p. 190 | Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · June 12, 1890

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 5, No. 24

How Do They Use It?

The lessening of the hours of labor may seem to be a very good thing for mechanics, but it is not impossible that in the long run it may be found to work against their interests. A great many persons who are not mechanics, but toil as arduously as any mechanics ever do or did, do not find that they can make a fair living unless they work more than eight hours a day. If the whole wide world can get along upon eight hours a day for toil, and is ready to devote the rest of its time to proper rest and recreation, and to such pursuits as will help to relieve those who engage in them, we wish the eight-hour rule might be established the world over. But the question arises, whether, apart from possible financial difficulties, the reduction of the hours of labor and consequent increase of hours of idleness may not prove in a moral point of view more hurtful than helpful to the laboring classes? Do they use well such leisure as they now have? Or do they use it in a way that suggests that increase of leisure would prove only a curse, and not a blessing?—New York Observer.