The twelve-hour day was the norm in the agricultural economy of the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century. It was felt that keeping people at work for that many hours prevented them from getting into trouble. It also meant employers had to hire fewer workers.

For the workers it was a hardship to work twelve-horn days. They had fewer hours to care for their families. Their health was impacted by the heavy labor. There was little or no time for relaxation. In addition, the wages were meager and seldom provided enough money to properly feed, clothe and house a couple and their children. Often the wife and children also had to work.

In the 1870s and 1880s the Sandburg family was caught in the same predicament. August Sandburg accepted the employment situation with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company as it existed. He was not interested in going out on strike for fewer hours of work. But young Carl was all for the workers to have eight hours for work, eight hours for rest and eight hours for relaxation. His mother told him to keep his thoughts to himself and not to upset his father.

Robert Owen coined the phrase “The Eight Hour Day” in 1817 in England. In the United States the first call for an eight-hour day occurred in 1836. By the 1870s it had become a central demand of workers who had joined together to force the issue. If employers decreased factory hours, they usually made an equal reduction in wages. The workers hadn't gained much under those circumstances.

On May 4, 1886, the Haymarket Square bombing in Chicago created a sensation. There followed other strikes and the calling out of state or federal, troops to stop them. Millions of dollars of damage to company equipment and facilities resulted. A number of lives were lost. It was a time of great upheaval and bad feeling across the country.

In 1898 the United Mine Workers won a contract for an 8-hour day. Theodore Roosevelt campaigned on a platform including the 8-hour day in 1912. The Ford Motor Company began paying assembly workers $5 a day in 1914. The hours were from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. with two hours off for eating meals.

The Adamson Act of 1916 required, an 8-hour day with additional pay for work beyond that for railroad workers. It was the first time the federal government began to regulate the work day of private companies.

Today, surveys show the average workday of all workers in the United States is 8.8 hours per day. It was a very long struggle for workers to achieve recognition of their unions. By 1945 a third of the American workforce was unionized. Today, it is just over ten percent.

Today many people don't know the history of the labor movement. They don't know about the struggle for economic justice or the negotiating power of unions. Carl Sandburg learned the history first hand as a youngster growing up in Galesburg and as a young man in Wisconsin. He didn't forget it in his later years while becoming a great writer and poet.

