Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/380

366 are never formed on such, a question as that, for the plain reason that it suits some temperaments to hurry and other temperaments not to hurry, and a change can not be effected by regulation. The main object is more compensation for the same or less service, and it is expected to come by causing a scarcity of products; that is, with less to divide, the share of each, will be greater—a contradiction in terms, regarding the matter as a permanent condition.

Let us illustrate in another way. We ask, Has man been provided with a surplus of force, the exercise of which, in efforts to get a good living, operates to prevent him from getting a good living? If this be the case, a reduction of force must prove beneficial. Are laboring-men prepared to admit this? Would it promote wealth to have every able-bodied man lose one foot, so as to reduce the aggregate activity of the community one half? Would a community of one-armed men get a more comfortable living than a community of two-armed men? Do we find slow, sluggish, time wasting, inactive, and unindustrious peoples getting ahead and living a more desirable life than the vigorous, pushing, and constantly employed peoples? Yet a reduction of force a fourth, a third, and even a half, it is asserted by some, will enable the users of force greatly to improve their circumstances.

If we produce less we shall have more, according to the theory which demands less production as a means of getting richer. According to this theory, the little busy bee which improves each shining hour, and gathers honey all the day, makes a grand mistake. It should adopt the eight-hour system—gather less honey, and have more leisure.

The question of hours of labor as affecting the health and the length of life and happiness of laborers is not under discussion here, but simply their bearings upon the financial status of the men who do the work of the world. The workers are aiming at an improvement of their finances and at the abolition of poverty, and it is important to know whether the means proposed are adequate to the end, and even whether they tend to improvement of pecuniary conditions. Under some circumstances and for short periods, in given cases, a shortening of hours of labor may not cause a decrease in compensation. For instance, a man with plenty of money, having made up his mind to build a fine house, may go on and build it, though he pay ten-hour wages for eight hours' work. A number of men may do the same thing, and the mechanics who are fortunate enough to be in their employ will not be losers in consequence. But these cases are the exception and not the rule. When it comes to the great body of men who would build, the higher cost operates as a prohibition to building, as thousands of men would be unable to build and pay thirty per