546 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 
In reality the actions of both employers and employed, if so far as they 
are governed by self-regarding impulses, will be compromise resultants of 
immediate impulses and long-sighted calculations. Long-period results 
which are not very remote will usually be appreciated, and employers as 
well as operatives may aim at them, because the former may think the 
length of time an operative usually stays with one firm sufficient to justify 
a slight present sacrifice made with the object of securing improvement in 
the operative’s efficiency. 
The above analysis explains not only disagreements between employers 
and operatives as regards the normal working day, but also the friction 
which is constantly generated in the matter of ‘overtime.’ Without the 
admission of overtime heavy losses might be experienced by an industry in 
view of the inelasticity of its production and fluctuations in the market in 
which it sold; but, on the other hand, overtime once admitted sometimes 
tends to be worked out of proportion to the special need for it, and opera- 
tives are apt to suspect that it is being used unfairly to extend the normal 
day. 
I now desire to compare specifically the effect on wages with the effect 
on the working day of the mechanical action of pure competition. In the 
matter of wages, if operatives were too weak to have much influence in 
settling their pay, competition between employers, were it keen and un- 
checked by combination, would at least secure to the operatives as a wage, 
for a given working day, their marginal worth (within limits set by social 
friction) in view of their then state of efficiency. Thus in the circumstances 
supposed the operative would tend to get approximately the utmost possible 
—apart from the question of the reaction of wages on efficiency—in an active 
society reposing economically on a basis of freedom of enterprise, for we 
may take it that in such a society the bidding of individuals against one 
another for labour would continue at least up to the known marginal worth 
of labour. Observe, however, that the existence of such bidding may imply 
that new businesses are being established, or that old established employers 
are anxious to make considerable extensions, for old established employers, 
knowing that similar workmen must be paid the same, might avoid courses 
of action which resulted in a gain less than the loss involved in the elevation 
of wages. It is doubtful whether employers would as a rule assume that 
if they did not take steps leading to an advance in wages others would do 
so, for, not unnaturally, employers are commonly indisposed to disturb rates 
of wages except for strong reasons. And in the cases in which competition 
is effective in raising wages to the marginal worth of labour, it must 
be remembered that employers, even if endowed with a _ powerful 
telescopic faculty, would not necessarily be induced by self-interest 
to offer the wage in excess of the operative’s worth at the time 
which would ultimately produce (by augmenting the bodily and 
mental vigour of the operative) efficiency value equal to it, for 
their precautionary instinct would attach weight to the apprehension 
lest some of their operatives should leave them and carry to rival employers 
the proceeds of the long-sighted investments thus made in them. Other 
things being equal, of course, the higher the efficiency of labour the greater 
is the gain not only of the workmen but also of the employer. Now, as 
regards the working day, we have already seen that uncombined employers 
might keep it longer than would be desirable from their point of view, for 
the same reasons for which they might keep wages lower than would be 
desirable from their point of view. These reasons are, I repeat again; 
short-sightedness, or fear of incurring an expense the fruits of which other 
employers might reap. In this respect competition between employers is 
equally defective in its bearing on wages and in its bearing on the length 
of the working day. But it has an additional defect, as regards the 
amenities of working class life, in its bearings on the length of 
