November 24, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



735 



in another it might be more or less than 

 eight hours. So too within a single indus- 

 try one worker might labor longer than 

 another. Such a solution could be made to 

 satisfy both economic and social demands 

 and lead to the maximum of individual and 

 national efficiency. 



I quite realize the difficulties inherent in 

 putting into practise a system which does 

 not recognize the magic eight hours as the 

 ideal, and especially the still greater diffi- 

 culties in the establishment of a system in 

 which within a single occupation one per- 

 son works longer than another. But I be- 

 lieve that these difficulties would prove less 

 formidable if we would once get accus- 

 tomed to the notion that individual capac- 

 ity is the first criterion to be considered in 

 deciding upon labor's duration. The ad- 

 justment of wages according to individual 

 capacity I will leave to the economists. 



In view of all this how fatuous was the 

 action of the state of California in voting, 

 in 1914, on the question whether the eight- 

 hour day should be adopted! The propo- 

 sition was defeated by about two to one, 

 but the decision was necessarily a matter of 

 sentiment, resting on no basis of adequate 

 knowledge. An affair of such serious 

 moment ought not to be decided by unin- 

 structed popular feeling. The recent ac- 

 tion of Congress in imposing, after a few 

 hours' consideration, an eight-hour day 

 upon railway employees can hardly be 

 called more sagacious than the action of 

 California. The Adamson bill, however, 

 has little bearing on the general principle 

 of the eight-hour day. 



It is obvious that any formal regulation 

 of the duration of daily labor is for those 

 whose daily services are employed by 

 others. By so much as a man rises above 

 this stage he becomes free to choose his own 

 working-time. It is a noteworthy fact that 

 with the world's leaders, in industry, in 

 finance, in professional life, the duration 



of the daily task is wholly secondary to its 

 accomplishment. They are limited by no 

 eight-, or ten-, or twelve- or sixteen-hour 

 considerations. This indicates why such 

 men become leaders. Laborers can learn a 

 valuable lesson from this fact. The greedy 

 employer who constantly saps the energies 

 of those who are the medium by which he 

 gains his wealth is to be condemned no more 

 than is the "slacker" whose only guiding 

 principles are a minimum of effort and a 

 maximum of wage. Moreover, it is trite to 

 say that the obligation rests upon the 

 laborer that rests upon all men, so to use 

 his free hours as to benefit himself, his fam- 

 ily and society. 



In conclusion I can not refrain from 

 quoting, with warm approval of their senti- 

 ments and of their application to our own 

 country, the recent significant words of Sir 

 George Newman regarding British indus- 

 tries : 



Our national experience in modern industry is 

 longer than that of any other people. It has shown 

 clearly enough that false ideas of economic gain, 

 blind to physiological law, must lead, as they led 

 through the nineteenth century, to vast national 

 loss and suffering. It is certain that unless our 

 industrial life is to be guided in the future by the 

 application of physiological science to the details 

 of its management, it can not hope to maintain 

 its position hereafter among some of its foreign 

 rivals, who already in that respect have gained a 

 present advantage. 



Frederic S. Lee 



Columbia University 



THE CARE OF PAMPHLET 

 COLLECTIONS 1 



The published articles pertaining even to 

 the most restricted fields of science are scat- 

 tered through a very large number of serial 

 publications of which only the larger institu- 

 tions of learning and research are able to pos- 

 sess complete sets. The high cost and large 

 bulk of such series preclude their being owned 



i Contribution from the. Museum of Vertebrate 

 Zoology of the University of California. 



