secured is cause for encouragement-the advance made in agitation upon this subject, the converts made to the measure, and the record already established that this genuine Eighthour Bill, this bona fide labor measure, will yet be enacted into law at no distant date.

No people intensely interested in a just cause are ever frustrated in the accomplishment of a worthy object. Cowards and carping critics may fall back and refuse to go on; but men of real flesh and blood, men who are devoted to the cause of labor, men who will stand for the right, no matter under what adverse circumstances, aye, the adverse circumstances simply intensifying their determination to fight and conquer, will fight right

on.

Thus the brave trade unionists of the American Federation of Labor will be on guard, organizing, agitating, and educating all, arousing intense feeling and judgment upon this question, and finally securing this most beneficent measure.

Those who are responsible for the defeat of the bill will be held to a strict accountability for their hostility. Those who have treacherously doomed it to its fate in the last Congress will be made to bear the ignominy of their action.

We have gained several substantial measures, but not that which was our just due nor our just rights. However, the past is gone and except for the lessons it teaches, we shall turn our backs to it and, looking squarely into the future, organized labor is ready and yearning for the fray to secure justice to labor upon every field of action; and upon the banner of the hosts of labor will stand conspicuously emblazoned the demand for the eight-hour workday.

OF COURSE WE ARE RIGHT!

In view of the fact that organized labor is continually opposed in its efforts to inaugurate the shorter workday it is interesting that now and then some venturesome or far-seeing employer will undertake the experiment, and it is a gratifying fact to the advocates of labor reform that in not a single instance on record has any employer regretted the new and improved methods and the results which the new regime demonstrated.

From time to time we have recorded individual experiments of employers on a large scale, and among the latest we find Mr. A. F. Hills, director of the Thames Iron Works and Ship Wharf Company, who has become widely known in the construction of great warships. Among other things regarding the industry, Mr. Hill recently said:

"In 1894 I introduced the eight-hour workday. The wages 1893 paid out were £96,066 sterling. In 1898 they amounted to £242,336. It will be seen that in seven years the wages

paid out increased 145 per cent. There is no question that the eight-hour workday is profitable, too."

He investigated and calculated the cost of every ton of the five English battle-ships which were built before the introduction of the eight-hour workday; and also the English and Japanese battle-ships and cruisers, constructed after the introduction of the eighthour day, and asserts that "THE COST OF THE

SHIPS BUILT UNDER THE EIGHT-HOUR DAY WAS LESSENED BY 17 TO 18 PER CENT. PER TONNAGE AS COMPARED TO THOSE MANUFACTURED UNDER THE OLD REGIME. At the same time, the Thames Iron Works in the last two months, by open bidding, submitted the lowest bids and secured the contracts.

The work coming to the company has increased to such an extent that it has become necessary to increase the plant by adding another shipbuilding yard on the Thames, upon which it is proposed to float a banner that "the eight-hour day prevails in this establishment." Mr. Hills adds:

"THE EIGHT-HOUR WORK-DAY HAS BROUGHT NOTHING BUT BLESSINGS TO ALL. IT IS GOOD FOR THE WORKMEN, GOOD FOR THE WORK, AND GOOD FOR THE COMPANY."

The ignorance of our own shipbuilders before the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, in the hearing on the Eight-hour Bill, in antagonizing its enactment, was supreme. Even in the face of the fact that Mr. Cramp himself testified that he secured contracts for building Russian warships over the bids of French shipbuilders, furnishing the ship at a lesser cost and in just one-half the time, notwithstanding that the hours of labor were less and wages higher here than in France, he still persisted in opposing the bill. The lesson of other employers as well as his own establishment taught him nothing as to the wisdom, the great public benefit and economy of the shorter workday.

To any but the close observer it seems peculiar, but it is nevertheless a fact, that when the hours of daily labor are reduced from ten to nine there is a constant effort on the part of employers to return to the longer workday of ten hours, but it is also true that in every industry where the eight-hour day has prevailed for a reasonable period, that is a year or more, employers of labor do not care, yes, could not be persuaded, to go back to the nine or ten hour day.

