Show TIlE EIGHTIiOUR BUSINESS When the labor article in the constitutional consti-tutional convention was taken up fur consideration it was looked upon by many of the delegates as cumbersome with lietalls It WS regarded as an infringement In-fringement upon the legislative fUnctions fUnc-tions of thc state As reported It con tamed no reference whatever to the I eight hours proposition And when Mr Roberts spoke In opposition to the article ar-ticle there was not a word in it about working eight hours for a day 111 Roberts said Mr President I move you sir that section 1 together with the title and all other sections of this article be stricken out I wish to say my motion to strike out this article docs not arise from any hostility to labor 01 making proislons for Its protection but I am of the open Ion that this article 11 altogether alto-gether useless for the accomplishment of the purposes desIgned by drafting it as apart of this constitution I hall not at all be afraid of offending laborers since I myself am one but It seems to me sir that they are uselessly useless-ly cumbering this constitution with a provision that Is absolutely worthless because there Is not a proposition In It but what can be cvaded both by capital cap-Ital and by labor and I believe sir that the true Interests of labor can be subserved If the state shall provide for securing the rights of the Individual which are provided for in the bill of rights and which in fact are provIded for throughout tile constitution and by the recognized principles of law In our country and since 1 regard the whole article as useless for one I am not willing to give my voice to putting In this much lumber Into the constitution And therefore I am in favor of striking strik-ing out this whole thing The debate contlnUEU for some time pages 1165 6 7 S9 of the official report re-port and Mr Kerns of Summit offered of-fered the folloWing amendment Eight hours shall constitute a days work on all works or undertakings carried car-ried on or aided by the state or municipal munic-ipal governments and the legislature shall pass laws to provide for the health and safety of emptoyees In factories fac-tories smelters and mines A vote was taken on that amendment 79 members including Mr RJberts votIng vot-Ing for it Other amendments were proposed and rejected On the final roll Mr Roberts voted against the article as a whole for the reasons stated In his speech at the beginning of the dlscuslonthat it was matter for lawmakers and not state makers to handle After all the constitutional provision covers only public w orls a The eight hour law that was passed by the state legislature in 1895 Is another an-other matter entirely The bill was introduced In-troduced by Representative J X Ferguson Fer-guson of Carbon county It was turned down by the committee to which It was referred leading Republicans of the house declared it to be unconstitutional unconstitu-tional l Mr Ferguson was told that if he > jould get a favorable opinion from a prominent member of the Salt Lake bar thc bill would be taken up by the judicial ju-dicial committee He went to JUdge Powers who gave him a written opin lion shovlg lis constitutionality This opinion was submitted to Hon C S I Yarlnn and met his approval In the meantime the labor unions allover all-over the country had begun an agitation agita-tion oC the matter The growing sentiment I timent In favor of the bill worked a change in the Republican majority I they didnt dare suppress the measure any longer and It was reported to the house In time it became a law for the enactment enact-ment of which Republicans arc claImIng claIm-Ing credit |