demand to reduce the working day to eight
hours. But eight hours had by that time come to signify more than a
means to increase employment. The eight-hour movement drew its
inspiration from an economic theory advanced by a self-taught Boston
machinist, Ira Steward. And so naturally did this theory flow from the
usual premises in the thinking of the American workman that once
formulated by Steward it may be said to have become an official theory
of the labor movement.

Steward's doctrine is well expressed by a couplet which was very popular
with the eight-hour speakers of that period: "Whether you work by the
piece or work by the day, decreasing the hours increases the pay."
Steward believed that the amount of wages is determined by no other
factor than the worker's standard of living. He held that wages cannot
fall below the standard of living not because, as the classical
economists said, it would cause late marriages and a reduction in the
supply of labor, but solely because the wage earner will refuse to work
for less than enough to maintain his standard of living. Steward
possessed such abundant faith in this purely psychological check on the
employer that he made it the cornerstone of his theory of social
progress. Raise the worker's standard of living, he said, and the
employer will be immediately forced to raise wages; no more can wages
fall below the level of the worker's standard of living than New England
can be ruled against her will. The lever for raising the standard of
living was the eight-hour day. Increase the worker's leisure and you
will increase his wants; increase his wants and you will immediately
raise his wages. Although he occasionally tried to soften his doctrine
by the argument that a shorter work-day not only does not decrease but
may actually increase output, his was a distinctly revolutionary
doctrine; he aimed at the total abolition of profits through their
absorption into wages. But the instrument was nothing more radical than
a progressive universal shortening the hours.

So much for the general policy. To bring it to pass two alternatives
were possible: trade unionism or legislation. Steward chose the latter
as the more hopeful and speedy one. Steward knew that appeals to the
humanity of the employers had largely failed; efforts to secure the
reform by cooperation had failed; the early trade unions had failed; and
there seemed to be no recourse left now but to accomplish the reduction