It is the inexperience of employers or their intuition that once the eight-hour day is gained that there can be no going back, that calls forth their dogged opposition to anything which labor proposes, and this is no doubt heightened by the fear that to concede to the workers an inch and they will want an ell. But be this as it may, it is beyond question

a source of gratification that labor, in every demand that is made to reduce the hours of daily toil, is justified by the facts, by experience, by justice, and by right.

We shall yet secure the eight-hour workday. By law in every part of the work for the government, and by the power of our organized effort in every industry of our country.

Workers, organize in your trade unions and strive for the eight-hour workday, and in its wake it will be seen that the dawn of a better, brighter, happier day-the day of freedom and justice is not so far off.

AN AMERICAN INTERNAL POLICY.

A few days ago the editor of one of our metropolitan newspapers submitted the following questions to a number of citizens of the country as the basis for an American "Internal Policy," to which the efforts of all should be directed:

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Public Ownership of Public Franchises. "Destruction of Criminal Trusts.

"A Graduated Income Tax.

"Election of Senators by the People. "National, State and Municipal Improvement of the Public School System."

Among the number to whom these questions were put was the President of the American Federation of Labor, who made the following reply:

In the five propositions submitted as an American internal policy, there is not a feature to which I do not give my hearty and entire approval. In fact, each and all of these propositions have been adopted at one time or another as principles of the American labor movement.

Certainly the lavish hand with which special privileges have been granted to private corporations and the unscrupulous methods used in obtaining and hedging about these privileges merit the contempt of every American and should call forth such an indignant protest as to compel the public ownership of such privileges and franchises.

There is a form of trust which may have a proper place in the development of material progress, which may be a phase of industrial growth, but the perversion by the trusts of legislation and the suspicion of undue influence exerted upon the judiciary makes it essential that Congress and State legislatures deal with this question in an effective manner. In connection with this, due circumspection is necessary, as the measures intended for the regulation of the trusts have too often been turned by a perversion of the law against the labor organizations. One instance of this perversion of so-called anti-trust legislation has been manifest in the court-made law extending the power and use of injunction.

Wealth is not only nurtured but protected in

every form by the Government, and this protection is a social necessity; but that the possessors of wealth should contribute to the support of the Government in an amount commensurate with the protection it receives can not be logically disputed.

To deny the right of the Government to impose an income tax is to deny one of the fundamental functions of all government. The right to impose this tax, which has recently been denied, should be secured before the question of graduating the tax need or should be considered. That a graduated income tax is justified is attested by the increased values created by the community-the unearned increment.

Again, there is the protection given the wealth possessors by titles, patents, charters and other forms of special grants, all of which are conferred by the people in their corporate capacity and from which they are entitled to some return in the form of a tax.

That Senators should be elected by the people and not by the legislatures the merest tyro in the politics of recent times is aware. How many of our Senators have been elected by corrupt methods is too well known, and this widespread knowledge tells but half the truth. Paraphrasing Mr. Lincoln's celebrated saying: "You may buy some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't buy all of the people all of the time," this seems one of the best reasons, and certainly a sufficient one, for the direct election of Senators; for it is a sad truth that this paraphrase of Lincoln's saying does not appear to apply to State legislatures.

I favor the exercise of the functions of the national, State and municipal governments to the fullest limit for the improvement of the public school system.

While giving my unqualified approval to the points enumerated in the internal policy, it seems to me to be incomplete unless accompanied by the other measures so necessary for the protection and advancement of our people.

The long hours of labor of the working people of our country are, in view of the great inventions and the application of new forces to industry and commerce, a hindrance to our progress and higher attainments. For that reason and for innumerable other reasons, the reduction of the hours of labor, the abolition of the sweatshop and the amplest sanitary regulation of labor and the homes of laborers should be incorporated in the policy.

