Economic essays

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Identifikator:: 1753623200

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-136107

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Economic essays

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: Macmillan

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: viii, 368 S.; Ill., graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Title:: Eight-hour theory in the american federation of labor / Henry Raymond Mussey

Collection:: Economics Books

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. 229

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