294 LAND AND LABOR. 



But long before this point has been reached in the 

 discussion the voices of the capitalists and the em- 

 ployers are heard, crying out, "What, shall the laborer 

 be paid the same for working six hours as he has been 

 for working ten ? " 



Wait a moment, gentlemen. Let us understand 

 what is understood by that question, and what con- 

 siderations are involved. For what do you pay wages 

 to laborers and workingmen ? Do you pay them for 

 the time they occupy or for the amount of work they 

 do ? When you pay them for a day's work is it not 

 because they are supposed to have produced some- 

 thing ? If of two men working side by side, upon 

 the same work, one is producing only one half as 

 much as the other, do you pay them both the same 

 amount for their day's service, except upon compul- 

 sion ? Is not the work of one of these men of twice 

 the value to yourself and to society than is that of the 

 other ? Is not the service of the man who makes two 

 pairs of shoes in a given time of more value to the 

 employer and society than he who can make but one 

 pair of like quality in the same period ? If, to-day, 

 the shoemaker can make two pairs of shoes, where 

 yesterday he could make but one, is not the service 

 of to-day of double the value of that of yesterday ? 



These questions carry their own answers. Whether 

 men are employed by piece or -time work the compen- 

 sation is popularly supposed to be gauged by the 

 amount of work done or real service rendered, and not 

 by the mere time occupied. At any rate it should be 

 so, say one and all, and any other rule is grossly un- 

 just, to call it by the mildest of terms. 



