FARM MACHINERY 95 



quality of the article manufactured ; and the capability of the workman to 

 follow the motion without a greater exertion than he can sustain for a 

 constancy. 1 



In short, it is the interest and purpose of the employer to so 

 manage his establishment that he may secure from it the highest 

 net return. He is producing for a market, and the more promptly 

 he can supply the demands of that market the greater are his 

 chances of making a profit ; and hence the need for " the utmost 

 rate of speed," and also for the most constant operation of the 

 factors of production consistent with the conditions named. "The 

 highest result with the least expenditure of means " 2 is the motto 

 of the employer. 



One factor, the machine, can work almost continuously day and 

 night ; and its efficiency is the same for the twenty-fourth hour 

 as for the first hour or for any intermediate hour. Indeed, except 

 as occasional stops may be requisite in order that the machine be 

 kept in repair, the more continuously it is kept at work the less 

 likely it is to deteriorate and the less likely it is to become 

 worthless by reason of the invention of a better machine. Whether 

 we consider the work of a machine for a day, for a year, or for 

 its whole life-time as a producing agent, it is most effective and 

 yields the highest net return to its owner when operated almost 

 continuously. 



The other factor, the workman, cannot work continuously for 

 any great length of time. There must be portions of each day 

 given to rest and recuperation ; and the efficiency of the workman 

 in the last hour of a long working-day is much less than in any 

 other hour, unless, perhaps, in the first. In the average employ- 

 ment requiring the use of little or no machinery, we may assume 

 that the first hour's work of each working-day is worth less than 

 that of the second, or of the third, etc. But after the sixth or 

 seventh hour the workman becomes increasingly less efficient. 

 Moreover, if he works beyond his strength in any one day, and 

 still more, if he works beyond his strength for any considerable 

 length of time, he loses vitality ; and loss of vitality, whatever 



1 See Karl Marx, Capital, p. 413. 



2 Brooks, The Social Unrest, p. 201. 



