塞缪尔．冈珀斯
(SAMUEL GOMPERS)

工人要求什么?
What Does The Working Man Want?

我们要求完全实行八小时工作日制度。有人谴责我们自私，说我们会得寸进尺提出更多的要求，说我们去年日薪提高了十美分，现在又要求更多一些。我们确实要求更多一些。

塞缪尔．冈珀斯(1850一1924)出生于伦敦，1863年移居纽约，在那儿他继承了父亲的职业，当了卷烟工人。作爲卷烟行业工会的领导人，他带领该工会退出了工业工会劳动骑士团，建立了行业工会联盟──美国劳工联合会。1886至1924年间，仅其中一年除外，冈珀斯一直担任美国劳工联合会的主席。这一时期公衆对工会怀有敌意，怀疑工会激进，他就在这种情况下领导劳工运动。在他的领导下，美国劳工联合会避免了激进的政治纲领，把精力集中在诸如工资和工作条件等所谓“面包与黄油”一类问题上。雇主们对劳动工会极其怨恨，并寻求立法机构的禁制 令，企图达到破坏罢工、破坏工人联合抵制的目的。爲了摆脱雇主们试图强加给劳工的激进形象，爲了说明工人所要求的也是其它人所要求的──更好的生活、合理的工资、良好的工作条件及自我提高的时间，冈珀斯不懈地进行斗争。本文系冈珀斯于1890年5月1日在肯塔基州的路易斯维尔爲建立八小时工作制度进行活动时发表的演讲。

……朋友们，我们今天在这里集会，爲实行八小时工作日制度的要求吶喊。在国内，这一要求已促使路易斯维尔和新奥尔巴尼成千上万的工人们上街游行，激励了芝加哥的工人一批又一批地行动起来，激发了纽约工薪劳动大军的热忱，并使他们意识到这个问题的重要性。在国际上，这一要求鼓舞了英国、爱尔兰、德国、法国、意大利、西班牙和澳大利亚的劳动者，他们不顾世界上专制君主的禁令，宣布在1890年5月1日，全世界的工人将举行罢工，声援美国工人的斗争，要求实行八小时工作日制度，让工人有八小时睡眠、八小时自由支配的时间。[掌声]

有人一再指责说，要是我们有更多的闲暇时间，我们只会狂饮暴食，养成恶习，也就是说，我们会喝得烂醉。我想用下面的话来回敬这种指责：一般来说，社会上喝醉酒的人有两种：一种是钱太多游手好闲的人；另一种是失业无活可干的人，后一种人表面上看起来醉了。[笑声]我认爲在我们的社会中，最清醒的是这一阶层的人：他们能够靠一天合理的劳动时数争取合理的工资而又不过份劳累。每天劳动了十二、十四甚至十六小时的人需要一些人爲的刺激来使他们的身体从一天的疲劳中得到恢复。[掌声]……

我们应该能够在更高的水平上来讨论这个问题，我很高兴地说，我们所从事的运动将促使我们朝这一方向前进。他们对我们说无法实行八小时工作日制度，原因是这将妨碍工商业的发展。我认爲我国在工商业方面的历史所表明的事实恰恰与此相反，这个问题不是经济问题而是社会问题，我们应该把它作爲社会问题来讨论。要是他们把这个问题说成是经济问题，我愿意和他们辩论，如果这运动意味着使工商业停滞不前，我愿意回顾我爲推动这一运动的发展所采取的每一个步骤。可是，事情不是这样，八小时工作日运动将使工商业更加繁荣，使民族更加进步，使人民更加先进、聪明、高尚……” 

他们说他们担负不了减少工作时数所造成的损失。事情真是这样吗?让我们稍稍想一想，假如减少工作时数会导致工商业的衰退，那么很自然地可以由此得出结论，增加工作时数能促进工商业的繁荣。假如事情确实如此，那么在文明的排行榜上，英国和美国应该是最后一名……

