The Washington herald., 1916-12-17

Leaving available free
time ...........,.... ...... 2f75 hows=8.lL
At present, with an eight-hsur work
day, working 800 days during the year, 1t
means:
Total number Of hours
during the year......... 366&24=e,f60 hourB=lOOI
Sleeping % hours pT day.
and eating q hr.)..-.... S5xs =3n8 hours=S.5L
Working. go days at
Leaving available tree time 30S hOurs-S.lI
hours ..................... 1oxs 400 hours=1iL
Thus, in spite Of the great progress dur
ing the last hundred years, the efficiency
Of human life has increased only from
| Isl per cent to S.1 per cent, or by z
| per cent, and still Is extremely small,
35.1 per cent.
IT. however, we could fully realize on
our advancements, with a four-hour day
and 200 working days, the record would
stand:
Total number Of hours
during the year......... 365XA=a760 hours=l00%
Sleeping % hrs. per day.
and eating q hr.). 3s5x9 =3.2s6 hous=a5%
Working. 20 days at
hours G0X4 = 500 houraH9l.lL
Leaving available as free
time ...........-........ ....... 4,675 hours=S34L
This would give 524 per cent as a max
imum possible efficiency, under the pres
ent conditions of human knowledge,
nearly twice as much as 100 years ago,
and would be an advancement worth
! while.
But with the increasing subdivision of
work. the character of the work has
| changed, and with it the attitude of the
| worker toward 1t; the creative element
| has gone out Of the work. To the shoe
l maker Of former days who, from the
leather as raw material, made a COM
| plete pair Of shoes. to the machinist who
| collaborated in building a finished ma
chine, there was a satisfaction in the
l NJ nh Ill
| them an interest in their work. This sat
| isfaction in this work the piece worker
cannot feel, who makes the same seam
| in every one Of the thousand shoes which
pass before him in the shoe factory, or
| who makes the same slash in every one
| OF the earcasses passing before him In the
slaughter-house, or drops the same bolt
| into the same kind Of hole in the auto
| mobile factory.
Thus the work of the world has large
ly changed to labor, to drudgery, and
the interest which the worker of former
, days found in his work he now seeks
outside Of the working hours. As the
result, the demand for shorter working
hours, though existing in former times
has become more insistent now, with
the changed character Of most of the
industrial work. 1t is often dificult for
the captain of industry, the leader or
manager to understand why the employees
demand the eight-hour working day.
while he himself is working twelve or
fourteen hours without complaint but
let US distinguish between creative work
and monotonous labor. and the matter
Is clearer. OF the twelve hours of the
director, two hours may be uninterest-
ing mechanical routine, drudgery; ten
hours supervision, administration, dfrec-
ton Of work-in short, creative activities,
and compared with the piece worker the
balance Of labor stands two hours against
eight hours. 1t Is true, very few Of the
workers In our modern industries who
continuously do the same thing over and
over again would be willing to change to
an occupation where they have to use
their Intelligence to q greater extent,
where variety of action requires rea-
sonfng alertness. But this merely means
that their intelligence and ability have
never been developed sufficiently to ap-
prectate creative activity, or has been
dulled and depressed at an early age. hut
u does not make the continuous repesi-
ton of piece work any less nonotonous.
America is in q peculiar and verv
fortunate position. As q new country
with vast capital In natural resources.
ana with relatively low population
density, but rapidly growing popula-
ton, 1t offered great opportunities of
development. That part of the United
oldtes Whch IS least favored by nature
but which was settled first-the New
England States-felt the pinch Of the in
dustrial problem in the middle Of the
nineteenth century. but the problem was
solved, at least temporarily, by forcibly
excluding foreign competition from the
United States. and so reserving the
markets Of the South and Of the West
to the industrial New England States.
This was the issue on which the civil
war was fought; the abolishment Of
slavery was merely an incident Of this
economic issue. The civil war was thus
an economic war, just as every great
war has been; it consolidated the United
States industrially as one nation. while
the revolutionary war had made it
politically one nation.
The great Industrial development Of our
country In the last generation was the
result.