Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. He lives to work instead of working to live. In this International May Day address delivered in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1890 (20 years before his speech on “The Significance of Labor Day” ), Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), argues for the importance of the eight-hour workday. Great speech in favor of the workers…and then there was Eric Hoffer with another slant, but similar. The events of the first May Day in Chicago of 1886. It is a lie. That is as good as I have ever read or heard and from 1890 yet. He would probably go to the theater one night, to a concert another night, but could not do that every night. In the age of electricity and steam that has produced wealth a hundred fold, we insist that it has been brought about by the intelligence and energy of the workingmen, and while we find that it is now easier to produce it is harder to live. What stands out to me is how he uses the simple, and yet so powerful tool of observation. So many have moved from Belgium and Germany to Holland that tens of thousands of Hollanders have been forced to leave their country for the United States. It’s interesting to see that the Republican myth that the unemployed just don’t WANT to work was around in 1890. Perhaps it is time to reclaim May Day. Eventually, though, the country settled on the end of summer to recognize labor, mostly because the powers that be didn’t want the occasion to be forever linked to the events of the first May Day in Chicago of 1886. http://www.rifuture.org/may-day-fighting-for-8-hour-work-day-at-haymarket.html. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! “It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour day. All rights reserved. There were rallies of 20,000 people in New York, and 10,000 people took to the streets in Baltimore. The man who works the long hours has no necessities except the barest to keep body and soul together, so he can work. A bomber was never identified, and police brought conspiracy charges against eight organizers. . According to steamship men 10,000,000 people could be brought into this country in the next ten months if ships were available. It is only a theory. I maintain that that class in our social life that exhibits the greatest degree of sobriety is that class who are able, by a fair number of hours of day’s work to earn fair wages—not overworked. Speech: Speech by Samuel Gompers on World War I Speaker: Samuel Gompers 1900 - 1940 / Labor Justice and National Security Samuel Gompers was a founding member and the first president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). You want to share the page? Wherever men are cheap, there you find the least degree of progress. I desire to say this in answer to that charge: As a rule, there are two classes in society who get drunk. Now you cannot, as the political economists and college professors, say that labor is a commodity to be bought and sold. Is it not a fact that we find laborers in England and the United States, where the hours are eight, nine and ten hours a day—do we not find that employers and laborers are more successful? The Network for Public Education Action Endorses Senate Candidates! It also urged that an immigration law be enacted containing the provision that after that period of two years an order can be issued absolutely prohibiting immigration during times of unemployment.Congress, however, passed a bill providing that only three percent of any one nationality, based on the foreign population of 1910, could enter the United States. Time, which brings us from the lowest condition up to the highest civilization; time, so that we can raise men to a higher plane. Look at the nations who use a healthy workday as opposed to an unhealthy workday. Who designed this mess? He served as president of the AFL for nearly 40 years, beginning December 8, 1886 and ending when he died on December 13, 1924. . He is nothing but a veritable machine. National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), Ralph Nader: Labor Day Is a Time to Organize, Beth from Indiana: What Labor Day Means to Me. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. It is a lie. Website: Elbel Consulting Services, LLC. . For those of you who oppose national or state curricula: how can we ensure that labor history gets taught? Here it is as though they spend all their time to see how much they can waste and give to their friends with nothing back. . Your email address will not be published. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Remember, fellow English teachers — this speech (and others like it) are NON-FICTION! He would probably become interested in some study and the hours that have been taken from manual labor are devoted to mental labor, and the mental labor of one hour produce for him more wealth than the physical labor of a dozen hours. We do want more. The theory that we can work or cease to work when we will is a delusion and a snare. Labor history needs to be robustly taught. London-born Samuel Gompers came to New York in 1863, when he was 13 and became a cigar maker. It is a principle and a necessity from which we ought not and must not depart.Shutting out from our shores the poor of other nations and races is caused by the law of necessity and self-protection consequent upon our industrial system. Where the hours of labor are long, men are cheap, and where men are cheap there is no necessity for invention. . It was an era of hostility to labor unions when employers sought court injunctions to break strikes and boycotts. ( Log Out / It has grown out of the necessities of the people, and, although some may desire to see it fail, still the labor movement will be found to have a strong lodgment in the hearts of the people, and we will go on until success has been achieved! Its people live better than anywhere else, and the trade unions are responsible for maintaining those standards. Gompers dealt mainly with the basic issues of wages and working conditions. I guess some have to learn the hard way as opposed to the wise way. I say that is the plane on which this question ought to be discussed—that is the social question. I wish you’d revisit your 2010 comments on KIPP reported below: The Answer Sheet – What Ravitch told KIPP and Teach for America, “What I want to say to KIPP, because I really really admire what you are doing. They tell us that the eight-hour movement can not be enforced, for the reason that it must check industrial and commercial progress. Gompers died on 13 December 1924 in San Antonio, Texas, at the age of 74, having retained the presidency of the AFL until his death. Cast your eye throughout the universe and observe the industry that forces nature to yield up its fruits to man’s necessities, and you will find that where the hours of labor are the shortest the progress of invention in machinery and the prosperity of the people are the greatest. Under his leadership, the AFL became the largest and most influential labor federation in the world. We do want more, and when it becomes more, we shall still want more. He would probably become interested in some study and the hours that have been taken for manual labor are devoted to mental labor, and the mental labor of one hour will produce for him more wealth than the physical labor of a dozen hours. Ask a man who gets five dollars a day and he will want fifty cents more. Click here to hear a speech by Samuel Gompers encouraging co-operation with the U.S. war effort. And for these 50 – 60 hour weeks, what is their pay? Like Banquo’s ghost, it will not down. We cannot leave any “benefactors” (those who claim charity for their involvement in education but who are really driven by tax breaks and investment opportunities) to their own devices simply because some people have “good hearts.” Be constant in your vigilance. Is it not a fact that we find laborers in England and the United States, where the hours are eight, nine and ten hours a day—do we not find that the employers and laborers are more successful? Time. Is that true? Our enemies would like to see this movement thrust into Hades, they would like to see it in a warmer climate, but I say to you that this labor movement has come to stay. J. H. ReiterHaverford CollegeHaverford, Pa.Dear Sir Your letter of April 25 received and contents noted.You ask for information on the immigration question.
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