在日工作时数爲八、九或十小时的英国和美国，雇主和工人们工作效率更高，更富有成果，这难道不是事实吗?难道我们没有发现他们的産品售价更低吗?我们用不着让现代的说教家来告诉我们这些事情。在所有劳动时间长的工业中，人们会发现那里工人的发明创造力发挥得最差。哪里的劳动时间长，哪里的劳动力就便宜；哪里的劳动力价廉，哪里就不存在发明创造的必要性。我们怎能期望一个人在每天劳动十、十二或十四小时之后还有精力发明机器或发现新规律或动力?他要是有幸拿起报纸阅读、也许连两三行都看不完就要睡着了。[笑声]

当劳动时数减少时，比如说每天减少一小时，想一想这意味着什么。如果让原来每天工作十小时的人把日工作时数减少到九小时，或者让原来每天工作九小时的人把日工作时数减少到八小时，这意味着什 么呢?这意味着无数绝好的时刻与机会让人们思考。有的人也许会说，你们会去睡大觉。好吧，有的人也许一天能睡十六个小时，一般的人可以试试看，他会发现无法长期这样做，他总得做些事情。晚上，他也许会去看看戏，听听音乐会，但是他也无法每天晚上都这样做。他也许会对某一方面的研究産生兴趣，那里他就会把减少体力劳动的时间花在脑力劳动上，他一小时脑力劳动所创造的财富将大大超过他十二个小时体力劳动所创造的财富。[掌声]

在日工作时间较短的制度下，人们不仅有机会自我提高，而且有可能爲他们的雇主带来更大的成功，我认爲这是千真万确的。朋友们，……西班牙、印度、俄国、意大利的情形又是如何呢?放眼看看世界，观察一下迫使大自然爲人类生産必需品的工业，你们将会发现，哪里的工作时间最短，哪里的机器发明创造就发展得最快，人民的生活就最富裕。雇用廉价劳力是发展的最大阻碍，哪里的劳力便宜，哪里的发展就迟缓。正是由于我们伟大的劳工联合会的影响，我们富有理智的会员们才能够往前，往高处继续前进，我们的进步与改革运动正爲世人所密切关注。

日工作时间长的人，除了维持最低的生活水平以便能继续劳动外没有别的需求。他睡觉梦见干活，早上起床去上班，带着节俭的午餐去干活，回到家又躺在那勉强拼起的床上稍稍休息，以便能再去上班干活。他只不过是一台名副其实的机器，他活着是爲了干活，而不是干活爲了生活。[热烈的掌声]

朋友们，除了生活必需品外，劳动人民需要的唯一的东西是时间。我们的生命随着时间开始亦随之结束。我们需要用于陶冶自身情操的时间，需要用于使我们的家庭充满欢乐的时间。时间把我们从最低级的原始社会带到最先进的文明社会，我们需要时间来把我们推向更高级的社会。

朋友们，你们将会发现这一事实：已查明，我们有一百多万的兄弟姐妹──身强力壮的男女──流落在街头、大路和偏僻的乡村小路旁，他们愿意工作却找不到活干。大家知道，我们政府的理论是我们可以随心所欲地决定要就业或要辞职，这只是理论而已，不是事实。我们确实可以辞职，如果我们要这么做，可是，只要还有一百万失业的男女流落在街头寻找工作，我就不认爲我们想就业就可以找到工作。可以随意就业或辞职的说法是骗局、圈套，是个弥天大谎。

我们要考虑的有：第一，使我们的职业更有保障；第二，使工资更加固定；第三，爲穷人们提供就业的机会。劳动者一直被当作生産物品的机器……而在劳动这一现象后面还有人的灵魂、真正的目的和抱负。你们不能像政治经济学家和大学教授那样把劳动说成是可以买卖的商品。我们是继承了我们伟大先辈的传统的美国公民，我们的先辈爲了事业牺牲了除荣誉之外的一切东西。我们的敌人希望看到劳工运动夭折，到寒冷的阴 间去见阎王爷，他们希望在天气稍微暖和一些时看到这。[笑声]可是，我要对大家说，劳工运动已经扎下根不走了。[热烈的掌声]像《麦克白》中班柯的鬼魂一样，劳工运动永不消逝。[掌声]劳工运动是既成的事实，它由于人们的需要而産生，虽然有些人希望它失败，可是它依然在人们心中牢牢地扎下了根。我们将继续努力直至取得胜利。

