90 American Economic Association [888 



qtiently, the employee assumes a position antagonistic 

 to the interests of his employer. There remains, 

 therefore, a wide margin within which the interests of 

 employers and employees are adverse to each other ; 

 and the immediate effect of the introduction of ma- 

 chinery is rather to widen that area than to narrow it. 



It would doubtless be impossible to enumerate all of 

 the causes which have operated to give a shorter work- 

 ing day in the more recent years. Public opinion has 

 doubtless had some influence in this direction ; but, for 

 the most part, the various causes have found expression 

 in, and have operated through, factory and labor laws. 



Just how far the legislation thus far enacted in be- 

 half of employees has operated to give farm laborers a 

 shorter working day it would, doubtless, be impossible 

 to say. That the farm laborers have, in some degree, 

 profited by such legislation may be fairly inferred from 

 the testimony presented before the recent Industrial 

 Commission and summarized in the report of that Com- 

 mission as follows : " Returns relative to the hours of 

 daily service show the influence of general labor agita- 

 tion for shorter hours in shortening the day of rural 

 service. The reduction is very general, and greater 

 where industrial and mechanical enterprise is domi- 

 nant." 1 



It is to be expected, however, that the working-day 

 should be longer on the farms than in the factories, for 

 the outdoor life and more varied nature of the employ- 

 ment promotes health and makes it possible for farm 

 workmen to continue their work through a given 

 period with, relatively, much less cost of vitality. 



That this is true will appear fairly evident from a 



1 Report of Industrial Commission (1901), Vol. XI, p. 82. 



