Evening star., 1933-10-08

turb your social philosophy. Here they
are:
(D There Is no such thing as over
production.
co Underconsumption did not cause
the depression.
60 The greater the total production
the better the condition of labor.
If these propositions are true, as they
appear to be, the following conclusions
derived from them are inevitable. There
are some important provisos and excep-
tions, but they are none the less truths.
unpalatable though they be.
Cd Shortening hours does not benefit
labor.
90 Raising wages does not help the
unemployed.
90 Forced raising of wages and short
ening of hours will not end depression.
What does history show about this
ancient problem of the hours of labor?
Ten thousand years ago your ancestors
lived bestial lives in an endless search
for food. Three thousand years ago
myriads of miserable slaves toiled cease
lessly to build a useless pyramid, until
death released them. Two thousand
years ago Roman ships were driven by
galley slaves, chained to their oars. Five
hundred years ago a hundred peasant
women piled the needle from dawn till
dark, that one fine lady might be
clothed for life of idleness. They were
factory system of Europe not much more
than a hundred years ago children of
and years worked from 4 in the
morning until 10 at night, the little
creatures dragged from their beds before
daybreak to stand at the machines for
16 hours. They died from exhaustion
by thousands. For years the British
Parliament debated the wisdom of pro-
hibiting employment of children under
9 more than IL hours in cotton mills.
In the early American mills the overseer
stood in the aisles and flicked with a
rawhide whip the consumptive woman
or the little child who faltered at the
14-hour task Until modern times miners
worked IA hours a day, seven days a
week. The 12-hour day and the seven
day week are recent memories In
America
THE history of mankind is a sad story
of exploitation and overwork. But
an through the dark annals there runs
a silver thread, the heartening fact Of
continuous progress toward shorter
hours and higher wages. The hours of
toll have been cut from the IA of a
century ago to the nine hours Of our
time. Wages have moved from the 10
pence a day of the peasant worker to
the $40 day for the American brick
layer. No student of social progress but
knows that this steady rise Of wages Is
the finest achievement of civilization.
It is an unhappy circumstance that
the nature of this progress toward a
decent life for all men should be griev-
ouSly misunderstood. Men misread the
plain facts that underlie their own i'm
proved condition. BY very reason OF this
unhappy correlation between increased
production and shorter, better-paid toll
they have come to believe a monstrous
error, the general theory of overproduc-
ton as a social menace.
The causes of depression are not an
issue here. This writer admits that
after Is years of study he has no salts
factory explanation of depressions. This
much is certain: The causes of depres-
sions will be found in our complex credit,
valuation and capitalization processes.
They will not be found in general over
production for there is no such thing.
The more efficient the productive proc
ess, the greater the total product or
social dividend to be divided among all
the people. This is the fundamental
law.
The economic order Is a vast machine