Page:Traveler from Altruria, Howells, 1894.djvu/281

Rh "Well," said the Altrurian, "they were a cheat and a lie, in every way, and under the new system it was not possible, when public attention was called to the fact, to continue the falsehood they embodied. As soon as the Saturday night shoe realized itself to the public conscience, an investigation began, and it was found that the principle of the Saturday night shoe underlay half our industries and made half the work that was done. Then an immense reform took place. We renounced, in the most solemn convocation of the whole economy, the principle of the Saturday night shoe, and those who had spent their lives in producing sham shoes—"

"Yes," said the professor, rising from his seat near us, and addressing the speaker, "I shall be very glad to know what became of the worthy and industrious operatives who were thrown out of employment by this explosion of economic virtue."

"Why," the Altrurian replied, "they were set to work making honest shoes; and as it took no more time to make a pair of honest shoes which lasted a year, than it took to make a pair of dishonest shoes that lasted a week, the amount of labor in shoemaking was at once enormously reduced."