operative
the improvements in machinery have been neutralised by the inferior
quality of raw material used, and I think it is fair to assume that
their work has been intensified at least in proportion to the increase
of spindles, etc."

The direct evidence drawn from this most highly-evolved machine
industry seems to justify the general opinion expressed by Professor
Nicholson, "It is clear that the use of machines, though apparently
labour-saving, often leads to an increase in the _quantity of labour_,
negatively, by not developing the mind, positively by doing harm to
the body."[204]

Sec. 3. When any muscular or other physical effort is required it is
pretty evident that an increased duration or a greater continuity in
the slighter effort may tax the body quite as severely as the less
frequent or constant application of a much greater bodily force. There
can be no question but that in a competitive industrial society there
exists a tendency to compensate for any saving of hard muscular, or
other physical effort afforded by the intervention of machinery in two
ways: first, by "forcing the pace"--_i.e._, compelling the worker to
attend more machines or to work more rapidly, thus increasing the
strain, if not upon the muscles, then upon the nerves; secondly, by
extending the hours of labour. A lighter form of labour spread over an
increased period of time, or an increased number of minor muscular
exertions substituted for a smaller number of heavier exertions within
the same period of time, may of course amount to an increased tax upon
the vital energy. It is not disputed that a general result of the
factory system has been to increase the average length of the working
day, if we take under our survey the whole area of machine-production
in modern industrial communities. This is only in part attributable to
the fact that workers can be induced to sell the same daily output of
physical energy as before, while in many cases a longer time is
required for its expenditure. Another influence of equal potency is
the economy of machinery effected by working longer hours. It is the
combined operation of these two forces that has lengthened the average
working day. Certain subsidiary influences, however, also deserve
notice, especially the introduction of cheap illuminants. Before the
cheap provision of gas, the working time was generally limited by
daylight. Not until the first decade of this century was gas
introduced into