ws that other
businesses may not be more profitably conducted by employing low-paid
workers for long hours with simpler machinery. We are not at liberty
to conclude that the early Lancashire mill-owners adopted a
short-sighted policy in employing children and feeble adult labour at
starvation wages.

The evidence, in particular, of Schulze-Gaevernitz certainly shows
that the economy of high wages and short hours is closely linked with
the development of machinery, and that when machinery is complex and
capable of being worked at high pressure a net economy of high wages
and short hours emerges. In this light modern machinery is seen as the
direct cause of high wages and short hours. For though the object of
introducing machinery is to substitute machine-tenders at low wages
for skilled handicraftsmen, and though the tireless machine could be
profitably worked continuously, when due regard is had to human nature
it is found more profitable to work at high pressure for shorter hours
and to purchase such intense work at a higher price. It must, of
course, be kept in mind that high wages are often the direct cause of
the introduction of improved machinery, and are an ever-present
incentive to fresh mechanical inventions. This was clearly recognised
half a century ago by Dr. Ure, who names the lengthened mules, the
invention of the self-acting mule, and some of the early improvements
in calico-printing as directly attributable to this cause.[232]

But, admitting these tendencies in certain machine industries, we are
not justified in relying confidently upon the ability of a rise of
wages, obtained by organisation of labour or otherwise, to bring about
such improvements of industrial methods as will enable the higher
wages to be paid without injuring the trade, or reducing the profits
below the minimum socially required for the maintenance of a privately
conducted industry.

Our evidence leads to the conclusion that, while a rise of wages is
nearly always attended by a rise of efficiency of labour and of the
product, the proportion which the increased productivity will bear to
the rise of wage will differ in every employment. Hence it is not
possible to make a general declaration in favour of a policy of high
wages or of low wages.

Sec. 5. The economically profitable wages and hours will vary in
accordance with many conditions, among the most important being the
development of machinery, the strain upon muscles and nerv