- 106. What were these schemes?
- Owenism, which had a revival following 1837. It assumed forms differing somewhat from Robert Owens colony, established at Harmony, Ind., in 1826. The most prominent of its intellectual leaders in the revival were: Emerson, Channing, Brownson, Brisbane, Greeley, Weitling. There were many others, but to these belongs the distinction of greatest prominence.
- 107. What was the nature of their schemes?
- Principally co-operative undertakings, but they were not in accord with one another.
- 108. What were the real wage workers doing?
- In 1844 a delegate convention attended by delegations from several states inaugurated the New England Working Men's Association. At its second convention the co-operative associationists dominated. Robert Owen (England), Wm. H. Channing, and Horace Greeley were among the speakers. Another convention was held in the fall of 1845. This convention endorsed co-operative enterprises, and political action. The 1846 convention changed the name to the Labor Reform League of New England. After the 1847 convention this organization disintegrated, the co-operators going into the New England Protective Union, and the others taking part in the Industrial Congresses.
- 109. Did the organization effect anything?
- As an evidence of the working class ambition to achieve the 10 hour day, which was its principal feature, it undoubtedly impressed the employers and the workers. As soon as one ten-hour organization was disposed of, another took its place. We find New Hampshire passing the first ten-hour law in 1847, with qualifications. Pennsylvania followed with a restricted ten-hour law in 1848; Maine in 1848; but agriculture was not included; Ohio in 1852; Rhode Island in 1851, a qualified ten-hour law; California 1851. Georgia passed a law in 1853 making the legal day "from sunrise to sunset for all white persons under the age of twenty-one years".
- 110. What is meant by "A Qualified Ten-Hour Day Law?"
- Longer hours were permitted where contracts were entered into for more than ten hours per day. If a worker signed a contract to work eleven, twelve, or
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