Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/264

 242 at nearly all the large pits it occupies from one hour to two to lower and raise the men employed. The result of a six and a half to seven hours winding day would be to reduce the output of coal from 20 to 25 per cent., and, as a very large number of all the persons employed underground are paid by the piece, this would very largely reduce the aggregate wages-fund, and consequently every pieceman would suffer in proportion. Another very serious result would be a large increase in the cost of production. This lessened production and increased cost would lead to a very considerable advance in the prices of fuel ol all descriptions.'

The coal-owners do not refer to the facts on which these conclusions are based, and in view of the undeniable circumstance that the hours of labour have in past years been largely reduced without either the output of coal, the price of coal, or the wages of miners being adversely affected, the conclusions cannot be accepted without careful examination.

The specific proposal placed before the coal-owners on behalf of the miners was worded as follows:—'That it be a special rule in every mining inspectors district that no person should work underground from bank to bank more than eight hours in any one day of twenty-four hours, and that the same should be mutually agreed upon and form part of the Act of 1887.' In speaking of an eight hours day I propose to assume that it is equivalent to a maximum of forty-eight hours per week. For many reasons it is more desirable to examine the effects of a reduction in hours from the point of view of the week than of the day. Indeed the mere number of hours a man works is no clue to his output, unless it is known how many days in the week or year he is working. The official returns do not go beyond giving the average number of of hours and of days per week obtaining in each district.

Three returns have been published relating to the hours of labour in mines: (1) The return prepared by the Home Office for the House of Commons ; (2) the return showing the average number of hours worked in a week's work in the chief trade centres, prepared by the Board of Trade ; and (3) the statement of the hours worked in coal mines, prepared by the Miners' Federation, printed as an appendix to the last-mentioned return.

The second return was prepared from the answers given in reply to 133 circulars, but the figures are given so generally that, beyond showing that there has been a substantial reduction in hours since 1850, they are of little use for our purpose. The