Alfred Russel Wallace 



To Miss Violet Wallace 



Parkatone, Dorset. May 10, 1891. 



My dear Violet, — ... I am quite in favour of a legal 

 eight hours' day. Overtime need not be forbidden, but 

 every man who works overtime should have a legal claim 

 to double wages for the extra hours. That would make it 

 cheaper for the master to employ two sets of men working 

 each eight hours when they had long jobs requiring them, 

 while for the necessities of finishing contracts, etc., they 

 could well afford to pay double for the extra hours. " It 

 would make everything dearer!" Of course it would! 

 How else can you produce a more equal distribution of 

 wealth than by making the rich and idle pay more and 

 the workers receive more ? " The workers would have to 

 pay more, too, for everything they bought!" True again, 

 but what they paid more would not equal their extra earn- 

 ings, because a large portion of the extra pay to the men 

 will be paid by the rich, and only the remainder paid by 

 the men themselves. The eight hours' day and double pay 

 for overtime would not only employ thousands now out of 

 work, but would actually raise wages per hour and per day. 

 This is clear, because wages are kept down wholly by the 

 surplus supply of labour in every trade. The moment the 

 surplus is used up, or nearly so, by more men being required 

 on account of shorter hours, competition among the men 

 becomes less ; among the employers, for men, more : hence 

 necessarily higher wages all round. As to the bogey of 

 foreign competition, it is a bogey only. All the political 

 economists agree that if wages are raised in all trades, it 

 will not in the least affect our power to export goods as 

 profitably as now. Look and see ! And, secondly, the eight 

 hours' movement is an international one, and will affect all 

 alike in the end. 



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