Then, again, the new political conditions arising as the result of our war with Spain render it essential that slave labor and slave-like contract labor, as well as the laws for the specific enforcement of the conditions of the contracts of labor and personal service, should be abolished wherever the flag of our country

waves.

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SPLENDID IMPROVEMENTS FOR
SEAMEN.

It will be a cause of genuine congratulation for the trade unionists affiliated with the American Federation of Labor to learn the great good which they have secured for the seamen of the United States. Of course, everyone knows, vaguely or otherwise, the awful conditions, privations and wrongs from which seamen suffered, but in order that all may have a better understanding of the subject and the beneficent changes wrought by the law which the American Federation of Labor secured by the passage of the Seamen's Bill at the hands of the United States Congress, we let the seamen speak for themselves, which they do as follows through the columns of the Coast Seamen's Journal, the official journal of the National Seamen's Union:

"To appreciate what has been accomplished by the new seamen's law it must be judged relatively to the old law. One characteristic of the law in the seamen's case will illustrate our meaning. Under the old law, when a seaman signed articles for a voyage, he could be compelled to stay by his ship until the voyage was ended in one, two, or three years. No matter how unseaworthy his ship was, how bad the food be, or how brutal the treatment received from the ship's officers, he was forced to submit. If he left his ship before the voyage was ended, he could be arrested upon the mere word of the shipmaster, shipowner or his agents, and either taken on board again immediately or clapped in prison for three months. If, during these three months, it suited the master of the vessel to bring the deserting seaman on board again, he could do so by merely notifying the shore authorities to that effect. In the case the seaman was put on board in irons and compelled to go to work by being starved and brutalized until nature became exhausted, his only chance of escape lay in death, a contingency that not infrequently intervened, sometimes by murder, sometimes by suicide. This was the old law in the case of the American seaman, a law founded upon ancient conditions, and which has remained on the statutes until the present day, notwithstanding the conditions in which it originated have long been done away with. Until 1895, this was the law in regard to all seamen. In that year the law was altered so as to exempt the coastwise seaman from this involuntary servitude. But, so far as the foreign going seaman is concerned, the law as here described has remained in full force. It is in force today. But, on February 20, this relic of barbarism will be abolished in the case of all seamen, coastwise and foreign going. On and after that date, the American seaman will be as free to work or quit as the American in any other line of

business. In brief, the theory of American liberty and personal freedom, which has hitherto been merely a satirism to the American seaman, will be extended to him in fact and in practice. Thus, relatively to the old law, the law that goes into effect next Monday is to the American seaman the first realization of Independence and Emancipation. And, naturally, he esteems the importance of this event in proportion as it has been long deferred.

"Of course, the seamen themselves realize that the principles of the new law will remain as much a matter of pure theory as if they had never been enacted, unless they are vigorously defended and enforced by the seamen themselves. At least the organized seamen know this. Experience has taught us that the only law that can be left to enforce itself is the law that is against us. It takes vigilance, courage, intelligence and persistency to enforce the law in our favor. There may be, and no doubt there are a number of seamen who think, or think they think, that law is a sort of machine with button attachment, which, when pressed, will do the rest. That is a serious mistake. The law, and particularly the seamen's law, is lifeless in itself; it needs to be stood on end, skull-dragged, kicked and pushed before it can be got to move. We reiterate, that if the new law is to amount to anything more than paper and ink it will have to be enforced by those in whose interests it is drafted, i. e., the seamen. There is only one practical way of enforcing the law, and that is by organization-the organization of the individual seamen in the unions of their respective localities, and the federation of the local unions in the International Seamen's Union of America. 'United we stand; divided we fall.'"

EDITORIAL NOTES.

Labor has no might to enforce right without organization.

Organization is the secret to the success of the toilers cause.

Labor must not only be right, but have the might to enforce it.

Every union formed is a move in the direction for a shorter workday.

Every worker brought into the fold of unionism is a potent factor to secure justice for labor.