DateDate	Title
April 16, 2018	The Eight-Hour Day
April 9, 2018	Handwriting
April 2, 2018	Hello Spring
March 26, 2018	The Post-Simpson House
March 12, 2018	The Why
February 26, 2018	John Van Ness Standish
February 19, 2018	The Sale of Spirits
February 12, 2018	Gershom Martin, part 2
February 5, 2018	Gershom Martin
January 29, 2018	La Grippe
January 22, 2018	Washday
January 15, 2018	Dice
January 1, 2018	What Is a Deprived Childhood?
December 18, 2017	Stars
December 11, 2017	Andrew Carnegie, Philanthropist
December 4, 2017	Isaac Guliher
November 27, 2017	"Found a Deserted Babe"
November 20, 2017	Thanksgiving Days
November 13, 2017	Wilkins Seacord
November 6, 2017	Lake Washington Sanborn
October 30, 2017	Streetcars
October 23, 2017	Many Pranks Played
October 16, 2017	Season to Open Soon
October 9, 2017	Carl's 17th Birthday Memories
September 25, 2017	General P.S. Post
September 18, 2017	'Tis Apple Time
September 4, 2017	The Union Picnic
August 28, 2017	The Founders' Streets
August 21, 2017	Sarah Bernhardt
August 7, 2017	The Circus
July 31, 2017	A Man of Many Firsts
July 24, 2017	Cuspidors and Spittoons
July 17, 2017	John K. Fowler
July 3, 2017	The Indelible Pencil
June 19, 2017	Fairy Tales
June 12, 2017	Potato Bugs
May 22, 2017	A Pioneer Family
May 15, 2017	The Prairie
May 8, 2017	Henry Hitchcock
May 1, 2017	Callender and Rodine
April 24, 2017	The Mesmerist
April 10, 2017	Street Fair of 1898 (Part 3) - Florence Cooke, Queen of the Street Fair
April 3, 2017	Street Fair of 1898 (Part 2)
March 20, 2017	Street Fair of 1898 (Part 1)
March 13, 2017	Gingerbread
February 27, 2017	Superstitions
February 6, 2017	Sergeant Edwin C. Reed
January 30, 2017	Corporal Andrew P. Tanning
January 23, 2017	The Ferris Wheel
January 16, 2017	The Gibson Girl
January 9, 2017	The Cookstove
January 2, 2017	Sergeant Charles J. Rose
December 19, 2016	Hazelnuts
December 12, 2016	Minstrel Shows
December 7, 2016	Memories of Pearl Harbor
December 5, 2016	The Coffee Mill
November 28, 2016	Robert J. Samuelson
November 21, 2016	The Chrysanthemum Rules
November 14, 2016	Newspapers
October 31, 2016	Frederick Dickinson
October 24, 2016	The Reverend Carl A. Nyblad
October 17, 2016	Talk Not Always Cheap
October 10, 2016	"It Will Live in Bronze"
September 19, 2016	J. Charles "Frenchy" Juneau
September 12, 2016	Oscar F. "Husky" Larson
September 5, 2016	Obituaries
August 29, 2016	Aaron Boyer, Broommaker
August 22, 2016	The Panic of 1873
August 15, 2016	The Swan Prize
August 8, 2016	Chautauqua
July 18, 2016	Street Lighting
July 11, 2016	Cedar Fork
July 4, 2016	Shelden W. Allen
June 20, 2016	Conrad Byloff
June 13, 2016	Edward W. Rosenberg
June 6, 2016	Lawrence Futhey
May 30, 2016	Memory
May 23, 2016	Decoration Day, 1881
May 16, 2016	William Cullen Bryant
May 9, 2016	College Days
May 2, 2016	A Military Career Thwarted
April 25, 2016	How to Sweep a Room
April 18, 2016	The Marsh Horse and Mule Market
April 11, 2016	Horses Everywhere
April 4, 2016	Victor A. Thoureen
March 28, 2016	Nicknames
March 21, 2016	Corporal Edward P. Peckenpaugh
March 14, 2016	Hold Still!
March 7, 2016	Capt. T. L. McGirr
February 29, 2016	Sparrow Season
February 22, 2016	George W. Erickson
February 15, 2016	George Helgeson Fitch
February 8, 2016	Anna Charlotte Goldquist
February 1, 2016	"Little Boy Blue"
January 25, 2016	Always the Young Strangers
January 18, 2016	George R. Longbrake
January 11, 2016	Fred Cook
January 4, 2016	Domestic Help
December 14, 2015	Justice of the Peace B.F. Holcomb
November 30, 2015	Standardized Time
November 23, 2015	Joseph H. Knutson
November 16, 2015	Wells and Cisterns
November 2, 2015	Willis E. Calkins
October 26, 2015	Galesburg Pottery
October 19, 2015	Private Lewis H. Kay
October 12, 2015	The Klondike Gold Rush
September 28, 2015	Charles L. Bloomgren
September 21, 2015	The Gilded Age
September 14, 2015	Oliver Optic
August 31, 2015	The "Spanish" Cannon
August 24, 2015	The Company C Men
August 17, 2015	Jacob A. Riis
August 10, 2015	Mason Jars
August 3, 2015	October 7, 1896
July 27, 2015	The Soldier's Monument
July 20, 2015	Ice
July 13, 2015	Moses O. Williamson
July 6, 2015	Sweet Little Alix
June 29, 2015	Sharlie's Shickens
June 22, 2015	Anna Held & John Drew
June 15, 2015	Hartel & Secker Meat Market
June 8, 2015	Girls
