INTRODUCTION.1

Probably the earliest official act concerning the limitation of the hours of labor of workmen in the Federal service was an order of President Van Buren, issued March 31, 1840, which directed the observance of a 10-hour day on public works for all classes of workmen. The order reads as follows:

"The President of the United States, finding that different rules prevail at different places as well in respect to the hours of labor by persons employed on the public works under the immediate authority of himself and the departments as also in relation to the different classes of workmen, and believing that much inconvenience and dissatisfaction would be removed by adopting a uniform course, hereby directs that all such persons, whether laborers or mechanics, be required to work only the number of hours prescribed by the tenhour system."-(Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. III, p. 602.)

At this time 11 and 12 hours per day were common for laborers and mechanics in private employment.

One of the earliest enactments of Congress on this subject was the law of December 21, 1861 (12 Stat. at Large, p. 330), which provided: That the hours of labor in the navy yards of the United States shall be the same as in the private shipyards at or nearest to the post where such navy yard is established, and the wages to be paid to all employees in such yards shall be, as near as may be, the average price paid to employees of the same grade in private shipyards or workshops in or nearest to the same vicinity, to be determined by the commandant of the navy yard.

This act was amended on July 16, 1862, so as to provide that the wages and hours of labor of employees in the navy yards of the United States should conform, as nearly as might be consistent with the public interests, with those of private establishments of a similar nature. (12 Stat. at Large, p. 587.)

The agitation for an eight-hour day for wageworkers in the Federal service began about the year 1865. During the first session of the Thirty-ninth Congress (1865-66) several bills and resolutions

1 The historical portion of this introduction has been reprinted from an article entitled Federal Limitation of Hours of Labor on Public Works," in the Monthly Review of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for October, 1916.

were introduced in the House and Senate making provision for an eight-hour day for laborers and mechanics employed by or in behalf of the Government of the United States. These measures caused considerable discussion in both Houses of Congress but failed to be enacted into law. The next Congress, however, took up the matter early in its session by the introduction of a bill for an eight-hour day (H. R. 103, 40th Cong.) on March 28, 1867, which was enacted into law June 25, 1868, and provides as follows:

Eight hours shall constitute a day's work for all laborers, workmen, and mechanics who may be employed by or on behalf of the Government of the United States.-(U. S. Compiled Statutes, 1901, sec. 3738.)

At this time persons in private employment commonly worked about 10 hours per day, so that this was a step forward by the Federal Government in the reduction of the hours of labor. This act, however, was largely misunderstood or disregarded by the Government officials in charge of the employment of mechanics and laborers. It gave rise to many controversies and complaints, and frequent calls were made upon the Attorney General for interpretation.

The first opinion rendered by the Attorney General on this subject was in regard to the reduction of wages of laborers and mechanics made by officials to correspond with the reduction in hours of labor. In this opinion Mr. Wm. M. Evarts, Attorney General, held on November 25, 1868 (12 Op. A. G., 530), that the act does not absolutely require that employees of the Government must receive as high wages for their eight hours' labor as similar industry in private employment receives for a day's labor of 10 or 12 hours, but it simply requires that the same worth of labor shall be compensated in the public employment at the same rate of wages that it receives in private employment.

This construction of the law resulted in a continuance of the practice of paying reduced wages on account of the reduced hours of labor. On May 19, 1869, however, President Grant issued a proclamation directing "That, from and after this date, no reduction shall be made in the wages paid by the Government by the day to such laborers, workmen, and mechanics on account of such reduction of the hours of labor. (16 Stat. at Large, p. 1127.)

Notwithstanding this proclamation of the President, the practice seems to have continued, for on May 11, 1872, the President issued another proclamation, which recited the proclamation of May 19, 1869, and contained the following:

And whereas it is now represented to me that the act of Congress and the proclamation aforesaid have not been strictly observed by all officials of the Government having charge of such laborers, workmen, and mechanics; now, therefore, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States, do hereby again call attention to the act of Congress aforesaid, and direct all officers of the

executive department of the Government having charge of the employment of laborers, workmen, or mechanics employed by or on behalf of the Government of the United States to make no reduction in the wages paid by the Government by the day to such laborers, workmen, and mechanics on account of the reduction of the hours of labor. (17 Stat. at Large, p. 955.)

On May 18, 1872, an act was approved making an appropriation to pay to laborers and mechanics the amount of reduction of wages that they had suffered on account of the above interpretation. The law provided as follows:

SECTION 2. That the proper accounting officers be, and hereby are, authorized and required, in the settlement of all accounts for the services of laborers, workmen, and mechanics employed by or on behalf of the Government of the United States between the twenty-fifth day of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, the date of the act constituting eight hours a day's work for all such laborers, workmen, and mechanics, and the nineteenth day of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, the date of the proclamation of the President concerning such pay, to settle and pay for the same, without reduction on account of reduction of hours of labor by said act, when it shall be made to appear that such was the sole cause of the reduction of wages, and a sufficient sum for said purpose is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. (17 Stat. at Large, p. 134.)

In 1876 an opinion was rendered by the Supreme Court of the United States (U. S. v. Martin, 94 U. S., 400), which declared that the eight-hour law of 1868 is chiefly in the nature of a direction by the Government to its agents, and is not a contract between the Government and its laborers that eight hours shall constitute a day's work, and that it does not prevent the making of agreements by which a greater or less number of hours of labor may be required, and any claim for the excess of time over eight hours per day is, when accepted by the laborer, a bar to any further proceedings. Another more recent decision (United States District Court for the District of Kentucky, 1897, Coleman v. United States, 81 Fed., 824) declared that no action lies to recover for labor in excess of eight hours where monthly pay was received without protest.

During several years that followed, frequent attempts were made in Congress to secure such legislation as would compel a limitation of the working hours of laborers and mechanics in the Government service to eight per day. Among these successful attempts were first, a joint resolution (H. J. Res. 9, 46th Cong.) which declared that, according to the true intent of the act of Congress, of June 25, 1868, eight hours constitute a day's work for all laborers, workmen, and mechanics, that while the act remains upon the statute book no reduction should be made in the wages paid by the Government, by the day, to such laborers, workmen, and mechanics on account of the reduction of the hours of labor and that all heads of departments, officers, and agents of the Government should enforce the law as long