Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/557

LEFT EIGG 483 EIGHT-HOUB DAY for the Paris exposition of 1889 included a monstrous iron tower, to be raised on the Champs-de-Mars, 1,000 feet high. The designer, Gustave Eiffel, construct- ed it of iron lattice-work, with three elevators giving access to the summit. The uses of so stupendous an undertak- ing are many, and it became one of the chief permanent ornaments of the city. Its importance from a meteorological point of view cannot be overestimated, the tower enabling meteorologists to study the decrease of temperature at different heights, to observe the varia- tions of winds, and to find out the quan- tity of rain that falls at different heights, and the density of the clouds. Indeed, in all that relates to tempera- ture, hygrometry, air currents and the composition of the air the tower affords opportunities for study and research, many of which have hitherto been im- possible. It is equally useful to astrono- mers. In the World War (1914-1918) the tower was employed as a wireless telegraph station. steam-driven machinery in England, in the early part of last century, together with the factory system, manufacturers gained almost autocratic control of the hundreds of thousands of workers at their disposal, and the length of a day's work reached the limits of human endur- ance. Twelve and fourteen hours were the average, while women and children were often compelled to work sixteen and eighteen hours a day. These and similar evils led to organization of the workers for protective purposes. Through their efforts, both by economic and political action, the working day was gradually shortened. The first de- mand for an eight-hour day was voiced in England as far back as 1833, and the British Trade Union Congress at Bir- mingham, held in 1869, presented it as one of its fundamental principles. In the United States the National Labor Union declared for an eight-hour day in 1866. During the period of so many strikes, 1872-1873, "eight-hour leagues" were a prominent feature of the labor EHRENBREITSTEIN EIGG (eg), an island on the W. coast of Scotland, County of Inverness, about 10 miles from the mainland, and 5 miles long by about 3 broad. It has bold, rocky shores, and terminates to the S. in a lofty promontory called the Scuir of Eigg, with a peak of columnar pitch- stone porphyry 1,339 feet above the sea, and on one side perpendicular as a wall. It is the scene of the massacre, toward the end of the 16th century, of the Mac- donalds by the Macleods of Skye, who suffocated them in a cave where they had taken refuge. EIGHT-HOUR DAY. the period fixed by the demand of the international labor movement as the maximum length of a day's work. With the introduction of disturbances of that time. This princi- ple of limiting the day's work was fiercely fought by the manufacturers and other employers, who contended that it was a matter to be regulated only by employer and employee, without out- side interfernce, but organized labor and its friends contended that the sta- tus of the single, unorganized workery was economically too weak to enable him to have a voice in regulating an agreement with his employer. It was the first step in "collective bargaining." In the matter of legislation as well as an employer of labor the Federal Governt- ment has taken the lead. In 1869 Con- gress enacted the first eight-hour law, applying it to the workers in the United