Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/438

 416 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL countries SUCCESS. also in Belgium and Spain for example but without; Meanwhile the working men of Melbourne have been celebrating the thirty-fifth anniversary of he attainment of the eight hours day by laying, on the 21st of April, the foundation-stone of an Eight Hours National Monument, an allegorical statue, in a publip place in that city, and it may be noted as an indication of the way opinion is going there. Mr. B. Douglas, the old eight hours pioneer, who laid 'the stone and presided afterwards at the usual anniversary banquet, took occasion to express a strong opinion that their cause could only be promoted in the future, as in the past, by moral suasion, and even to condemn in scarcely measured terms the new agitators who were leading the unionism of Australia off its old lines; but colonial opinion seems for the moment to be moving more and more towards legislation. A resolution was unanimously passed in the Legislative Assembly of Victoria last December on the notion of Mr. Trenwith, a member of the Trades Hall Council, often spoken of as the Bradlaugh of Vic- toria, calhng upon the Government to introduce a legal eight hours Bill not later than the benning of the following session ' a Bill,' to use the words of the motion, ' to legalise the system where practicable in connection with all departments of industry throughout Victoria.' This is obviously more than a mere measure for establishing eight hours as a standard for the interpretation of open contracts between employers and workmen such as has been already more than once passed by the Lower House of Leslature in Victoria, but rejected by the Upper. It is really the universal and compulsory eight hours law, though Mr. Trenwith explained, in order to soothe the alarms of the agricultural interest, that the clause 'where practicable' was. intended to exclude from the'operation of the law agriculture and all other branches of industry that might be injuriously affected by it. No action has been as yet taken by the Victorian Govern- ment in the matter, but the Intercolonial Trade and Labour Congress, which sat in Ballarat in April, discussed the subject, and was absolutely unanimous in calling upon the several Australian Legislatures to institute an eight hours system through all Australia by law. Their only difference was whether they should retain the ' where practic- able'reservation in the resolution, and by a majority they determined to discard it. One of the last American consular reports brings. us some interesting details about the extension of the eight hours. system in Sydney, N.S.W. Fifty-three different branches of work are specified in which the eight hours day now prevails, and 54 branches. in which the day is longer. Coal miners work 44 hours a week. City municipal employes work also 44 hours a week, but on the State railways engine ch'ivers, guards, brakesmen, signalmen and porters work 55 hours a week, while blacksmiths, carriage buildera and labourere work only eight hours a day like their fellow-tradesmen