June 1, 2015	Old First Church - Part II
May 25, 2015	Old First Church - Part I
May 18, 2015	Marbles
May 11, 2015	Pawnee County, Kansas
May 4, 2015	Detective Stories and the Real Thing
April 27, 2015	Professor Isaac A. Parker
April 20, 2015	Celluloid Collars
April 13, 2015	Asparagus
April 6, 2015	Mayor John C. Stewart
March 30, 2015	Basket Ball
March 23, 2015	The Courthouse of Knox County, IL
March 16, 2015	“Trifles make perfection...”
March 9, 2015	Uncle Tom's Cabin
March 2, 2015	Martha Sandburg Goldstone
February 23, 2015	Devotion
February 16, 2015	Gumbiner's Pawn Shop
February 9, 2015	White Bread
February 2, 2015	The Monarch Club
January 26, 2015	The Silver Dollar
January 19, 2015	The Fulton County Narrow Gauge Railway
January 12, 2015	The Four Corners
December 22, 2014	Swedish Christmas
December 8, 2014	Christmas 1878
December 1, 2014	Bunker Boots & Shoes
November 24, 2014	Galesburg, Illinois
November 17, 2014	It was Buffalo Bill's Day
November 10, 2014	The Election of 1896 (A follow-up story)
November 3, 2014	The Election of 1896 (continued)
October 27, 2014	The Election of 1896
October  24, 2014	The Rissywarn
October 20, 2014	The Parlor Stove
October 13, 2014	Ashes to Ashes
October 6, 2014	Jesse James
Sept. 29, 2014	Lester T. Stone, Public Servant
Sept. 22, 2014	It's Who You Know
Sept 15, 2014	Mother of the Illinois Flag
Sept 8, 2014	The Scissors Grinder
Sept 1, 2014	Baseball
August 25, 2014	Howard K. Knowles, Capitalist
August 18, 2014	Alcoholic Beverages
August 11, 2014	Soda Water
August 4, 2014	Sweet Corn
July 28, 2014	Marching Through Georgia
July 21, 2014	The Knox County Fair
July 14, 2014	The Panic of 1893
July 7, 2014	The Rev. T. N. Hasselquist
June 30, 2014	The Knox County Courthouse
June 23, 2014	The Family Photograph Album
June 16, 2014	Parades
June 9, 2014	Lingonberries
June 2, 2014	Where We Live
May 26, 2014	Old Main
May 19, 2014	Rhythms of the Railroad
May 12, 2014	Spring Tonic
May 5, 2014	The Milkmen
April 28, 2014	Gray's "Elegy..."
April 21, 2014	Off to War
April 14, 2014	Swedish Easter
April 7, 2014	A Father's Face
March 31, 2014	Secret Societies
March 24, 2014	George A. Murdock, Merchant
March 10, 2014	Trade Cards
March 3, 2014	The Demorest Medal
February 24, 2014	Rip Van Winkle
February 17, 2014	Cabbage Soup
February 10, 2014	Lincoln's Birthday
February 3, 2014 4	The Colonel
January 27, 2014	The Lincoln Penny - A Little History
January 20, 2014	Walking to Work
January 13, 2014	A Small Abode
January 6, 2014	Birth of a Poet
December 30, 2013	Christmas 1880
December 23, 2013	Swedish Christmas
December 16, 2013	The Reporter Sees Santa
December 9, 2013	The Coming of Christmas
December 2, 2013	The Fire Boys Talk
November 25, 2013	Galesburg Will Feast on Turkeys and Cranberries - Thanksgiving 1893
November 18, 2013	Mary Sandburg Johnson
November 11, 2013	Carl Sandburg's Bicycle
November 4, 2013	Lace Curtains
October 28, 2013	The Front Room
October 21, 2013	A Warm Breakfast
October 14, 2013	Marion D. Shutter
October 7, 2013	Cigars and Consumption
September 30, 2013	Forrest F. Cooke & August Sandburg
September 16, 2013	Forrest F. Cooke, Mayor
September 9, 2013	Dusty Streets
September 2, 2013	Typhoid Fever
August 26, 2013	Coffee and Water
August 19, 2013	A Horse! A Horse!
August 12, 2013	Gaddial Scott
August 5, 2013	The Racetrack
July 29, 2013	John Peter Algeld - Part II
July 22, 2013	John Peter Altgeld - Part I
July 15, 2013	Tramps, Tramps, Tramps
July 8, 2013	Lady Liberty
July 1, 2013	Galesburg's Fourth
June 24, 2013	John H. Finley
June 17, 2013	The World's Columbian Exhibition
June 10, 2013	Fruit Short-Cake
June 3, 2013	Horatio Alger, Author
May 27, 2013	Memorial Day, 1887
May 20, 2013	Professor Jon W. Grubb
May 13, 2013	Beginnings of Lombard University
May 6, 2013	Young Sandburg’s View of Lombard College
April 29, 2013	Thinking
April 22, 2013	Robert Colville, Master Mechanic
April 15, 2013	The Galesburg Opera House
April 8, 2013	Grocery Stores and Sample Rooms
April 1, 2013	A Hearty  Breakfast
March 25, 2013	The Lost Wallpaper Legend
March 18, 2013	Martin G. Sandburg
March 4, 2013	The Edison Talking Machine
February 25, 2013	Joe Elser, Civil War Veteran
February 18, 2013	Remember the Maine...
February 11, 2013	Lincoln's Birthday
February 4, 2013	Curiosity