Novembeb 24, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



733 



from strained attention, from all those 

 minor factors which Abbe has grouped to- 

 gether as sources of his well-named "pas- 

 sive fatigue." A shorter day eliminates 

 these by so much and at its end leaves the 

 worker so much better off than his longer- 

 laboring fellow. 



The argument for shorter hours that is 

 most frequently put forward, by labor 

 leaders at least, is the social one. Thus, Mr. 

 Samuel Gompers says : 



The shorter workday is something more than an 

 eeonomie demand. It is a demand for an oppor- 

 tunity for rest, recuperation, development; things 

 which make life more than mechanical drudgery. 



This is undoubtedly a legitimate de- 

 mand, but it in turn is dependent on the 

 physiological requirements of the labor. 

 If a man is worked beyond his physiolog- 

 ical limit he is incapacitated for his duties 

 to his family and to society. The history 

 of labor has demonstrated this abundantly, 

 and the experience of reducing the hours 

 pf labor has almost universally been fol- 

 lowed by marked moral and social im- 

 provement, such as is shown by decrease 

 in intemperance and crime, improvement 

 in living conditions, greater efforts toward 

 education, greater intelligence and greater 

 industrial efficiency — all this in contradic- 

 tion, not only to the vivid predictions of 

 disaster pronounced by active and unprin- 

 cipled opponents of the change, but to the 

 fears of those who were well-meaning but 

 timid. 



As possible factors in determining the 

 duration of labor I might mention the de- 

 gree of skill required by the laborer and 

 the degree of responsibility devolving upon 

 him. These may rightly be potent in de- 

 termining the amount of wage to be paid, 

 since they are the accompaniments of 

 greater intelligence and the results of 

 greater training; but in their bearing on 

 the length of the working-day they can be 

 considered, it seems to me, only in the light 



of their physiological demands on the la- 

 borer. If the exercise of greater skill and 

 the possession of greater responsibility de- 

 plete his physical and mental powers more 

 quickly, he has earned a shorter working- 

 period. If they do not, I see no reason why 

 he should be granted time privileges. 



Let me here summarize. Of the various 

 agencies that have been considered as legiti- 

 mate factors in determining the length of 

 the working-day that which appears to me 

 the most weighty is the physiological one, 

 the physiological effects of the labor on the 

 individual laborer. In the pursuit of his 

 vocation as the employee of another every 

 human being has a right to the preserva- 

 tion of his physiological powers, to the 

 avoidance of excessive fatigue, to the con- 

 tinuance of his health. All questions of the 

 percentage of financial profit, all questions 

 of social demands or social opportunity, 

 are subordinate to this. Moreover, this is 

 essential to the other considerations men- 

 tioned, for only by the preservation of his 

 health can the economic demands of his 

 work be satisfied, only by this can he ac- 

 quire and maintain skill and be worthy of 

 responsibility. The whole question of the 

 length of the working-day thus rests pri- 

 marily on a physiological basis. In decid- 

 ing the length of the working-day, there- 

 fore, the first and all-important query is: 

 Is a long day physiologically detrimental to 

 the individual? If so, it should be short- 

 ened. If the long day is not physiolog- 

 ically detrimental, then it is a fair ques- 

 tion whether, because of his employer's in- 

 terests or his own relations to society, his 

 day should be long or short. 



Is the reduction of the working-period 

 to the eight-hour day a physiological ne- 

 cessity? Here two factors are to be con- 

 sidered: The characteristics of the labor 

 and the capacity of the laborer. Different 

 occupations differ greatly in their fatigu- 

 ing power. Especially productive of fa- 



