THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK. 27 



who, to secure as much, have heretofore been compelled to toil 

 as long as strength and j^ears would permit ? The answer is, the 

 certain prospect of emancipation from such unfavorable condi- 

 tions. Thus, if eight-hours' labor will now give to an individual 

 the subsistence or living, for the attainment of which ten, twelve, 

 fourteen, or even more hours of labor were formerly (but not re- 

 motely) necessary, intelligent self-interest would seem to dictate 

 to him to work eight hours on account of subsistence, and then 

 as many more hours as opportunity or strength will permit ; and 

 out of the gain for all such work not required by necessity, pur- 

 chase his emancipation from toil before age has crippled his en- 

 ergies ; or, if he prefers, let him surround himself as he lives, in a 

 continually increasing proportion, with all those additional ele- 

 ments — material and intellectual — that make life better worth liv- 

 ing. And, through the rapid withdrawals from the ranks of 

 competitive labor, or the increased demand for the products of 

 labor that would be thus occasioned, the number of the unem- 

 ployed, by reason of lack of oi)portunity to labor, would be re- 

 duced to a minimum. And that these possibilities are already 

 recognized and accepted by not a few of the great body of work- 

 ers, is proved by the fact that the greater the opportunity to 

 work by the piece, and the greater the latitude afforded to work- 

 men to control their own time in connection with earnings, the 

 greater the disinclination to diminish the hours of labor.* " No 

 man," says a distinguished American, who from small beginnings 

 has risen to high position, " ever achieved eminence who com- 

 menced by reducing his hours of labor to the smallest number 

 per day, and no man ever worked very hard and attained fortune 

 who did not look back on his working days as the haj^piest of his 

 life." t 



* A recent writer, In describing certain factories in New England, where the work is 

 mainly of this character, says: "The daj'S are long for ' piece-work,' and the busy em- 

 ployes are indifferent to eight-hour rules. They reserve only light.enough to find their 

 way home, and at twilight they take up their line of march. At present they are earn- 

 ing from three to five dollars per day, according to their capacity." But, as illustrating 

 further how labor treats labor, it is added : " The employes are union men, and they will 

 not allow a single non-unionist to work ; neither will they permit any boy under sixteen, 

 or any man over twenty-one years of age, to learn the trade." 



f Another, whose life-experience has been similar, also thus aptly states the case : " I 

 have often wondered how workers expect to get on upon eight hours a day. I can not do 

 it. I have worked year after year twelve hours a day, and I know men in my vocation 

 who have done so fourteen hours— not for eight hours' pay, but for fourteen hours' pay. 

 Let a man who is getting day wages for day's work consider how many hours there are in 

 the day. Suppose the day's work is even ten ; allow two for meals — that makes twelve ; 

 allow nine for sleep and dressing, that makes twenty-one. There are three hours a day for 

 getting on. That is clear profit. There is room for more profit to himself in those three 

 hours than the profit to the employer on the ten hours of his working day. Three hours 

 a day is eighteen in the week — nearly the equivalent of two clear days in the week, a hun- 

 dred days in the year." 



