EIGHT-HOUR LABOR LAW.

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The eight-hour law recently enacted in Ohio makes it mandatory to have the following stipulations entered into the text of every contract for public work.

"It is hereby stipulated and agreed by the parties hereto that the service of all laborers, workmen and mechanics employed upon the work under the within contract shall be limited and restricted to eight (8) hours in each and every calendar day, except in cases of extraordinary emergency, caused by fire, flood or danger to life and property; and said contractor agrees that upon violation by him of the foregoing stipulation he shall be liable by way of penalty in the sum of ten ($10) dollars for each laborer, workman or mechanic, for each and every calendar day in which each laborer, workman or mechanic shall labor more than eight (8) hours, and the amount of such penalty or penalties shall be withheld by said trustee from any money or moneys due, or to become due, to said contractor, under the within contract; and said trustees shall not rebate or remit any penalty or penalties imposed under the foregoing stipulation, unless upon a finding which said trustees shall make up and certify that such penalty or penalties were imposed by reason of an error of fact.”

This form was prepared by the assistant corporation counsel for the Board of Waterworks Commissioners of Cincinnati. While the vote on the approval of the stipulation was unanimous, there is a division of opinion as to its practical effects.

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EIGHT-HOUR LABOR LAW.

At a recent meeting of the Park Board of Cleveland an opinion from the city law department was read as to how many of the Park Board employes would be affected by the new eight-hour law. Caretakers, as the former policemen are called, and foremen, are not affected, but all laborers are. The Park Board laborers have been putting in ten hours per day at 15 cents per hour. If two hours are taken off a day's work without a corresponding increase in pay the park laborers will be hard hit, losing 30 cents per day from their wage of $1.50 per day. Members of the Park Board do not see how the board can afford to increase the rate of pay per hour, since it is contended that its work requires just about so many hours in any event. An increase in the pay per hour would mean an increase in the expense of doing the necessary work. This the board cannot do, as it is now engaged in considering ways and means to cut down expenditures for labor.

President Cowles of the board states:

"When a representative of the labor unions appeared before the Park Board in reference to the eight-hour law, he said flatfootedly that the express purpose of the law was to cut down the hours of labor so that employment would be furnished for more men. There wasn't anything said about the men being able to do as much work in eight hours as in ten. You can see what position that would put us in if his logic is good."

EIGHT-HOUR LABOR LAW.

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City officials claim that the enforcement of the law will work to the disadvantage of the laboring men who are now employed, and that it will meet with the approval of those who are not employed until they find public employment. The laborers employed in the waterworks department of the city have already begun to file vigorous objections to the enforcement of the law. Heretofore these men have received nineteen cents an hour for a day's work of nine hours. A short time ago, to comply with the new law, the day's work was cut from nine to eight hours. The men still receive nineteen cents an hour, or $1.14 less every week than they received before the law was enforced. Every Saturday, when the men call at the office of the waterworks department for their pay, they make vigorous protests to the cut in their wages. In speaking of the eight-hour law yesterday, Mayor Farley took occasion to make satirical reference to the Legislature.

"The eight-hour law," said he, "is only another case of 'the doctor knows best."

The mayor told the following story: "During the war a gunboat on the Mississippi had just passed through a heavy engagement with the enemy. The decks were strewn with the dead and wounded. The wounded men were carried below to the hospital of the boat. After apparently all of the live though wounded sailors had been carried below, the doctor called out to one of the sailors to throw all of the

other bodies overboard. The sailor began to toss the bodies over into the water. He was well along with his work when he picked up one of the bodies that showed signs of life. It proved to be a sailor who had been knocked unconscious during the fight and had been pronounced dead by the doctor. But the other sailor didn't hesitate; he picked up the now conscious sailor by the seat of his trousers and the collar of the jacket to heave him overboard. The wounded. sailor cried out that he was not dead, but the one doing the heaving said: 'Shut up, the doctor knows best,' and then threw the man into the water.

"The enactment of the eight-hour law is an instance of the Legislature knowing more about the needs of the workingman than the workingman himself."

FRICTION.

Every person familiar with the operation of machinery knows the waste of power and the destruction of wearing parts that is involved in untrue alignments and the want of a proper lubricant. A mechanic who failed to give strict attention to these two requirements would be promptly denounced by all of his associates as unfit to be entrusted with the installation or operation of machinery. A machine is only a part of the equipment of organized industry. Behind the machine is the man who operates it. Above the machine is the manager, who directs the

energies of the business. If the best results are to be obtained there must be no friction, not only in the machines, but between the men who operate and the men who direct. Friction between employes and employers is fully as destructive of profits as friction. in machinery. To obviate friction there must be a true alignment of interests, and all operations must be lubricated by mutual confidence and good-will. Such conditions can be established only by a clear understanding of the requirements of justice by every person connected with an industry or business, no matter what his position may be, and his willingness to be governed in his conduct accordingly. If the 1,000 men behind the machines do not have this understanding the 10 men who have the responsibility of direction will frequently find their calculations disarranged or miscarrying by some fault of execution for which they are dependent upon others. Such failures react upon the employes, because they tend to diminish the volume and the profits of the busi

A condition of contracting business and diminishing profits is the worst condition that can be created for the welfare of employes.