A seasonally appropriate quiz.
The following excerpt is from a nineteenth century song "composed and sung by Bob Hart, Academy of Music" a "Dedicated to Mr. James Davis and Employees" in the Library of Congress archive of 19th Century Song Sheets. These are the final two verses:
...CHORUS. Whack, row-de-row, &c.
You may talk about your heroes,
But where is one so grand,
Who kindness to his fellows shows,
And rightly understands.
One of this kind
You're sure to find,
If the trouble you will take, sirs.
At twenty-seven Julia street,
Is the prince of boiler-makers.
CHORUS. Whack row-de-row, &c.
Here the honest sons of Vulcan
In their glory you may find;
Their hammers click, the time flies quick,
They never are behind.
The secret's one
That all my own,
It will cost you but the trial,
The [deleted for the quiz] is the thing--
It's a fact, and there's no denial.
CHORUS. Whack row-de-row, &c.
What social reform does this song call for more explicitly in its title and three other verses? (One hint: the reform didn't get put in place legislatively until nearly the middle of the 20th century.)
First correct answer to comments wins a scratched-up LP of Billy Bragg's Worker's Playtime, unless mom threw it out with my old Yes records.
Posted by BT at August 30, 2002 10:01 AMThat's wonderful.
Minimum wage?
Maximum number of hours in a work week?
Just in case it's different than gavin's second guess, I'll say the 40-hour week.
Which had left again by the end of the 20th century.
Posted by: boxjam on August 30, 2002 10:45 AMI can't think of any legislation for this but...
the formation of unions?
Posted by: teenidol on August 30, 2002 11:11 AMMaybe it's workman's compensation; i.e., payment for those injured on the job?
Posted by: Gavin on August 30, 2002 11:19 AMOn-the-job safety, OSHA-stylee.... I'd also wager that the mandatory helmet/safety googles reg's came in at the same time.
Posted by: bootsy on August 30, 2002 11:27 AMNerf-guns and ping pong tables for all!
Oops, that was the 1999 remake by Nat van Webster and the Dot Commies.
Posted by: Rory on August 30, 2002 11:30 AMSome are hot and some are cold.
Hope I don't die before I get old.
More clues would give away the show
So, I repeat, Whack row-de-row.
Social Security?
Posted by: KF on August 30, 2002 11:40 AMBlue laws? (no working on religious holidays/days of observance)
Posted by: teenidol on August 30, 2002 12:15 PMChild labor laws. But only cause I think KF got it. And someone round up that commie boxjam!
"Would give away the show"?
Sheesh.
Yeah, I think KF got it too. But I'll guess again anyway.
-More equitable treatment at the hands of management.
-Smoking breaks.
-No more pots without chickens.
Posted by: boxjam on August 30, 2002 12:31 PMFree lunches from Cosi?
Posted by: Gavin on August 30, 2002 12:48 PMKF is not the winner
I'm just a pick-n-grinner
"Giving away the show" is not a hint
I don't think Eastwood would have been as successful if he'd been Clive instead of Clint
It can almost be read as UP with rum, by gum, if the blacksmiths are maintaining a steady buzz there at the forge -- the prince of boiler makers seems even more transparent. Though since there wasn't nationwide prohibition at that point, I don't know how directly this "insight" applies.
Posted by: scott on August 30, 2002 01:24 PMThe God-given right to coffee
Not even denied by Ghadafi
Is not a great answer
And my rhymes are like cancer
You're all getting frigid
Though once you had heat
With that information
My clue is complete
required breaks for shift workers
wack-a-wack-a-wack-a-jerkers
This 'song' though is reading more and more like an ad - "It will cost you but the trial" meaning you can get this thing for a free trial run.
How about proper heating for factories?
Posted by: boxjam on August 30, 2002 02:09 PMHere's verse one:
AIR--Whack row-de-row.
Come, workmen, all, both great and small,
Pay attention to my ditty,
'Tis something interests you all
That labour in this city.
Be wide awake,
An interest take--
Don't wait for legislation;
The greatest aim of all mankind,
It is self-preservation.
Verses 2 and 3 would give it away, as would the chorus.
