The Larger Socialism

modities. For example, during the World War a ten- hour day in the British manufacture of munitions gave forth fewer and poorer munitions than the, eight-hour day?not only fewer munitions per hour, but fewer in sum total. Great Britain similarly discovered that the munitions output of a seven-day week and a fifty-two-week year proved itself lower and poorer than the output of a six- day week and a fifty-week year, again not only relatively, but absolutely. There was nothing unprecedented in this discovery. Many a private manufacturer has found a decrease, voluntary or involuntary, in his plant's working-hours an aid, not a hindrance, to output. No element of production wreaks havoc comparable to that wrought by sabotage, and fatigue is a prime saboteur of industry. But there are nonetheless limits upon the gains in production, or lack of losses in production, to be realized by the elimination of fatigue. Such limits may seldom be clearly indicated, and they may vary markedly from industry to industry, but they are still real and potent. We laugh out of court the irate defender of the status quo ante bellum in industry who insists that the chief factor in the present increased cost of living has been the extension of trade unionism, with the consequent reduction of the working-hours of Labor. But we should no less insistently laugh out of court the optimistic Socialist who would deny that the reduction of working-hours has constituted one of the factors in the h...