Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/548

 528 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

called parasitic. The eight-hour day would mean the death of the sweating system and of such industries as are dependent upon excessive hours.

The variation with which this movement may be introduced will have much to do with the social effects resulting from it. If universally adopted, there will be one result ; if by industries, another ; and if in one district and not another, still others. It may be presumed that general adoption of the eight-hour day is virtually impossible, whether forced by legislative action or trade-union ukase. Some industries will be slower than others in the adoption of the measure, but it may be taken for granted that the movement of the best laborers will be from the ten- and eleven-hour districts to the section where the eight-hour day is the rule. In the more unskilled trades this may result in caus- ing a still greater dearth of workers in the rural districts, the attractions of the eight-hour day and the city being too much for the laborers in the agricultural districts. This would tend to increase the ranks of the unemployed in the larger cities.

Perhaps the one great bugbear in reference to this movement is found in the fear that exports will decline in amount, affecting the foreign trade of the nation. In contrast with this position is the repeated statement that the long hours of foreign workers assist materially in checking their competition with us. That, however, was in the days when ten hours' work was the rule. It must be kept in mind that other nations have materially reduced their hours of labor and are fast approaching our standard of factory sanitation and direction. In the words of another : " High wages, short hours, and the resulting mental and physical development facilitate the introduction of more effective meth- ods, and thus reduce the cost of production." There must be a limit to which the principle of short hours can be pushed, but undoubtedly the eight-hour day is within the limit, as is evi- denced in the successful mercantile position of England, where the eight-hour day has been in vogue for a number of years.

Nevertheless, the eight-hour day must cost somebody some- thing in loss of profit, greater exertion in a short period of time, or smaller wages. If, however, wages are maintained and the