PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 547 
the working day; for though competition between employers in an enter- 
prising society would bring about the degree of devotion of time to produc- 
tion which the operatives would choose at the wages rendering it possible, 
the choice of the operatives is apt to be governed by a circumscribed vision 
which is partially blind to the responses of efficiency to abbreviated hours. 
It would seem, therefore, that two reasons at least can be derived from 
economic theory for State intervention in the matter of the hours of 
labour, if it be assumed that the State can discover what is best for the 
country. The one is to correct the tendency of people engaged in industry 
to agree upon an amount of sacrifice to money-making, which means a 
large future loss, involving the next generation, for a small present gain ; 
the other is to fortify, if needful, the resistance of operatives to the dispo- 
sition of some employers to secure a greater product at the expense of the 
operatives’ convenience. This conclusion would, however, be too hasty a 
deduction. Economic matters are settled, not merely by the self-regarding 
forces which we have hitherto emphasised, but also by social conceptions, 
embodied in public opinion and class notions of what is right and proper, 
which defy expert analysis and any accurate evaluation as influences. These 
social conceptions, which are not deliberately framed on a rationalistic 
basis, but proceed insensibly as it were from the needs of human life, are 
less intermixed with religious elements now than they used to be, Lut are 
none the less powerful. Resting on the seventh day is not at present a 
religious observance to the extent to which it has been in certain periods of 
past history, but it has not universally been found necessary to supplement 
the declining religious sanction with the legal sanction. How far progress 
which runs counter to tendencies determined solely by self-regarding forces 
may be left with confidence to the operation of these incalculable motives 
which sway every community, can be settled only by careful observation. 
It is sufficient now to recognise their existence, and to point to the 
reductions of the hours of labour in recent years. I do not propose to 
consider here, in the light of the existence of these incalculable motives, 
the merits and demerits of the method of legal enactment for attaining 
the ideal in the matter of the daily duration of toil, except to 
observe, first, that Government interference which aimed at securing 
reasonable hours for adult males in all the diversified industries 
of a country would entail elaborate, elastic, and frequent legisla- 
tion, and would no doubt be accompanied by many grave errors; and 
secondly, that a prima facie case can be made out for the regulation of the 
hours @ven of adult males by authoritative boards, Order of the Home 
Office, or by statute, when labour is weakly combined and hours are 
evidently sweated hours, and evidence is forthcoming that they are detri- 
mental to health or vigour. Nor do I propose to consider whether it 
might not be better to suffer for a time present ills in the hope that there 
would grow up in the community an adequate power of self-regulation, which 
would incidentally be accompanied by highly valuable social consequences, 
outside the sphere of our present inquiry, that otherwise might never have 
been elicited. I am hopeful that the intangible force of public opinion, 
directed by economic and ethical enlightenment over a field rendered yearly 
more co-extensive with contemporary facts in consequence of the growing 
demand for publicity and the response made to that demand by govern- 
mental authorities and the press, will become in the future an increasingly 
efficacious factor in progress, apart from its expression in law. Even 
to-day, in view of the dependence of producers on demand, neither 
employers nor trade unions can afford to brave for long public sentiment, 
though unorganised, when it is deeply stirred; and public sentiment in 
the years before us may be expected to respond more sensitively to incidents 
in its surroundings which offend against social conceptions of what is 
right and proper. The cases of children, young persons, and women, which 
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