Posted by: BT on August 30, 2002 02:14 PMYou say that we all once had heat
But stymied, lo, I cheat! I cheat!
Harumpf, hurumph, and damn damn damn
You know Wombat meat tastes like spam?
Oh, we're gonna gitcha, Bill T. WHY are you so MEAN???
Posted by: bootsy on August 30, 2002 02:16 PMI'll be offline for a while -- I'll check back again in a few hours.
Posted by: BT on August 30, 2002 02:17 PM>>I'll be offline for a while -- I'll check back again in a few hours.
Oh, BT you cruel temptress!
You mock the things that we guess.
When we near the elusive heat--
You pick that time to retreat.
From the underrated Hudsucker Proxy:
Board Member 1: What if you tire before it's done?
Board Member 2: Does it have rules?
Board Member 3: Can more than one play?
Board Member 4: What makes you think it's a game?
Board Member 3: Is it a game?
Board Member 5: Will it break?
Board Member 6: It better break eventually!
Board Member 2: Is there an object?
Board Member 1: What if you tire before it's done?
Board Member 5: Does it come with batteries?
Board Member 4: We could charge extra for them.
Board Member 7: Is it safe for toddlers?
Board Member 3: How can you tell when you're finished?
Board Member 2: How do you make it stop?
Board Member 6: Is that a boy's model?
Board Member 3: Can a parent assemble it?
Board Member 5: Is there a larger model for the obese?
Board Member 1: What if you tire before it's done?
Board Member 8: What the hell is it?
I just noticed the "seasonally appropriate quiz" remark. So perhaps heat is not far off. Perhaps the reform refers to air conditioning.
Posted by: teenidol on August 30, 2002 02:32 PMyou know, for kids.
The right to heat. Sorry, teenidol.
Posted by: hackly_fracture on August 30, 2002 02:45 PMThe right to drink water on the job?
I only do well on beverage-related quizzes, so I sure hope that that is right. . .
Posted by: scott on August 30, 2002 04:17 PMSaturday holidays?
I thought "seasonally appropriate" referred to Labor Day, teenidol.
Now it really seems like a safety thing.
How about "Safety Hat" (which I think was a Dance Song recorded by "Men without Work").
Posted by: boxjam on August 30, 2002 04:39 PMDid someone guess "vacation" yet?
Posted by: scott on August 30, 2002 04:48 PMOoh - daylight savings time?
Posted by: scott on August 30, 2002 04:50 PMBenjamin Franklin invented Daylight Savings Times. He was trying to invent self-walking shoes, see, and he kept springing forward and then falling back... and then he said "ah HA! Whack-da-quiz-show-hi-de-hi-di-hi-di-ho!" and then a house-hunting freakazoid hit you on the head with a wombat and it was 1 hour later. What the hell am i doing here?
Posted by: bootsy on August 30, 2002 05:59 PMBenjamin Franklin invented Daylight Savings Times. He was trying to invent self-walking shoes, see, and he kept springing forward and then falling back... and then he said "ah HA! Whack-da-quiz-show-hi-de-hi-di-hi-di-ho!" and then a house-hunting freakazoid hit you on the head with a wombat and it was 1 hour later. What the hell am i doing here?
Posted by: bootsy on August 30, 2002 06:01 PM(sorry 'bout that dbl post. shutting up now.)
Posted by: bootsy on August 30, 2002 06:02 PMHey, Bill -- it's not the institution of Labor Day itself, is it?
Posted by: KF on August 31, 2002 09:55 AMOkay, forget it. I caved. I googled. I admit my colossal wrongness.
Posted by: KF on August 31, 2002 10:07 AMPension plans?
Mandated access to Gorey paperbacks?
Guarantees that Yes records would not be played in the workplace?
No one's gotten it yet. The cat just clawed me: even she's frustrated!
Verse two, with a bit witheld:
Our claims are just--we know they're right,
As honest men will all agree;
We wage no war on capital,
That every one can see.
If you want to know,
We can soon show,
Without any exaggeration,
We'll do as much [DELETED]
With a little more exertion.
