EIGHT-HOUR THEORY IN THE AMERICAN 
FEDERATION OF LABOR 
Henry Raymond Mussey 
No student of American labor history can fail to be struck 
with the extraordinary importance of the eight-hour issue in 
union thinking during the formative years of the American Fed- 
eration of Labor. At its first convention, in 1882, the Federation 
of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and 
Canada, predecessor of the American Federation, passed a strong 
and Interesting resolution on the subject; the following year it 
resolved that the question of shortening the hours of labor was 
‘paramount to all other questions at present” ;* in 1884 it recom- 
mended to its constituent organizations concerted action to 
obtain the eight-hour day beginning May 1, 1886; and during 
the next twenty years no convention passed without some declara- 
tion concerning eight hours. In his report as president at the 
convention of 1889, Mr. Gompers declared: “In the whole history 
of the labor movement there has not been any question upon 
which the thoughts of the civilized world have been so thor- 
oughly centered as upon the Eight-Hour Movement inaugurated 
by the American Federation of Labor at its last convention.” * 
After referring to the discouraging conditions prevailing the year 
before, he went on: “It was at this time that our proclamation 
to the world was made, to call on the toilers of the country to 
the movement to enforce the Eight-Hour workday, May 1, 1890. 
From that moment a change took place. Hope was instilled into 
the hearts and minds of the workers to supplant despair. The 
rallying cry of eight hours was sounded. The working people 
again stood erect and staunch in their manhood. The tide had 
changed.” 
' Proceedings, 1882, p. 15. 
* Ibid., 1883, p. 16. 
* Ibid., 1884, p. 14. 
‘ Ibid., 1889, p. 14. 
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