Show EIGHT EOT7B STUIKEES J With the opening of spring und the resumption of business at the various establishments throughout the country coun-try where employment is furnished today to-day laborers come the usual complaints com-plaints on the part of the workingmen working-men and the news of the renewal of dtrikae Some woikoibn find fault with the hours of labor and the western west-ern trades unions are tarcatening a general strike next month unless em I ployera Bhall declare eight hours a days work That employers will not and cannot do this norkingmen should be able to undersiand There is a commercial law governing the relations between employers and eniploj j which cannot be changed by the eaj3C of either Labor is i usually paid for according to what it i cn produce Sundry causes or conditions con-ditions may interfere and temporarily disarrange this commercial law as I 4 Circumstances may interfere with the t ii regular working of any other rule o r I law but the changes can only be fa r brief periods Custom has made ten hours a days labor and wages have j 3 r been based upon that many hoars o I work The ordinary workman in L any department or branch of industry indus-try can produce in ten hours the I equivalent to tho ordinary day wage for men in that particular par-ticular department or kind of labor Il the mechanic earns but S in tsn hours he certainly should uui expect 10 oe paid o for eight hours work The commercial law I that governs in this matter would > award him 240 for eight hours If there is to be a new rule as to the hours of labor there must also be a corresponding readjustment of wages Workingmen may call eight hours a days work when the pay for eight hours would become a days pay I This is one of the things that strikes r cannot affect only in exceptional instances when the strikers can get the employer in a tight place and take advantage of his circumstances Congress undertook to regulate the I I mailer oy aeoJarmg eight hours a days work and we believe that rule prevails among the employes of government gov-ernment but the commercial world is t I l not affected by this law If every state in the Union were to pass a law saying eight hours shall constitute a i days labor the laborer would still have to work ten hours to get pay for L f ten hours |