The Labor Problem.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 5864, 8 September 1890, Page 3

The Labor Problem.

A PLEA FOR SHORTER HOURS,

New YofiK, July 13. — During the recent National Temperance Congress here I Samuel Gonipers challenged the statement that the working men were made intemperate by eight hours of labor. It was affirmed in the controversy that ensued that Chancellor Goßchen had said that the reduction of the hours of labor of dock men had increased the drinking habit. Gompers wrote to Goschen and got a denial of this statement. He also wrote to John Burns, who sent a letter in reply in which he said :— " The Chancellor of the Exchequer did not say that the increase of wages and reduction of hours of labor of the dock laborers of London had tended to increase their drunkenness, nnd largely contribute to an increase in the Treasury from the. liquor traffic. . His statement was that the increase of two millions was due to the fact that the people had been toasting the prosperity of trade in the country. I attended a meeting the other night of 6000 dock laborers and I asked those who ought to know what was the effect of higher wages and better conditions, and the universal opinion was that the workers of London who have received better wages are far moro sober than ever they were. As an abstainer myself, I am delighted at the conduct of the dockers and am more than pleased at the diminution nob only of drinking but of betting among them, due in no small measure to the fact that their leaders, Messrs Mann and Tillett and others, are temperance men. The greatest enemies I have in London are the batting men and the publicans. Their enmity is a testimony to this effect, that we ask for a reduction of hours for more leisure and education, and that we urge the men to spend their higher wages in home comforts. In twenty years the amount spent on liquor per head of population has decreased 20 per cent., while the aggregate has increased' through the growth of population. In England, as elsewhere, the short-hour movement has always tended to sobriety and increased the intelligence of the workers."