The great eight-hour movement, for which preparations were made for months, and upon which the Socialists based such hopes, seems to have fizzled out. July 5th was proclaimed as the day of action. And now hardly any men still stick to their resolutions. The furniture workers were to be the advance guard to start the ball rolling; a few of them are sticking to their guns, but it is a lost cause--like the affair in Rastatt during the German uprising in 1849.

In making this comparison, let us suggest to those who were involved in the German movement thirty years ago, that there is no occasion now to ridicule the men whose attempt has failed in America; that it is unfair to accuse the workers here of having shown bad judgment, because, in 1849, during the riots in Westfalen, Dresden, and Baden, men of cool judgment realized the hopelessness of the situation from the very beginning. Even today, after all these years, 2the men who took active part are still proud of their efforts; they are proud of their enthusiasm for a cause which was doomed to fail. Undoubtedly, these Germans, in thinking of the past, will remember the blind fury they had against all who favored a reorganization of Germany; but they considered the procedure a wanton waste of life and property, and the names called at that time, such as, "reactionaries, crooks, traitors," will not be forgotten. Yes, the Germans of '49 rushed heedlessly along, tried to support a venture which could only be successful if hundreds of thousands of workers showed solidarity; and the men in that movement exhausted their vocabulary of abuse, hurled invectives at all who, at the outset, predicted failure because the attempt was premature. And the men of '79 used the same words the Germans did in '49, when failure was mentioned.

It does not require exceptional intelligence to make predictions. Common sense makes it evident, in so far as Chicago is concerned, that it is absurd to increase, by twenty per cent, the manufacturing cost of an article in one city, while elsewhere conditions remain unchanged. This would prevent our factories from competing with others--and what would the workers gain by that? 3If a man is out of work, it is immaterial to him whether a day's work is eight or ten hours. All he thinks of is a job!

For the sake of argument, let us assume that the workers would have been able to enforce an eight-hour day, at four-fifths of their former pay. Would they be satisfied in the long run? Would not the natural ambition to earn more make the workers disgruntled with the two hours of leisure which represent a loss of forty cents? Even America is not a land where laborers are willing to bear a loss in order to enjoy two hours of idleness, which provides time for mental improvement--reading socialist tracts!

Everybody intends to earn as much as possible. Thousands of people came to these shores with no material resources--strength and skill constituted their sole possessions--yet many of these men acquired sizable fortunes. But there is not one among them who amounted to anything by insisting on an eight-hour work period.

It is highly probable that the eight-hour day will eventually be established 4here--long before some of today's youngsters have grey hair--and in spite of the fact that agitating only served to make others lose substantial sums in wages. We have made this assertion for years. But the eight-hour day cannot be attained by rebellion. Every sensible person knows that a shorter work period will be brought about only by changing economic conditions, and then only in a gradual manner. The experience acquired during the last few weeks undoubtedly has proved to be a sobering influence upon those workers who so enthusiastically favored shorter working hours.

The workers hold one ace in proving the feasibility of an eight-hour workday under local conditions: As soon as the co-operative furniture factory of the Chicago furniture workers is in operation, the men can show whether they are able successfully to compete with capitalistically controlled factories where the ten-hour day is in force.

If the claims of the Socialists are true, that the capitalists make immense profits, and fatten on the sweat of labor, then the co-operative factory will 5have ample opportunity to prove or disprove them. No leeches can enrich themselves on the workers when the new factory opens and, barring some calamity, the workers should earn more in eight hours than they did formerly in ten, since they share the profits. Of course--if there is a profit! But it might turn out differently, and if it becomes necessary to share the losses, the enthusiasm for the co-operative venture might diminish.

Regardless of the result of the experiment, it is worth trying. If it can be shown that the co-operative factory can function successfully on an eight-hour basis, then more will be accomplished to help the eight-hour movement than can be attained by any number of strikes and revolutions.