to visit, funerals to attend ; physicians with the anxie,y of endangered families upon their ïearts, and the lives of patients in their ïands, called up at any hour of the night, - called to attend tho day-laborer and lis family at any hour, and to stay with hem any longth of time - kept up all day long, catching hasty and uncomfortable sleep ; school-teaohêrs, who, after six ïours hard brain-work, and heart-work, and severest trials of temper, study mauy ïours more to learn what othoi's have ;hought or have learned in regard to the 3est waysof instruction ; philanthropists, hat argue the case of tho day-laborer, visiting work-shops. receiving calis from men and from committees, mnkiug addresses in the evening, and traveling early and late, through cold and storm to keep appointments - can these accomplish their work if their hours nro limited V How ong is tho day of hard work to these and suoh as theso ' How often such men are as much depri vod of social onjoyments, of opportunities for reading and study mtside of their own business, as dy-laborers are 'i And out of all the hard brainworkers of tho world - capitalists, manuturen, merchants, editors, and the others mentioned, and others like them- how many desire to limit thoir day to eight hours ? or would know how to do it ? or would feel that Iifo bo limitod was Ies3 than frivolity and waste ? Will our statesmen that govern ompirus, our ligislators investigating tlio deinands t the peoile, turning over in their minds all the suggestions and arguments of tho eight hour men ; our generáis in the fiold soeking to save a nation from destruction - bo contented with eight hours work alone 'f The bearings of tho subject on tho various questions of political economy are f o many and important, that they will require a separate rtisaussion.