我们要求完全实行八小时工作日制度。有人谴责我们自私，说我们会得寸进尺提出更多的要求，说我们去年日薪提高了十美分，现在又要求更多－些。我们确实要求更多一些。人的欲望通常是无止境的。去问问流浪汉要些什么，假如他不要饮料，他会要一顿丰盛的饭菜；问一天挣两美元的工人要什么，他会要求把日薪提高十美分；要是问一天挣五美元的人，他会要求每天增加十五美分；要是问年薪爲五千美元的人，他会要求将年薪增加到六千美元；而拥有八十万或九十万美元的人会想再要十万美元凑成一百万；而百万富翁还想拥有每一样能弄到手的东西，然后提高嗓门，反对想每天多挣十美分的穷光蛋。我们生活在财富成百倍地增长的电力和蒸汽的时代，我们认爲这些财富是劳动者的聪明才智和辛勤劳动的结晶，而当我们感到生産比以往更容易时，却发现生活越来越艰难。我们确实要求更多，而且当我们得到更多后，我们还要进一步要求更多。[掌声]在我们得到我们应得的劳动成果之前，我们决不会停止要求更多一些……

. . . My friends, we have met here today to celebrate the idea that has prompted thousands of working-people of Louisville and New Albany to parade the streets of [our city] that prompts the toilers of Chicago to turn out by their fifty or hundred thousand of men; that prompts the vast army of wage-workers in New York to demonstrate their enthusiasm and appreciation of the importance of this idea; that prompts the toilers of England, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Austria to defy the manifestos of the autocrats of the world and say that on May the first, 1890, the wage-workers of the world will lay down their tools in sympathy with the wage-workers of America, to establish a principle of limitations of hours of labor to eight hours for sleep [applause], eight hours for work, and eight hours for what we will.

[Applause. ]

    It has been charged time and again that were we to have more hours of leisure we would merely devote it to debauchery, to the cultivation of vicious habits－in other words, that we would get drunk. I desire to say this in answer to that charge: As a rule, there are two classes in society who get drunk. One is the class who has no work to do in consequence of too much money; the other class, who also has no work to do, because it can't get any, and gets drunk on its face. [Laughter.] I maintain that that class in our social life that exhibits the greatest degree of sobriety is that class who are able, by a fair number of hours of day's work to earn fair wages－not overworked. The man who works twelve, fourteen, and sixteen hours a day requires some artificial stimulant to restore the life ground out of him in the drudgery of the day. [Applause.]...

    We ought to be able to discuss this question on a higher ground, and I am pleased to say that the movement in which we are engaged will stimulate us to it. They tell us that the eight hour movement can not be enforced, for the reason that it must check industrial and commercial progress. I say that the history of this country, in its industrial and commercial relations, shows the reverse. I say that is the plane on which this question ought to be discussed－that is the social question. As long as they make this question an economic one, I am willing to discuss it with them. I would retrace every step I have taken to advance this movement did it mean industrial and commercial stagnation. But it does not mean that. It means greater prosperity; it means a greater degree of progress for the whole people; it means more advancement and intelligence, and a nobler race of people. . . .

    They say they can't afford it. Is that true? Let us see for one moment. If a reduction in the hours of labor causes industrial and commercial ruination, it would naturally follow increased hours of labor -would increase the prosperity, commercial and industrial. If that -were true, England and America ought to be at the tail end, and China at the head of civilization. [Applause. ]

    Is it not a fact that we find laborers in England and the United States, where the hours are eight, nine and ten hours a day－do we not find that the employers and laborers are more successful? Don't -we find them selling articles cheaper? We do not need to trust the modern moralist to tell us those things. In all industries where the hours of labor are long, there you will find the least development of the power of invention. Where the hours of labor are long, men are cheap, and where men are cheap there is no necessity for invention. How can you expect a man to work ten or twelve or fourteen hours at his calling and then devote any time to the invention of a machine or discovery of a new principle or force? If he be so fortunate as to be able to read a paper he will fall asleep before he has read through the second or third line. [Laughter.]

