24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



a force, unintentionally, but of necessity, continually operating 

 to raise all industrial effort to higher and better conditions : and 

 herein we have an explanation of the economic phenomenon 

 that, while the introduction of improved machinery economizes 

 and supplements labor, it rarely or never reduces wages. 



One of the most curious features of the existing economic 

 situation is the advocacy of the idea, and the degree of popular 

 favor which has been extended to it, that a reduction of the 

 hours of labor, enforced, if needs be, by statute, is a " natural 

 means for increasing wages and promoting progress."* This 

 movement in favor of a shorter day of work is not, however, of 

 recent origin, inasmuch as it has greatly commended itself to 

 public sentiment in Great Britain and in the United States for 

 many years, and more recently in a lesser degree in the states 

 of continental Europe. But it is desirable to recognize that the 

 early agitation in furtherance of this object, and the success 

 which has attended it, was based on reasons very different from 

 those which underlie the arguments of to-day. Thus, in Eng- 

 land and on the Continent, the various factory acts by which 

 the day's labor has been shortened, were secured by appealing 

 to the moral sense of the community to check the overworking 

 of women and children ; or, in other words, most of such legis- 

 lation has thus far been influenced by moral considerations, and 

 has so commended itself by its results that there is probably no 

 difference of opinion in civilized countries as to its desirability. 

 But the form which this movement has of late assumed is en- 

 tirely different. It is now economic, and not moral, and its final 

 analysis is based on the assumption that the laborer can obtain 

 more of wealth or comfort by working less. 



It would seem to need no elaborate argument to demonstrate 

 the absurdity of this position. Production must precede con- 

 sumption and enjoyment, and the only way in which the ability 

 of everybody to consume and enjoy can be increased, is by in- 

 creasing, so to speak, the output of the whole human family. If 

 production be increased, the worker will necessarily receive a 

 larger return ; if diminished, he will necessarily get a smaller 

 return. And it makes no difference whether the diminution be 

 effected by reduction in the hours of work, or by less effective 

 work, or by disuse of labor-saving machinery, or by other ob- 

 structive agencies. The result will inevitably be the same : there 

 will be less to divide among the producers after the constantly 

 diminishing returns of capital have been withdrawn. 



It will doubtless be urged that man's knowledge and control 

 of the forces of Nature have increased to such an extent in re- 

 cent years that almost any given industrial result can now be 



* " Wealth and Progress," by George Gunton. D. Appleton & Co., New York. 



