not put obstacles in the way of the reforms. The workers already know that they will find protection in the government. I believe – in effect – that in countries like ours, where the problem of liberty is already resolved, it is necessary to begin to resolve social problems." The project provided for an eight-hour limit "in the strenuous and intensive occupations and ten hours in the less exacting commercial occupations" while a one-year transition period was provided "during which an additional hour per day was permitted." It also provided for regulation of the labour of women and children, a weekly rest day, and prohibition of the labour of women for four weeks after child-birth "during which period the State would provide suitable financial support." The bill's main objective was the eight-hour day but despite having a workable majority in Congress "he was unable to persuade his party to accept this radical innovation." On 26 June 1911 a new labor bill was sent to Congress by Batlle which provided for an eight-hour day "without the intermediate period of one year established in his earlier bill and with broadened coverage," repeated provisions as to weekly rest and child labour, and increased the compulsory period of rest after child-birth to forty-five days. On May 31, 1913, the Chamber approved in general Batlle's project modified by its Labor Commission, with provisions on child labor and women's work left aside to include them in a separate project, as well as the day of rest, with 44 votes in favor and 8 against. However, it wasn't until late in 1915 that a law providing for an eight-hour day was passed. Various Colorado Party platforms were also drafted and/or adopted during Batlle’s first presidency. In September 1905 (above source) the Colorado Executive Committee and the Colorado legislators entrusted Pedro Manini Rios to draft a pre-electoral manifesto that would serve as a party program. Manini summed up Colorado accomplishments in 40 years of power and outlined a 5-point program. This included constitutiona reform, concern for labor, economic self-suffciency, increase of rural population, abd reduction of taxes on consumption. As noted by one study however, “None of the points proposed anything specific. For example, the labor plank invoked the standard consoling fiction “It is an exaggeration to present these problems in our society in the almost dreadful terms in which they are agitated … in some European societies.”