The evidence from other countries of Europe where the eight-hour day has been put into effect—France, Belgium and Sweden—is similar to that from Germany. From Great Britain only we do not get such reports, but in view of the large percentage of unemployment that has been experienced there we should not expect to. The sameness of the results in the Continental countries is, however, commanding. All of them show a diminished production in at least the ratio of 10:8 in industries where the pace is fixed by machinery, which generally moves at the same rate in an eight-hour day as in a longer period. In other kinds of work there has been also a contraction in performance which is greater when payment is made by time than when it is made by the piece. Every country reports the occurrence of “black labor,” meaning that ambitious workmen after finishing a day’s work in one factory seek other employment, which leads them to work 12 or even 14 hours per day, returning the next morning to their primary job weary and inefficient. This habit has become especially prevalent in Germany. Belgium reports the emigration of workmen to France, where the enforcement of the eight-hour day is less strict.
This is how the statutory eight-hour day has worked en masse. The results are exactly what we should have expected from the evidence of single arts and industries in America, where there has been no offsetting mechanicalization, such as brick-laying, the work of stevedores in loading and unloading ships, etc. Indeed it may be deduced with positiveness that if any industry shows greater production per workman in eight hours than in 10-hours per day, barring rare exceptions, the explanation is to be found in machinery, which is not
