and Blacksmiths' Union. Writing as a workingman for workingmen,
Steward found in the standard of living the true reason for a
shorter workday. With beautiful simplicity he pointed out to the
laboring man that the shorter period of labor would not mean
smaller pay, and to the employer that it would not mean a
diminished output. On the contrary, it would be mutually
beneficial, for the unwearied workman could produce as much in
the shorter day as the wearied workman in the longer. "As long,"
Steward wrote, "as tired human hands do most of the world's hard
work, the sentimental pretense of honoring and respecting the
horny-handed toiler is as false and absurd as the idea that a
solid foundation for a house can be made out of soap bubbles."

In 1865 Steward's pamphlet, "A Reduction of Hours and Increase of
Wages," was widely circulated by the Boston Labor Reform
Association. It emphasized the value of leisure and its
beneficial reflex effect upon both production and consumption.
Gradually these well reasoned and conservatively expressed
doctrines found champions such as Wendell Phillips, Henry Ward
Beecher, and Horace Greeley to give them wider publicity and to
impress them upon the public consciousness. In 1867 Illinois,
Missouri, and New York passed eight-hour laws and Wisconsin
declared eight hours a day's work for women and children. In 1868
Congress established an eight-hour day for public work. These
were promising signs, though the battle was still far from being
won. The eight-hour day has at last received "the sanction of
society"--to use the words of President Wilson in his message to
Congress in 1916, when he called for action to avert a great
railway strike. But to win that sanction required over half a
century of popular agitation, discussion, and economic and