*THE
WORKER*
BRISBANE, MAY
4, 1895.
The
Editorial Mill.
Our Motto:
“Socialism in our time.”
“Non-unionism
– Long hours for all workers. Unionism- Short hours for some
workers! Legislative enactment – Short hours for all workers!”
These words were printed on the banners in the WORKER eight hour
cartoon last week, and generally speaking contain about 19cwt. of
truth to the ton. When there were practically no trade unions, the
working classes were kept at dreary, monotonous toil for 15 to 16
hours per day. When the men engaged in various occupations became
sufficiently educated to recognise the power of combination, in many
instances the 15 hour day was reduced to eight, and the reduction
thus fortunately secured had a direct beneficial influence on those
trades in which the workers were too ignorant or too down-trodden to
combine. Half a century of effort to establish a universal eight hour
day by the old trade union methods has taught the organised
wage-earners its impossibility, and that while a number of industries
in which the eight hours might be advantageously put into operation
are conducted on the ten or twelve-hour system, the eight-hour boon
is at the risk of being lost to the trades which now enjoy it. Very
few trade unionists rely now-a-days on the old weapon – the
time-honoured strike – to achieve the three eights. The aid of the
all powerful Parliament is now invoked to accomplish this and many
other reforms. Here and there some formalised “has been” who is
in a good apparently-permanent job, and enjoys his weekly
Saturday-night gallon or two of beer, may object to what he calls the
extreme views of those who would march the Labour Army right up to
and through the doors of Parliament, but he is fast disappearing. He
is rapidly joining his departed and humble friend who was satisfied
with that position in life to which it had pleased God to call him.
*
* *
The
advance of the eight-hour movement is no longer retarded by a
difference of opinion as to the wisdom of allowing politics to be
discussed at trade union meetings; the main obstacles are the
opposition of the employing class and capitalists who consider it is
not to their advantage that the working classes should work only
eight hours – and the want of knowledge and apathy of the
unorganised workers who will not use their power politically to
obtain for them. It is a curious fact that aged workers accustomed to
labour for twelve or fifteen hours daily would not know what to do
with themselves if they had the eight-hour boon conferred upon them.
They become so accustomed to the monotonous round – work, eat, and
sleep – that leisure is a bore. Sydney Webb and Harold Cox mention
a case in which a labourer still in the prime of life often remarked,
“I yate Sunday more'n any day of the week;” and the late Mr.
Christie, when secretary of the Sydney Brewery Employ'ee Association,
often sadly spoke of an old man so accustomed to work late every
night in the week at one of the large breweries in Sydney that when
the eight-hour system was granted him and his fellow employ'es he did
not know what to do with himself, and his wife expressed the opinion
that he was far happier when he had to work ten and twelve hours
daily. Humorists may claim that in this latter case the free drink
obtainable in the brewery may have had much to do with the old man's
liking for late hours. Still, the fact remains, a few of the old-time
employ'es feel that their leisure hours under the eight-hour system
would be a bore and a nuisance. Happily a new class of worker has
arisen – the educated wage-earners who realise that a full and
complete life should be open to all who are willing to work with hand
or brain; a class who do know what to do with their leisure hours –
who do not waste them in vice, but, in many instances, devote their
time to acquiring a knowledge of science and the beauties of
literature.
*
* *
Eight
hours work is enough for any man or woman. There may be, and no doubt
is, difficulty in applying the system to several occupations; but in
the majority of trades and professions the eight-hour system can be
put into vogue with very great advantage to both employer and
employed. All men who do eight hours work per day for six days in the
week do more than justify their existence.
Dr.
Richardson, a man qualified to express an opinion, says: “taking it
all in all, we may keep our minds on eight hours as a fair days time
for work. We may consider justly that a person who works hard and
conscientiously for eight hours has little to be ashamed of, and that
for health's sake he has done what is near to the right thing; if he
takes an hour to get to and from work, two hours for meals, three
hours for reading or recreation, and one hour for rising and going to
bed, including in this the daily bath which is so essential to
health, he is in good form for good health. It matters little then
what his occupation may be, since this laying-out of time is well
laid out for mind and body.”
________________
Gradually,
and latterly with great rapidity, machinery is displacing labour in
printing establishments. It is not so many years ago that “fliers”
were required to take the sheets from the press as they were printed.
Machinery was invented to do the work and the “fliers” usually
boys, had to seek fresh employment. Ten years ago in large daily
newspaper offices, dozens of boys and young men were employed in
folding the newspapers as they were rapidly printed. A folding
machine – or addition to the already almost perfect printing
machine is invented, and exit the folding boys. Now appears in
Australia another new invention, which will probably lead to the
discharge of many men and boys from the machine room of both
newspaper and job printing establishments. This invention is the new
Cleathero feeder, which (according to the Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH)
seems to be faultless, and is now working to complete satisfaction on
a double demy Wharfdale at the Government Printing Office, Sydney. A
ream (or, if desired, several reams) of paper is placed on the
feed-board, which rises automatically as each sheet is taken from the
top, so that the top of the pile is always at the same height. By a
very ingenious arrangement the sheet is “fluffed” or arched at
each corner, by rubber fingers, which effectually separates the top
sheet, a little foot then comes immediately under the sheet, and
keeps the corners tight while the top sheet is pushed along by two
rubber wheels to the grippers, another rubber finger near the
cylinder, catching hold of the sheet to make it perfectly straight
before the grippers take it, so that perfect register may be
guaranteed.
An
important feature in this apparatus is that by a clever arrangement a
bell is made to ring just before the last few sheets are taken, so as
to give the machine-minder due notice to put another ream on; but
supposing the minder is busy and cannot come for a few minutes, no
harm is done, because directly the last sheet is taken the machine
stops of its own accord. Practical men who saw the feeder were
unanimously enthusiastic about it, and as the contrivance can be
fitted to any size of machine and any thickness of paper, it seems
that a way has at last been discovered of avoiding the numerous and
costly defects of hand-feeding. In England the Cleathero has been
largely adopted – notably in the offices of the ILLUSTRATED LONDON
NEWS, THE GRAPHIC and the “London Post office Directory.” The
WORKER urges the employ'es who are displaced by these new inventions
to do their level best in the advocacy of State and municipal
co-operation. The only hope the working classes have to save
themselves from a slavery worse that that which afflicted the
low-paid wage-earners of a hundred years ago, is to make the State or
the municipality the employers in all industries where practicable,
and to arrange for the State or municipality to provide employment
for all those persons who cannot obtain work from private employers
at a living wage. There is nothing visionary about this scheme. Many
workers have ratepayers votes, and more workers have parliamentary
votes. Let us all, who with brain or hand work for wages, use our
votes and our tongues to put the scheme into operation as soon as
possible.
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