塞繆爾‧岡珀斯
(SAMUEL GOMPERS)

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

我們要求完全實行八小時工作日制度。有人譴責我們自私，說我們會得寸進尺提出更多的要求，說我們去年日薪提高了十美分，現在又要求更多一些。我們確實要求更多一些。

塞繆爾‧岡珀斯(1850一1924)出生於倫敦，1863年移居紐約，在那兒他繼承了父親的職業，當了捲煙工人。作為捲煙行業工會的領導人，他帶領該工會退出了工業工會勞動騎士團，建立了行業工會聯盟──美國勞工聯合會。1886至1924年間，僅其中一年除外，岡珀斯一直擔任美國勞工聯合會的主席。這一時期公眾對工會懷有敵意，懷疑工會激進，他就在這種情況下領導勞工運動。在他的領導下，美國勞工聯合會避免了激進的政治綱領，把精力集中在諸如工資和工作條件等所謂「麵包與黃油」一類問題上。僱主們對勞動工會極其怨恨，並尋求立法機構的禁制 令，企圖達到破壞罷工、破壞工人聯合抵制的目的。為了擺脫僱主們試圖強加給勞工的激進形象，為了說明工人所要求的也是其他人所要求的──更好的生活、合理的工資、良好的工作條件及自我提高的時間，岡珀斯不懈地進行鬥爭。本文系岡珀斯於1890年5月1日在肯塔基州的路易斯維爾為建立八小時工作制度進行活動時發表的演講。

……朋友們，我們今天在這裏集會，為實行八小時工作日制度的要求吶喊。在國內，這一要求已促使路易斯維爾和新奧爾巴尼成千上萬的工人們上街遊行，激勵了芝加哥的工人一批又一批地行動起來，激發了紐約工薪勞動大軍的熱忱，並使他們意識到這個問題的重要性。在國際上，這一要求鼓舞了英國、愛爾蘭、德國、法國、義大利、西班牙和澳大利亞的勞動者，他們不顧世界上專制君主的禁令，宣佈在1890年5月1日，全世界的工人將舉行罷工，聲援美國工人的鬥爭，要求實行八小時工作日制度，讓工人有八小時睡眠、八小時自由支配的時間。[掌聲]

有人一再指責說，要是我們有更多的閒暇時間，我們只會狂飲暴食，養成惡習，也就是說，我們會喝得爛醉。我想用下面的話來回敬這種指責：一般來說，社會上喝醉酒的人有兩種：一種是錢太多遊手好閒的人；另一種是失業無活可幹的人，後一種人表面上看起來醉了。[笑聲]我認為在我們的社會中，最清醒的是這一階層的人：他們能夠靠一天合理的勞動時數爭取合理的工資而又不過份勞累。每天勞動了十二、十四甚至十六小時的人需要一些人為的刺激來使他們的身體從一天的疲勞中得到恢復。[掌聲]……

我們應該能夠在更高的水平上來討論這個問題，我很高興地說，我們所從事的運動將促使我們朝這一方向前進。他們對我們說無法實行八小時工作日制度，原因是這將妨礙工商業的發展。我認為我國在工商業方面的歷史所表明的事實恰恰與此相反，這個問題不是經濟問題而是社會問題，我們應該把它作為社會問題來討論。要是他們把這個問題說成是經濟問題，我願意和他們辯論，如果這運動意味著使工商業停滯不前，我願意回顧我為推動這一運動的發展所採取的每一個步驟。可是，事情不是這樣，八小時工作日運動將使工商業更加繁榮，使民族更加進步，使人民更加先進、聰明、高尚……」 

他們說他們擔負不了減少工作時數所造成的損失。事情真是這樣嗎?讓我們稍稍想一想，假如減少工作時數會導致工商業的衰退，那麼很自然地可以由此得出結論，增加工作時數能促進工商業的繁榮。假如事情確實如此，那麼在文明的排行榜上，英國和美國應該是最後一名……

在日工作時數為八、九或十小時的英國和美國，僱主和工人們工作效率更高，更富有成果，這難道不是事實嗎?難道我們沒有發現他們的產品售價更低嗎?我們用不著讓現代的說教家來告訴我們這些事情。在所有勞動時間長的工業中，人們會發現那裏工人的發明創造力發揮得最差。哪裡的勞動時間長，哪裡的勞動力就便宜；哪裡的勞動力價廉，哪裡就不存在發明創造的必要性。我們怎能期望一個人在每天勞動十、十二或十四小時之後還有精力發明機器或發現新規律或動力?他要是有幸拿起報紙閱讀、也許連兩三行都看不完就要睡著了。[笑聲]

