Capital and Labor

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1907. Excerpt: ... I.--THE GRINDING AND KILLING SYSTEMS OF WORK. One of the saddest results of greed and competition, is the effort on the part of the employer to get as much work as possible out of the employed. From a business standpoint, this seems to be a very natural result, for it has been recognized by some long since that "might is right." One of labor's incongruities is: 1.--The Length Of A Day's Wobk. The ten-hour day for the manual laborer is one of the unnecessary evils of our time, and should be stricken from the list of civilized customs among free men, and be considered as a punishment to criminals in penitentiaries. There are certain kinds of employment for which ten hours a day may be fair, even though it is not essential, but for hard manual labor, it is too long, and compels a man to expend too much energy for the amount of strength he possesses and the wage he receives. We read of a man who was retained by the trust. He said that under the new management it was often eight o'clock at night before he got through with his work, and with all that, the severity of his work was greatly increased. When he was asked how much his salary had been increased, he answered by saying that it had been cut 40 per cent. "But what can an old fellow do?" he slowly added. A contractor or corporation agrees to do a certain work for a fixed amount, and let us suppose one hundred men are employed to accomplish this. It is easily seen that the longer and more rapidly the men work, the more profit the employer will make; so, of course, the pick and shovel must move ceaselessly, and the poor laborer can take his choice--keep grinding away at it, or quit work, either to starve, go on a tramp, or get another job of a similar character. There are many difficulties in the way of reducing the numbers of hours th...