Every effort made to reduce the hours of labor is a step in the direction to establish justice among men.

We shall soon publish a comprehensive report of our Legislative Committee upon the

various labor measures which were before the 55th Congress and it will be found mighty "interestin' readin'."

Join your union! If none exists form one. Join unions with unions in the American Federation of Labor.

Do you believe that labor can not secure justice or right without organization? If so, join your trade union.

Every trade union brought into existence is a link forged in the chain of the fraternal bond of the Brotherhood of Man.

Now is the time to join your union! Don't postpone doing the right thing-joining your union-until some other time. Join now! Now! Now!

Every advance made by organized labor is an argument pregnant with facts to convert the unbeliever that the demands of the workers have their basis in sound ethics and equity.

If it is right for the individual worker to join the union of his trade and it is right for a local union to join the national union of the trade, it cannot be right for any national union to remain outside of the family of national trade unions under the broad, progressive and comprehensive banner of the American Federation of Labor.

What are you doing to help the great labor press of the country? These papers, started by earnest, self-sacrificing men, to advocate your interests, your cause, at all times and under all circumstances, are certainly entitled to something more than "sympathy." What'shis-name said:

ranks to make new laws and administer them along the lines laid down in the legislative demands of the American Federation of Labor, and at the same time secure an impartial judiciary that will not govern us by arbitrary injunctions of the courts, nor act as the pliant tools of corporate wealth.

That as our efforts are centered against all forms of industrial slavery and economic wrong, we must also direct our utmost energies to remove all forms of political servitude and party slavery, to the end that the working people may act as a unit at the polls at every election.

Thorough Unity.

We reaffirm as one of the cardinal principles of the trade union movement, that the working people must unite and organize, irrespective of creed, color, sex, nationality or politics.

Working Overtime.

We advise strongly against the practice which now exists in some industries of working overtime beyond the established hours of labor, particularly in these times, when so many unemployed are struggling for an opportunity to work. It is an instigator of the basest selfishness, a radical violation of union principles, and whether on piece work or day work, it tends to set back the general movement for the eight-hour day.

The Eight-Hour Workday.

Trade unions should hold open and public meetings once a month, in their usual meeting halls, and invite nonunion men and the public to attend and help forward the inauguration of the eight-hour workday.

UNIVERSAL UNION LABEL.

The Kansas City convention adopted the following upon the question of a universal union label. We should be pleased to publish in the AMERICAN FEDERATIONIST short articles from the pens of members who have any light to shed upon the subject.

While a Universal Label is, perhaps, much to be desired, still many complications stand in the way of its adoption; therefore, we recommend that the matter be made a subject of discussion for the coming year; and, further

Resolved, that the incoming Executive Council advise with the National and International organizations having labels, on the subject of a uniform label to be used on all union made goods, and to report their findings to the next Convention of the American Federation of Labor.

Limiting the hours of daily services of laborers, workmen, and mechanics employed upon the public works of, or work done for the United States, or any Territory, or the District of Columbia.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the time of service of all laborers, workmen, and mechanics employed upon any public works of, or work done for the United States, or any Territory, or the District of Columbia, whether said work is done by contract or otherwise, is hereby limited and restricted to eight hours in any one calendar day; and it shall be unlawful for any officer of the United States, or of any Territory, or the District of Columbia, or any person acting for or on behalf of the United States, or any Territory, or said District, or any contractor or subcontractor for any part of any public works of, or work done for the United States, or any Territory, or said District, or any person whose duty it shall be to employ or to direct and control the services of such laborers, workmen, or mechanies, or who has in fact the direction or control of the services of such laborers, workmen, or mechanics, to require or permit them, or any of them, to labor more than eight hours in any one calendar day, except in cases of extraordinary emergency caused by fire, flood, or danger to life or property, nor to work upon public military or naval works or defences in time of war.

