EFFICIENCY AND FATIGUE 265 



a single battleship considerably over ^100,000 was 

 paid for ironwork which was never done. This was 

 sheer economic waste, for it was of no benefit to the 

 riveters and others that they should idle away half 

 their time. Rather was it to their moral detriment. 

 Evidently, therefore, it is of the greatest importance 

 that the workers should be induced to give us of their 

 best, and entirely avoid any limitation of output. If 

 necessary, let their hours of work be shortened, and 

 their piece payments increased, but true industrial 

 efficiency can never be attained unless artificial limi- 

 tation of output is wholly abolished. 



Lord Leverhulme's Scheme. Lord Leverhulme has 

 recently suggested the adoption of a six-hour working 

 day. On his scheme one shift of workers starts at 

 7 a.m. and ceases work at 1.30 p.m., whilst there is 

 a break of half an hour in the middle of the morning. 

 A fresh shift of workers comes on at 1.30 and works 

 till 8 p.m., with a half-hour's break for tea in the 

 middle of the afternoon. By means of this double 

 shift the machinery of the factory is kept running for 

 12 hours a day, or 72 hours a week, whereas on the 

 usual 8-hours-a-day system it is running only 48 or 44 

 hours. The cost of machinery is such a considerable 

 item compared with the cost of the human labour 

 required to work it sometimes, according to Lord 

 Leverhulme, it is nine times as great that by running 

 the machinery all these extra hours a tremendous 

 saving is effected in the total cost of production, and 

 so it will be possible to pay the workers the same 

 wages for a six-hours day as for an eight-hours day, 

 and produce the articles as cheaply as before. As 

 against this argument it must be remembered that 

 many types of machinery have only a certain number 

 of running hours, at the end of which they are worn out 

 and must be replaced; so in some forms of industry 



