ABSTRACT
The effect of improved shift systems, under which, with any given hours for workpeople, the hours for the employers’ machinery are prolonged, and, therefore, the quantity of machinery required to maintain a given output correspondingly reduced. It is evident that, after a point, an addition to the hours of labour normally worked in any industry would, by wearing out the work-people, ultimately lessen, rather than increase, the national dividend. In view of the considerations it is clear that no general statement as to the relation between hours of labour and the national dividend can be made. Provided that the hourly rate of wages is not raised, a shortening of the hours of labour does not, at all events until there has been time for it to bring about a reduction in the mechanical equipment of factories, make it to the interest of employers to employ fewer workpeople than before.
