Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/541

 THE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF THE EIGHT-HOUR DAY.

IN these days of industrial concentration and wealth-getting, the impression is apt to prevail that the whole industrial machin- ery is organized for the mere sake of production and the profit incidental thereto. Workers, under such a conception, are regarded as the parts of a machine system instead of members of a society. But even from a viewpoint of this kind, the eight- hour day, in so far as it affects the productive power of the worker, becomes a question of great importance. When it is stated that the future culture of the laborer depends upon this movement, that poverty is to be driven from the industrial world and industrial depressions held in check, everyone, skeptical or otherwise, must pause to listen to the arguments presented for such a cause. It becomes, when attached to the philosophy of trade-unionism, the great question, the most important with which labor has to deal.

The introduction of machinery at the close of the last cen- tury, with the attendant high cost of capital, forced longer hours of labor than existed under the old domestic system. Human endurance was for many years the sole check upon a day's labor. The whole tendency of modern industry, even with the shorten- ing of hours, is in the direction of increased exertion. The essential element in the machine organization is the human one, the most precious and the most difficult to replace. The energy of a worker in any industry should always be equal to that of the day before. If the pains of labor are heavy, the tone of the workman is lowered, and his surplus energy disappears, while he tends to become a mere automaton valuable to society for the net surplus he creates for others. The round of production of energy into goods, goods into utilities, and utilities into energy is broken down by any such heavy burden. We must, therefore, hail, certainly from the viewpoint of the community, any movement likely to increase its working power. Whether the eight-hour day is able to do this is the question with which we must deal.

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