but collecting one or two scattered notices I should be inclined to say very nearly 20 per cent. There has been at least this reduction in the textile, engineering, and house-building trades. The workman gets from 50 to 100 per cent more money for 20 per cent less work; in round figures he has gained from 70 to 120 per cent in fifty years in money return. It is just possible, of course, that the workman may do as much, or nearly as much, in the shorter period as he did in his longer hours. Still, there is the positive gain in his being less time at his task, which many of the classes still tugging lengthily day by day at the oar would appreciate.”
Chapter V. On The Possible Futurity Of The Laboring-Classes.
§ 1. The possibility of improvement while Laborers remain merely receivers of Wages.
There has probably never been a time when more attention has been called to the material and social conditions of the working-classes than in the last few