It seems needless to clue-ify you further.
Posted by: BT on August 31, 2002 02:21 PMThe right of women to work?
Posted by: Gavin on August 31, 2002 04:07 PMMedicaid?
Posted by: teenidol on August 31, 2002 10:47 PMOvertime pay for overtime work?
Pay by the hour rather than by the piece?
Again, some warmth but some wandering. Here's a final clue, in an excerpt from a history of the labor movement in San Francisco (this was not an issue local to SF -- this is simply a representative slice of history):
The [blank] movement took hold in San Francisco after Alexander M. Kenaday, newly elected president of the Trades' Union in 1865, appealed for the [blank] in his inaugural speech. (He had earlier founded The Journal of Trades and Workingmen, but it folded after five issues.) [Blank] Leagues sprang up among every kind of unionized worker over the next two years. The most common practice was for a [blank] to meet and adopt resolutions fixing a certain date after which its members would [blank]. By June 2, 1867, the Morning Call wrote: "the [blank] is more in vogue in this city than in any other part of the world, although there are no laws to enforce it."
The next day, on June 3, a march of over 2,000 workingmen swamped Market Street. They marched in order based on the dates upon which their union had adopted the [blank]. The ship and steamboat joiners led, followed by plasterers, bricklayers, hodcarriers, stonecutters, lathers, riggers, gas fitters, house carpenters and painters. The parade ended at Union Square where several speeches were made, including anti-Chinese diatribes, sentiments which became more powerful during the next decade.
In the summer and fall of 1867, the employers along the waterfront made a determined effort to abolish the [blank]. On July 8, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company discharged all its employees who had been [blank]. That same day a number of owners formed the [blank] Association, which in turn created the "[blank] League Society" for the purpose of uniting all mechanics "willing to work at the [blank], neither unjust to the laborers nor ruinous to the capital and enterprise of the city and state, together with all Master Builders and Master Workmen and Capitalists injured by the [blank] rule." But their effort soon failed.
Note that, despite the racist rhetoric which accompanied this movement, the reform itself had nothing to do directly with race or immigration. Nor, despite what you see above, did it have anything to do with the Blank Generation.
Posted by: BT on September 1, 2002 12:13 PMSeniority being the trump card when it comes to hiring/firing?
Union-only (or guild-only) workplaces?
Pooling tips in a common jar?
Good thing it's a long weekend, 'cause I'm still drawing [blank]s.
Work authorization?
Endentured Servitude?
Universal Health Care?
Integrated workplaces?
Wow, Bill. You wanted a stumper -- you got one.
Posted by: KF on September 2, 2002 12:07 AMCost of living adjustments?
A "living wage"?
Profit sharing?
I'm realizing just how much of my knowledge of the history of labor comes from The Pajama Game.
Posted by: Gavin on September 2, 2002 02:06 PMAnd the crickets quietly chirp, "Whack, row-de-row."
Posted by: Gavin on September 2, 2002 08:46 PMHey, I've been humming "Hernando's Hideaway" all afternoon; I just figured it would be a bad idea to pass it on.
Posted by: KF on September 2, 2002 09:12 PMWhat is "The Pina Colada Song?"
OK, now I'm really confused. BT, do you post the next non-quiz item only after the quiz is answered? In the barely audible words of Tom Hanks in the closing flashback moments of "Saving Private Ryan," must we "Earn it."?
OK - I'm going to make a couple of guesses.
- Paid sick leave?
- Severance pay?
Even later than usual, but I was away sick myself yesterday...
Posted by: Garthmeister J on September 2, 2002 10:27 PMNo, no, James, today I was commemorating the struggle of the American Worker by...what the hell happened to the day, anyway? Damn.
As for the answer; both Gavin and Boxjam came within a boiler-maker's whisker of the correct answer, almost immediately, but then veered away, taking the everyone along with them. It was not the forty-hour week but the eight-hour workday for which Mr. Bob Hart's lyrics call(the full lyrics are here).
I never meant to stump anyone. Honest. Still, I had more fun on this round then I've had in a long time.
Posted by: BT on September 2, 2002 11:32 PM