Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/271

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THE PROBABLE EFFECTS OF AN EIGHT HOURS DAY
249

shift is worked, men and boys working the same number of hours. Northumberland is the only other district where the hewers enjoy less than an eight hours day; the small average output in that county is due to the special hardness of, and the difficulty in working, the coal. It is said that in Durham and Northumberland the hewer works with much greater vigour than he does in any other district, with the object of hewing as great a quantity of coal as possible in his worldng day. The hewer's wages depend on (a) the price of coal, and (b) the quantity he hews. The more he can hew whilst he is at work the greater his wages. Apart from the question of wages, it is a well-known fact that, when physical exertion is necessary, the longer the day the slower the


  Output in tons. Number of
underground
workers.
Number
of surface-
men.
Total Output
per under-
ground
worker.
Output
per under-
ground
and over-
ground worker.
Staffordshire, S. 8,173,901 14,502 4,875 19,377 563 422
Durham, N. 7,854,492 16,036 4,427 20,463 490 383
Durham, S. 21,008,629 44,031 11,414 55,445 499 379
Scotland, E. 15,268,186 35,419 6,777 42,196 431 364
Lancashire, W. 10,981,491 27,708 6,179 33,887 396 324
Scotland, W. 6,216,790 15,939 2,929 18,868 396 320
Derbyshire 9,063,407 23,512 6,225 29,737 385 304
Lancashire, N.
9,786,927 26,141 5,325 31,466 374 311
    and E.
Yorkshire, E.
20,104,713 54,040 12,864 66,904 372 300
    and W.
Glamorganshire 17,791,298 51,249 8,532 59,781 347 297
Northumberland 5,658,940 21,289 4,416 25,705 265 221
 
Total for whole
country
162,119,812 428,540 97,737 526,277 378 308


worker. To ascertain the exact number of hours that a healthy man can work with the greatest possible advantage in the production of wealth—the effects of the toil on his physical frame being taken into account—would be a difficult though not impossible task. But the Durham miner may be taken as a proof that shorter hours of labour do not necessarily diminish production.


Not less important than the efficiency of the miner is the efficiency of the machinery available for bringing coal from the face to the surface. The effect of improvements in this respect may be illustrated by the fact communicated to me that in Lancashire one of the largest colliery proprietors in 1852 was only able to wind 600 tons per day from twelve pits, whereas now he can wind