Idaho History: How many hours should it take to make a living?

My English grandmother, born in 1869, was fond of saying, "Man may work from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done."

She undoubtedly had heard it from her own mother. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations calls it "traditional, origin unknown." Men did work from "sun to sun" in the 19th century if they were farmers like my great-grandfather, or Yorkshire miners like my wife's great-grandfather. Thinking of them made me think of 19th century Idaho and how long people had to work to make a living here.

The pages of the Idaho Statesman over the years give us glimpses of working conditions and the hours people worked. From Dec. 3, 1881: "Short Hours. - Nearly all the merchants in the city have agreed to reduce the hours of work after January 1, at which time stores will be closed at 8:30 p.m. A store clerk, as a rule, works more hours per day than a man engaged in almost any other business, and this reduction to thirteen hours work will be highly appreciated by the 'hoppers.' "

Stores were closed on Sunday, but open all day Saturday, meaning that even with this reduction in hours clerks worked 78 hours per week.

By 1887, Boise merchants had reached an agreement to close at 8 p.m., but in June the Statesman reported that several merchants had broken the contract and were staying open longer, thereby making their clerks work longer.

Today, we think of a 40-hour work week as the norm, but it was not until Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938 that that became the case.

The law established time-and-a-half pay for hours worked above 40, set a minimum wage, placed restrictions on child labor, and made pay discrimination against women illegal. The act has been amended several times since 1938, but is still the law we live with, even though women continue to be paid less than men for some kinds of work.

In Idaho in the 19th century, women school teachers were paid half as much as men teachers, so we have made progress since then, with the help of labor unions and collective bargaining.

The Knights of Labor, a fraternal organization founded in Philadelphia in 1869 by members of a local trade union, pioneered the effort to bring about reforms that would become part of the 1938 law. There were soon chapters of the Knights across the country as well as in Idaho.

Like other lodges, members and their wives enjoyed social occasions. On Dec. 4, 1889, the Statesman reported that the Knights of Labor at Glenns Ferry had given "a grand ball" on Thanksgiving Eve, and that they would give a masquerade ball on New Year's Eve. Glenns Ferry was a railroad town in 1889, with repair shops and a round house. It was the point on the Oregon Short Line where helper locomotives were added to westbound trains for the climb up the Medbury grade.

By the 1890s many Idaho trades had formed unions. Boise's Carpenters and Joiners Union held its first annual ball on St. Patrick's Day in 1892. In June "The union plumbers of Boise, who on Monday last struck for $4.50 for eight hours work, are still out, their employers refusing to accede to their demands."

In 1893, Boise had an active printers union, with a reading room and meeting place in the Sonna Building. It was the decade when miners' unions were organized to work for shorter hours, better pay and protection against arbitrary shut-downs that threw men out of work.

The refusal of absentee owners to even recognize miners unions led to violence in the Coeur d'Alenes in 1892 and again in 1899. A miners union with 140 members was formed at Delamar in April, 1896. Members went on strike in May, seeking a pay raise of 50 cents a day. The officers of the company in London sent word to their manager to offer them 25 cents, which they rejected. The men were being paid $3 per day and charged $36 a month by the company for room and board and hospital fees.

The union did get the 50-cent raise, making its members' pay equal to what miners in Silver City were getting. They made one more demand before going back to work, however - a written contract that men who had participated in the strike not be fired. The eight-hour day for Silver City miners was not achieved until May 1903, when their union ratified an agreement with the Trade Dollar Co.

Other trade unions formed in Boise at the beginning of the 20th century included streetcar employees, bootblacks, stone cutters, electrical workers, and hotel and restaurant workers. Appropriately, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers strung red lights along Main Street when it held its first annual ball on Lincoln's Birthday in 1904. The Statesman remarked on the "novel electrical decorations" at the dance hall.

Arthur Hart writes this column on Idaho history for the Idaho Statesman. It appears each Tuesday in the Life section. Reach him by e-mail at life@idahostatesman.com.