96 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



may be the determining cause, means, inevitably, the degradation 

 of the workman and a permanently decreased efficiency.^ 



The employer who is seeking the highest net return from an 

 investment in labor should, therefore, if he is wise, be guided 

 by a very different rule, in fixing the working-day for a man, 

 from that which he should follow in fixing the length of the 

 working-day for a machine. 



If the term of employment is for a day only, and fresh work- 

 men can be secured for each succeeding day, it may pay the 

 employer to crowd his employees to the utmost limit of their 

 strength throughout, perhaps, the full twenty-four hours of the 

 day. But if the term of employment is for a year, or for life, 

 with no chance of getting a substitute, then it will, ordinarily,^ 

 pay an employer to be more saving of his e'mployees' vitality. 

 He must now look to the preservation of the health and strength 

 of his employees for the longer period of employment. It is 

 only in this way that the employer can secure the highest net 

 return on his investment. We know, however, that employers 

 are sometimes both unwise^ and unscrupulous,^ and that even 



1 Walker, Wages, pp. 81-88. 



2 Slave-labor, under an intelligent profit monger, may require provision to 

 be made for a full working life, though even in slavery it may sometimes pay to 

 use up a slave by intense toil during a shorter period. John A. Hobson, " The 

 Economies of Distribution," p. 162 



3 I challenge the assumption which underlies the orthodox doctrine of wages ; 

 namely, the sufficiency of the sense of self-interest. Mankind, always less wise, 

 and too often foolish to the point of stupidity, on the one side, and of fanaticism, 

 on the other, whether in government, in domestic life, in the care of their 

 bodies, or in the care of their souls, do not suddenly become wise in industrial 

 concerns. The argument for keeping a laborer well applies with equal force to 

 the maintenance of a slave. Fr.a.ncis A. Walker, " Wages," p. 58 



It shocks us to-day to hear the allegation that slave owners once discussed in 

 convention the expediency of using a slave up in six years or four years in a 

 certain occupation, and decided that it " paid " to use him up in four. Ely, 

 " Outlines of Economics," p. 182 



* Certainly, it seldom happens that anyone in the position of a monopolist with 

 respect to the purchase of labor power will look ahead for years and ask, Is not 

 the course I am pursuing likely to diminish the labor supply ? We do not find any 

 action on the part of the purchaser of labor power which would indicate that this is 

 the case. Take the example of the sweater and his victims. We do not find that 

 he is held back from exercising his full power over them by the fear that he will 

 cut off the future supply of labor power. He thinks that it will be forthcoming 



