SOCIAL CAUSES OF TLNHEST 127 



gized, explaining that the men must have breakfast be- 

 fore they began their day's work. " But surely," I said, 

 " that compels you to be at work very early in preparing 

 their meal for them before their work begins." " I am 

 up every morning at half-past four," was her reply. 

 Yet it had been almost eight in the evening when, the 

 day's work being over, we three had sat down to the 

 feast of reason, the flow of soul, and the joy of the 

 spirit. The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ 

 in America has adopted a platform which has been 

 styled the social creed of the churches and hailed as the 

 magna charta of the worker's sacred rights. This 

 social creed asserts that the churches must stand 

 " for the gradual and reasonable reduction of the hours 

 of labor to the lowest practicable point, and for that 

 degree of leisure for all which is a condition of the 

 highest human life." The Pittsburg Survey declared 

 not only the seven-days week of labor, but the twelve- 

 hours day in vogue among the steel-workers, a disgrace 

 to civilization. What of the sixteen-hours day of many 

 of our women on Canadian farms ? The hours are long 

 for others than women. The growing boy, the imma- 

 ture youth, should not be expected to plod along as 

 steadily as the mature man, even through the rightful 

 hours of well-regulated toil. Forgetfulness of this on 

 the part of the father is the cause of much dissatisfac- 

 tion among country boys. And worse even than forget- 

 fulness may be found. There are undoubtedly cases 

 upon the farm where parents exploit their children's 

 labor for the sake of the money return as really as do 

 employers of child labor in factory or sweatshop. And 

 even the men themselves suffer through overlong hours 

 of toil. Though agriculture is not one of the most ex- 



