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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



spread of democracy is redressing, and more 

 than redresses the balance of religious pre- 

 possession. Yet it is certain that no relig- 

 ion will remain popular long which does not 

 put a strong curb on the passions and whims 

 of human nature. This, too, is felt, and the 

 course of ecclesiastics is modified by the 

 feeling. 



Shorter flours and Wages. An elabo- 

 rate review of the probable effects on wages 

 of a general reduction in the hours of labor, 

 presented in the British Association by Prof. 

 J. E. C. Munro, brought him to the follow- 

 ing conclusions : 1. A reduction in the hours 

 of labor which is neither universal nor uni- 

 form will tend to reduce the net product 

 available for division among the producing 

 classes, but such reduction may be lessened 

 or counteracted by greater efficiency in labor 

 and in the use of capital. 2. Capital will 

 be able to throw a portion of the loss on la- 

 bor, and labor generally will be affected. 3. 

 Any check to the accumulation of capital 

 due to the reduction in the net produce will 

 tend to raise interest and lower wages ; but 

 this may be avoided to some extent by the 

 more economic use of capital. 4. The re- 

 duction in hours will not necessarily lessen 

 the number of the unemployed, inasmuch as 

 it will not increase the purchasing power of 

 the consumer, and will not affect the chief 

 cause of poverty incident to our present or- 

 ganization of industry. 5. The position of 

 the chronic unemployed, or residuum, will 

 not be materially improved. 6. In so far as 

 additional laborers are employed to maintain 

 the net produce, it will be at the expense of 

 other workers, if the net produce remains 

 the same but the number of producers in- 

 creases. It is necessary to point out, the 

 author added, that arguments which may be 

 urged against a general, though unequal, re- 

 duction of hours do not apply with the same 

 force to a reduction of hours in a particular 

 trade that may be the subject of special 

 economic surroundings. Before venturing 

 to express an opinion on the desirability of 

 reducing hours in a given industry mining, 

 for example the economist will require to 

 investigate these surroundings in order to 

 estimate what loss, if any, will occur, and 

 upon whom such loss will fall. But, even 

 if there be a loss in a particular industry or 



a national loss, it may be more than made 

 good to the nation by the beneficial effects 

 on the working classes of greater leisure. 

 Hence the importance of asking what the 

 working classes will do with the hours they 

 gain from toil. Reasons drawn from cur- 

 rent movements were given for believing it 

 probable that, so far as the skilled indus- 

 tries are concerned, the workers would, on 

 the whole, utilize additional leisure in a man- 

 ner creditable to themselves and useful to 

 the state. Prof. A. T. Hadley, of Yale Col- 

 lege, in the discussion of this paper, cited the 

 results of an investigation which was made 

 ten years ago into the relative output of ten- 

 hour workmen in factories in Massachusetts 

 and eleven-hour men in Connecticut. The 

 result was in favor of ten hours in Massa- 

 chusetts, and was proved not to be owing to 

 any difference in the health of the workmen, 

 but largely to the fact that the workmen of 

 the Massachusetts mills were of a superior 

 class to those of Connecticut. There was a 

 process of a sort of natural selection going 

 on among those who did not mind the long 

 day and could not stand the increased pace 

 of the short day, and those who cared more 

 for the extra hour of leisure and minded 

 less the necessity of increased exertion. 



Fast and Fugitive Coal-tar Colors. In 



a paper on fast and fugitive coal-tar colors 

 Prof. J. J. Hummel, in the British Associa- 

 tion, contradicted the idea that the modern 

 coal-tar colors are all fugitive while the col- 

 ors of the older vegetable dye-stuffs are all 

 fast. There are fast and fugitive dyes in 

 both classes. We have now about five hun- 

 dred distinct kinds of coal-tar colors, of 

 which about thirty are extremely fast and 

 an equal number or more are moderately 

 fast. On the other hand, out of the thirty 

 or so natural dye-stuffs usually employed we 

 count ten as giving fast colors. We have, 

 therefore, a total of about three times as 

 many fast coal-tar colors as of fast natural 

 dye-stuffs. This pitting of natural as against 

 artificial coloring matters ought now to cease. 

 Of course, it is not to be denied that we have 

 a very large number of fugitive coal-tar dyes ; 

 and the indiscriminate use of these, due 

 largely to competition, has, no doubt, injured 

 the reputation of the whole class. The 

 question, often asked, whether there is no 