    Why, when you reduce the hours of labor, say an hour a day, just think what it means. Suppose men who work ten hours a day had the time lessened to nine, or men who work nine hours a day have it reduced to eight hours; what does it mean? It means millions of golden hours and opportunities for thought. Some men might say you will go to sleep. Well, some men might sleep sixteen hours a day; the ordinary man might try that, but he would soon find he could not do it long. He would have to do something. He would probably go to the theater one night, to a concert another night, but he could not do that every night. He would probably become interested in some study and the hours that have been taken from manual labor are devoted to mental labor, and the mental labor of one hour will produce for him more wealth than the physical labor of a dozen hours. [Applause.]

    I maintain that this is a true proposition－that men under the short-hour system not only have opportunity to improve themselves, but to make a greater degree of prosperity for their employers. Why, my friends, how is it in China, how is it in Spain, how is it in India and Russia, how is it in Italy? Cast your eye throughout the universe and observe the industry that forces nature to yield up its fruits to man's necessities, and you will find that where the hours of labor are the shortest the progress of invention in machinery and the prosperity of the people are the greatest. It is the greatest impediment to progress to hire men cheaply. Wherever men are cheap, there you find the least degree of progress. It has only been under the great influence of our great republic, where our people have exhibited their great senses, that we can move forward, upward and onward, and are watched with interest in our movements of progress and reform....

    The man who works the long hours has no necessities except the barest to keep body and soul together, so he can work. He goes to sleep and dreams of work; he rises in the morning to go to work; he takes his frugal lunch to work; he comes home again to throw himself down on a miserable apology for a bed so that he can get that little rest that he may be able to go to work again. He is nothing but a veritable machine. He lives to work instead of working to live. [Loud applause. ]

    My friends, the only thing the working people need besides the necessities of life, is time. Time. Time with which our lives begin; time with which our lives close; time to cultivate the better nature within us; time to brighten our homes. Time, which brings us from the lowest condition up to the highest civilization; time, so that we can raise men to a higher plane.

    My friends, you will find that it has been ascertained that there is more than a million of our brothers and sisters－able-bodied men and women－on the streets, and on the highways and byways of our country willing to work but who cannot find it. You know that it is the theory of our government that we can work or cease to work at will. It is only a theory. You know that it is only a theory and not a fact. It is true that we can cease to work when we want to, but I deny that we can work when we will, so long as there are a million idle men and women tramping the streets of our cities, searching for work. The theory that we can work or cease to work when we will is a delusion and a snare. It is a lie.

    What we want to consider is, first, to make our employment more secure, and, secondly, to make wages more permanent, and, thirdly, to give these poor people a chance to work. The laborer has been regarded as a mere producing machine . . . but back of labor is the soul of man and honesty of purpose and aspiration. Now you can not, as the political economists and college professors, say that labor is a commodity to be bought and sold. I say we are American citizens with the heritage of all the great men who have stood before us; men who have sacrificed all in the cause except honor. Our enemies would like to see this movement thrust into hades, they would like to see it in a warmer climate [laughter], but I say to you that this labor movement has come to stay. [Loud applause.] Like Banquo's ghost, it will not down. [Applause.] I say the labor movement is a fixed fact. It has grown out of the necessities of the people, and, although some may desire to see it fail, still the labor movement will be found to have a strong lodgment in the hearts of the people, and we will go on until success has been achieved.

    We want eight hours and nothing less. We have been accused of being selfish, and it has been said that we will want more; that last year we got an advance of ten cents and now we want more. We do want more. You will find that a man generally wants more. Go and ask a tramp what he wants, and if he doesn't want a drink he will want a good, square meal. You ask a workingman, who is getting two dollars a day, and he will say that he wants ten cents more. Ask a man who gets five dollars a day and he will want fifty cents more. The man who receives five thousand dollars a year wants six thousand dollars a year, and the man who owns eight or nine hundred thousand dollars will want a hundred thousand dollars more to make it a million, while the man who has his millions will want every thing he can lay his hands on and then raise his voice against the poor devil who wants ten cents more a day. We live in the latter part of the Nineteenth century. In the age of electricity and steam that has produced wealth a hundred fold, we insist that it has been brought about by the intelligence and energy of the workingmen, and while we find that it is now easier to produce it is harder to live. We do want more, and when it becomes more, we shall still want more. [Applause.] And we shall never cease to demand more until we have received the results of our labor. ...