THE EIGHT-HOUR MOVEMENT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 33, 2 October 1912, Page 4

THE EIGHT-HOUR MOVEMENT.

Labour’s Eight-Hour Bill has been signed by President Taft. The history of the enactment of this legislation is interesting. The first eight-hour law adopted by Congress included all labourers, workmen, and mechanics employed by or on behalf of the Government of the United States, and became a law on June 25, 1868. The law was extended to include the letter-carrier on May 24, 1888. The next change occurred a little over four years later, when the eight-hour law was strengthened by specific provisions requiring the Government to not “permit” any labourer or mechanic to work more than eight hours in any one calender day, except in cases of extraordinary emergency, this provision becoming operative on August 1, 1892. The Eight-hour Bill which has now been approved by the President, was passed unanimously by the House of Representatives on December 14, 1911. On May 31, 1912, the Eight-hour Bill, with several amendments, passed the

Somite. On Juno 5, 1932, tlio House of Representatives concurred in tho amendments added by the Senate. J no Bill then wont to tho President tor Ids approval or disapproval. On June 19, 1912, tho President affixed his signature, thus making the eighthour day a Federal enactment, lids law will go into effect on January 1. 1913, with the single exception that the law will not be in force and efieot in the Panama Can.nl Zone until after January 1, 1915. The pen with which tho President signed the Bill was presented to Mr S. Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labour.