68 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The Eight-hour Agitation. —This is the fundamental principle or 

 philosophy of the trade-union movement in this country, and in 1888 " the 

 American Federation of Labor," numerically one of the strongest of the 

 unions, voted to unite with the " Eight-hour League," and thenceforth to 

 concentrate all effort on the struggle for eight hours. Their programme 

 was then to take charge of one trade at a time. Thus, in 1890, the gage of 

 battle fell to the lot of the carpenters, who accordingly struck, under 

 orders, for an eight-hour day on May 1st, and won temporary victories in 

 one hundred and thirty-seven cities. Plans were laid for the miners to 

 strike, on May 1, 1891, for eight hours, but the conditions were not then 

 favorable, and although these plans have since been in abeyance owing to 

 depressed conditions of trade, they have not been abandoned, and I have 

 reason to believe that employers in almost all trades will be called upon to 

 meet this question in the not very distant future. 



The argument of the eight-hour philosophers is that, by restricting the 

 hours of work, more laborers must be employed and the idle surplus pro- 

 vided for ; I consider that this is specious reasoning. The overflowing 

 stream of immigration fi'om European countries, attracted to America by 

 comparatively high wages, suffices even now to produce a permanent 

 flood, at least in the fields of unskilled labor. If to this we add a still more 

 powerful attraction of eight hours forming a legal working day, the tidal 

 wave flowing from all the less favored countries in the world would swamp 

 our native industrial population and induce a condition which would be far 

 less favorable to them than that which now obtains.* 



* I am able to substantiate these views by figures bearing upon the subject. The official 

 statistician of Paris, M. Berthelot, gives the proportion of foreigners in that city as 'T'S per 

 cent ; these are chiefly wealthy persons who distribute a portion of their funds among the 

 tradespeople. London and Vienna have each 2-2 per cent. Berlin has I'l per cent of 

 foreigners, also mainly persons of wealth. 



The foreigners residing in American cities are chiefly poor immigrants who compete 

 with the native working class for wages, and are accustomed and content to live in compara- 

 tive squalor. The percentages of "foreign born" to total population in five principal 

 American cities are as follows: Philadelphia, 25-74 per cent; Boston, 35-27 per cent; New 

 York, 42-23 per cent; Chicago, 40-98 per cent; Milwaukee, 38-92 per cent. More than 

 thirty per cent of the foreigv-horn males, twenty-one years of age and over, in the five cities 

 named, are aliens. The percentages of " persons of foreign parentage " to total population 

 in these cities are as follows: Philadelphia, 56-58 per cent; Boston, 67*96 per cent; Chi- 

 cago, 77-90 per cent; New York, 80-46 per cent; Milwaukee, 86-36 per cent. This infor- 

 mation was courteously furnished by the Chief of Census Division, Department of the Inte- 

 rior, Washington, March 12, 1896. 



More rigid enforcement of contract-labor laws has decreased importation of foreign 

 labor under direct or written contract, but there is ample evidence that Italian labor pur- 

 veyors still influence such immigration. Immigrant inspectors Birmingham and Hinkle 

 reported (under date of January 11, 1895) to the Secretary of the Immigration Investigation 

 Committee, among other facts, as follows : " Mr. Desabadia (an Italian padrone of New 

 York) informed us that he was regularly engaged in supplying Italian laborers in any num- 

 bers to contractors or others desiring labor done ; that he was prepared now to furnish 

 from two to six hundred men (Italians) for work of any nature; that he could furnish 

 stonemasons, carpenters, or men of almost any of the building operations." 



The e(juivalent of the padrone system is not confined to Italians. Poles, Hungarians, 

 Greeks, and other foreigners, temporarily camping in this country, are forwarded " on call " 