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SEC. 2. That each and every contract to which the United States, any Territory, or the District of Columbia is a party, and every contract made for or on behalf of the United States, or any Territory, or said District, which contract may involve the employment of laborers, workmen, or chanics, shall contain a stipulation that no laborer, workman, or mechanic in the employ of the contractor or any subcontractor doing or contracting to do any part of the work contemplated by the contract, shall be required or permitted to work more than eight hours in any one calendar day; and each and every such contract shall stipulate a penalty for each violation of the stipulation directed by this act of ten dollars for each laborer, workman, or mechanic, for each and every calendar day in which he shall labor more than eight hours; and the inspector or other officer or person whose duty it shall be to see that the provisions of any such contract are complied with, shall report to the proper officer of the United States, or any Territory, or the District of Columbia, all violations of the stipulation in this Act provided for in each and every such contract, and the amount of the penalties stipulated in any such contract shall be withheld by the officer or person whose duty it shall be to pay the moneys due under such contract, whether the violations for which said penaltites were imposed were by the contractor, his agents, or employees, or any subcontractor, his agents, or employees. No person on behalf of the United States or any Territory or the District of Columbia, shall rebate or remit any penalty imposed under any stipulation herein provided for, unless upon a finding which he shall make up and certify that such penalty was imposed by reason of an error of fact.

SEC. 3. That any officer of the United States, or any Territory, or the District of Columbia, or any person acting for or on behalf of the United States, or any Territory, or the District of Columbia, who shall violate the provisions of this Act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and be subect to a fine or imprisonment, or both, at the discretion of the court, the fine not to exceed five hundred dollars, nor the imprisonment one year.

SEC. 4. That all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this Act, in so far as they are inconsistent, be, and the same are hereby, repealed. But nothing in this Act shall apply to any existing contract, or to soldiers and sailors enlisted, respectively, in the Army or Navy of the United States, or to seamen on seagoing vessels.

Passed the House of Representatives May 17, 1898.
Attest:
A. MCDOWELL, Clerk.

By WM. J. BROWNING, Chief Clerk. The above is the Eight-hour Bill as it passed the House of Representatives. The Senate Committee on Education and Labor reported the bill February 17, 1899, with the following amendments:

The following words in Section 1 are stricken out: "Except in cases of extraordinary emergency caused by fire, flood, or danger to life or property, nor to work upon public military or naval works or defences in time of war," and the following words substituted: "Except when in the opinion of the head of the department having the work in charge an emergency exists."

Section 2. Insert after the word "day," on line —, the following: "Except when in the opinion of the head of the department having the work in charge an emergency exists."

Section 4. Add the following "or to the transportation of mails, merchandise, or passengers, or to common carriers in any way. Nor shall this Act apply to contracts for the purchase of the ordinary supplies of the Government, whether manufactured to conform to particular specifications or not Nor shall it apply to contracts for such materials as may be usually purchased in the open market."

The Right to Strike.

Recently discussing the question of the workers' right to strike, the Chicago Times-Herald said: Even conservative economists recognize the utility and beneficence of trade unions and larger federations of labor. The right to strike for any reason at all is upheld, and even sympathetic strikes are admitted to be legal, whether wise and expedient or not. In the Debs case the United States Supreme Court went out of its way to some extent to declare most earnestly that the right of workingmen to strike in a body can not and will not be challenged by the courts. No matter how great the injury to the employer, no matter how great the hardships and inconvenience to the public at large, the right of workingmen to quit work for any reason or no reason must be respected. Wageworkers may be under moral obligations to the community to refrain from disorganizing industry, but legally they are not bound to consider any interest except their own. No one can inquire their motives for striking; no one can interfere with them.

The following from the Kansas City Star fairly represents the observations of those who viewed the convention of the American Federation of Labor. "The first impression conveyed by the convention of the American Federation of Labor is the stalwart physique of the delegates. They resemble a body of United States regular troops in the garb of civilians. In physiognomy and proof of intellectual development the convention is a superior body, as compared with the average political gathering, which suggests that politicians might improve themselves by doing more work."