A SIX HOUR LAW. 275 



hours and liberal compensation, will develop a mass 

 of anxious, competent, intelligent applicants for work, 

 old and young, male and female, that will pull off the 

 scales from many eyes that will not now see the great 

 desire which everywhere exists for work that is not 

 slavery, and a compensation that will buy comfort. 



These two classes of difficulties, real and imaginary, 

 are all that merit discussion, and they would be over- 

 come in the first year of the operation of the six hour 

 law. 



Having secured to our people the blessings that are 

 sure to come out of the proposed change, it is a mat- 

 ter for grave consideration whether it be desirable to 

 longer keep our doors wide open, and fill our country 

 with the poor of Europe. Is it not a duty that we 

 owe to our children to check the great influx from 

 abroad, and save to them the room for expansion that 

 is being so rapidly curtailed by the alien ? It cer- 

 tainly appears that when we have shown to the world 

 how a nation may become prosperous from the devel- 

 opment of its own industries, and the proper division 

 of its labor, we shall have rendered to humanity the 

 greatest service that can be expected from us, and 

 that America might very properly be preserved for 

 Americans. 



But there is another matter that should be con- 

 sidered in this connection ; and that is the one so 

 earnestly dwelt upon by Herbert Spencer in his last 

 utterances before returning to his native land. He 

 named it the Gospel of Relaxation. 



