ON WAGES AND THE HOURS OF LABOUR. 473 
Section Il. Lffects as regards Produce. 
A general reduction in the hours of labour will at first reduce the not 
produce! available for distribution amongst producers. It is true that 
(a) any improvement in the efficiency of labour due to shorter hours,? 
(b) the impulse that may be given to the invention of labour-saving 
appliances,® or (c) greater economy in the use of labour, will tend to 
lessen the reduction in produce; but in all industries of the second class 
(i.e., where the reduction is moderate in amount), a class that includes 
most of the skilled industries of the country, the reduction in produce 
will at first correspond very closely to the reduction in hours. A cotton- 
spinner spins practically as much during the last hour as during the 
first hour of the day, and in the opinion of competent judges a reduction 
of one-eighth in the hours of Jabour in the cotton trade would practically 
reduce the produce one-eighth also. Improved machinery might in time 
obviate this, as it did after the Factory Acts were passed; but there are 
many industries in which improvements in production operate but slowly ; * 
and it must be remembered that the conditions, especially as regards 
foreign competition, under which production is now carried on have 
greatly altered since the introduction of factory legislation. 
The produce may be reduced in some trades in a greater proportion 
than the reduction in the hours of labour by the effects at the margin of 
cultivation. A farm, or even a factory, possessing so few advantages, as 
regards either fertility or situation, that it yields barely sufficient to pay 
ordinary interest and wages, may cease to be profitable, and may go out of 
cultivation, or cease to be worked. In such a case the reduction in hours 
not only reduces the net produce, but throws capital and labour out of 
employment. 
It has been suggested that the net production could and would 
be maintained (if not increased) by the employment of the unemployed. 
Such a suggestion implies that there is a class of unemployed possessing 
the requisite physical powers, mental intelligence, and technical skill 
required in the industries where the hours of labour are reduced. No 
such assumption can be granted. Indeed, there is ample ground for con- 
tending that, as far as skilled industries are concerned, the bulk of the 
unemployed do not possess the necessary skill to engage in them. It 
must not be forgotten that division of labour has been carried out to 
such an extent in this country that a skilled artisan may be totally unfit 
for any industry except that for which he has been trained ; hence there 
may be skilled artisans out of employment and trades seeking skilled 
artisans at one and the same time. LHven in what are called unskilled 
industries physical strength is usually a necessity, and amongst the 
chronic unemployed it is, as a rule, wanting. The length of the hours of 
labour is not the chief cause of want of employment. Excessive hours 
of labour are themselves the result of causes which would largely remain 
in force even if the hours of labour were shortened,® and whilst the. 
1 By ‘net produce’ is meant the total amount of new wealth produced in a given 
time, eg., in a year. 
2 Report on Depression of Trade, Q. 11,935. 3 See Appendix (a). 
* «The reduction of hours in the flax-spinning trade reduced the output in pro- 
portion, no relief being obtained from improved machinery.’—Report on Depression 
of Trade, Q. 7,012. 
* See Miss Potter's article on the ‘ Sweating Committee’ in Contemporary Review, 
June 1890. 