當勞動時數減少時，比如說每天減少一小時，想一想這意味著什麼。如果讓原來每天工作十小時的人把日工作時數減少到九小時，或者讓原來每天工作九小時的人把日工作時數減少到八小時，這意味著什 麼呢?這意味著無數絕好的時刻與機會讓人們思考。有的人也許會說，你們會去睡大覺。好吧，有的人也許一天能睡十六個小時，一般的人可以試試看，他會發現無法長期這樣做，他總得做些事情。晚上，他也許會去看看戲，聽聽音樂會，但是他也無法每天晚上都這樣做。他也許會對某一方面的研究產生興趣，那裡他就會把減少體力勞動的時間花在腦力勞動上，他一小時腦力勞動所創造的財富將大大超過他十二個小時體力勞動所創造的財富。[掌聲]

在日工作時間較短的制度下，人們不僅有機會自我提高，而且有可能為他們的僱主帶來更大的成功，我認為這是千真萬確的。朋友們，……西班牙、印度、俄國、義大利的情形又是如何呢?放眼看看世界，觀察一下迫使大自然為人類生產必需品的工業，你們將會發現，哪裡的工作時間最短，哪裡的機器發明創造就發展得最快，人民的生活就最富裕。僱用廉價勞力是發展的最大阻礙，哪裡的勞力便宜，哪裡的發展就遲緩。正是由於我們偉大的勞工聯合會的影響，我們富有理智的會員們才能夠往前，往高處繼續前進，我們的進步與改革運動正為世人所密切關注。

日工作時間長的人，除了維持最低的生活水平以便能繼續勞動外沒有別的需求。他睡覺夢見幹活，早上起床去上班，帶著節儉的午餐去幹活，回到家又躺在那勉強拼起的床上稍稍休息，以便能再去上班幹活。他只不過是一台名副其實的機器，他活著是為了幹活，而不是幹活為了生活。[熱烈的掌聲]

朋友們，除了生活必需品外，勞動人民需要的唯一的東西是時間。我們的生命隨著時間開始亦隨之結束。我們需要用於陶冶自身情操的時間，需要用於使我們的家庭充滿歡樂的時間。時間把我們從最低級的原始社會帶到最先進的文明社會，我們需要時間來把我們推向更高級的社會。

朋友們，你們將會發現這一事實：已查明，我們有一百多萬的兄弟姐妹──身強力壯的男女──流落在街頭、大路和偏僻的鄉村小路旁，他們願意工作卻找不到活幹。大家知道，我們政府的理論是我們可以隨心所欲地決定要就業或要辭職，這只是理論而已，不是事實。我們確實可以辭職，如果我們要這麼做，可是，只要還有一百萬失業的男女流落在街頭尋找工作，我就不認為我們想就業就可以找到工作。可以隨意就業或辭職的說法是騙局、圈套，是個彌天大謊。

我們要考慮的有：第一，使我們的職業更有保障；第二，使工資更加固定；第三，為窮人們提供就業的機會。勞動者一直被當作生產物品的機器……而在勞動這一現象後面還有人的靈魂、真正的目的和抱負。你們不能像政治經濟學家和大學教授那樣把勞動說成是可以買賣的商品。我們是繼承了我們偉大先輩的傳統的美國公民，我們的先輩為了事業犧牲了除榮譽之外的一切東西。我們的敵人希望看到勞工運動夭折，到寒冷的陰 間去見閻王爺，他們希望在天氣稍微暖和一些時看到這。[笑聲]可是，我要對大家說，勞工運動已經紮下根不走了。[熱烈的掌聲]像《馬克白》中班柯的鬼魂一樣，勞工運動永不消逝。[掌聲]勞工運動是既成的事實，它由於人們的需要而產生，雖然有些人希望它失敗，可是它依然在人們心中牢牢地紮下了根。我們將繼續努力直至取得勝利。

我們要求完全實行八小時工作日制度。有人譴責我們自私，說我們會得寸進尺提出更多的要求，說我們去年日薪提高了十美分，現在又要求更多－些。我們確實要求更多一些。人的慾望通常是無止境的。去問問流浪漢要些什麼，假如他不要飲料，他會要一頓豐盛的飯菜；問一天掙兩美元的工人要什麼，他會要求把日薪提高十美分；要是問一天掙五美元的人，他會要求每天增加十五美分；要是問年薪為五千美元的人，他會要求將年薪增加到六千美元；而擁有八十萬或九十萬美元的人會想再要十萬美元湊成一百萬；而百萬富翁還想擁有每一樣能弄到手的東西，然後提高嗓門，反對想每天多掙十美分的窮光蛋。我們生活在財富成百倍地增長的電力和蒸汽的時代，我們認為這些財富是勞動者的聰明才智和辛勤勞動的結晶，而當我們感到生產比以往更容易時，卻發現生活越來越艱難。我們確實要求更多，而且當我們得到更多後，我們還要進一步要求更多。[掌聲]在我們得到我們應得的勞動成果之前，我們決不會停止要求更多一些……

. . . 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. ...