114 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



March 



ing the products. While the vegetable world 

 sleeps, and the earth is preparing for a new ef- 

 fort she has afforded him less time and fewer 

 facilities for labor, thus showing that it is less 

 necessary. While the earth rests, its cultiva- 

 tors may rest also. 



In a warmer climate, and with a richer soil, 

 it Is possible that a sufBcIent supply of food 

 may be produced by the labor of eight or even 

 six hours. But In our rugged clime, and on 

 our hard soil, if we would develop the capaci- 

 ties of our soil, and compete with soils that are 

 better, we must, like the busy bee, 



"Improve each sbiaing hour, 

 Aud gather honey all the d.iy." 



The hours of labor are already reduced to 

 the naiTOwest limits within which farming by 

 hired labor Is sufficiently profitable to Induce 

 men to engage in It. A large portion of our 

 enterprising young men refuse to work the soil 

 even now, and with the certainty of still less 

 profit, more of them will seek other employ- 

 ments, or other climes. The only possible way 

 of successful farming will be to let cxt our 

 work by the job, or on shares, and then we 

 shall find that the foreign laborers who are now 

 so clamorous for an eight hour system, will la- 

 bor ten or twelve hours without complaint. 



The idea that lal)oring men will cultivate 

 their mlmls, and thus elevate their social posi- 

 tion by laboring two hours less in a day. has 

 but little weight in my mind. Those who have 

 passed the period of youth would not do It, If 

 they labored four or six hours less. Young 

 men who are disposed to improve themselves, 

 and who aspire to distinction, under the present 

 system of ten hours labor, Avith their four or 

 five hours of leisure, with their holidays and 

 sabbaths, and the evening schools and lectures, 

 and the abundance of lx)oks within their reach, 

 can do it now. Such young laboring men In 

 this country, from the days of Benjamin Frank- 

 lin to those of Abraham Lincoln, have done it, 

 and that they are still doing it, I will call Na- 

 thaniel P. Banks, George S. Boutwell and 

 GInery Twitchell to testify. The resolute 

 purpose and the vigorous habits with which 

 such young men apply themselves to the acqui- 

 .sition of knowledge often enable them to out- 

 strip those who have had earlier and better op- 

 portunities. These men are the exceptions. 

 They urge their way onward and upward, 

 "moved by the Divinity that stirs within them." 

 But on the other hand, how few of our young 

 men attaii' distinction, even with all the advan- 

 tages of our high schools and colleges, and with 

 the advantage, if it be an* advantage, of not 

 being compelled to labor at all in early life ? 

 If so larg(^ a proportion of these fail, under such 

 circumstances, is it reasonable to expect that 

 the mass of joung laboring men will succeed by 

 being nlieved from a fifth part of their daily 

 labor? 



Young men break down in health much ofl- 

 ener from intellectual than from physical labor. 

 I have known the health of many men de- 



stroyed by excessive study ; but I have known 

 but few men whose health has fiiiled from ex- 

 cessive labor, and In the few cases that I have 

 known, labor has been accompanied with reck- 

 less exposure to the vicissitudes of the weather. 

 I cannot recall a single Instance In Avliich the 

 health of a hired laborer has thus failed from 

 excessive labor. In every Instance It has been 

 some amiiitious young man who was at work 

 for himself, and whose efforts were greater and 

 longer continued than his constitution could 

 endure. 



I might enquire how tliis proposed change 

 would affect various kinds of labor, as for In- 

 stance, how would it affect the dairyman whose 

 cows require to be milked twice a day ? Would 

 both milklngs come within the eight hours, and 

 the cows be left uumilked the remaining six- 

 teen ? How would it operate with the garden- 

 er who stirs the earth around his flowers and 

 tender jilants while it is still moist with dew, 

 and transplants In the early morn and protects 

 his plants from the scorching rays of the sun, 

 or still better, at dewy eve ? The poetry 

 and fi-agrance of the garden would l>oth be 

 lost. How will it affect the marketman, who 

 must lie In at the opening market, and who now 

 spends eighteen or twenty hours In going to 

 and returning from market ? And how about 

 the female help ? Why should not their hours 

 of labor be reduced in the fluuily as well as In 

 the mill, and as well as the hours of labor of 

 the men ? This would require a change in our 

 whole domestic economy. We should get our 

 breakfast at nine o'clock, and our evening meal 

 at four or five. Perhaps we might soon learn 

 to save one meal, and thus find it an economi- 

 cal arrangement. I might make similar en- 

 quires with regard to various other kinds of la- 

 bor, as that of printers, clerks, hostlers, em- 

 ployees on railroads, bakers, &c., &c. But I 

 think this Is sufficient. 



The laws of the State secure to labor, espe- 

 cially to mechanical labor, its reward, by giving 

 It a lien upon Its products, for security. It 

 also provides most liberally for the education 

 of the children of all laborers. But the very 

 persons who make the loudest demand for the 

 reduction of the hours of labor will not allow 

 their children to avail themselves of the op- 

 portunities provided at so great expense, but 

 Avill keep them employed in the mill nine months 

 in the yi.'ar. from the time they are ten or twelve 

 years old, and many of tliem would keep them 

 so employed all the year if the mill owners 

 were not fbi'I)i(lden by law so to emjiloy them. 

 The Legislature of last winter enacted a wise 

 law on this subject, which forbids any child un- 

 der fourteen years old to be employed in a 

 factory unless it attends school six montiis in 

 the year, and subjects the mill-owner who em- 

 ploys any such child who has not attended 

 school six months in a year, to a penalty of 

 fifty dollars lor each ollence. Tliis law will 

 do more in tlu^ future to eh^vate the condition 

 of labor in this commonwealth, than any re- 



