achines, should
reap all the advantages; and so, while the hours were still further
reduced, the wages were increased, thus more nearly equalizing the
benefits accruing to employer and employed. With the aid of inventions
the worker, on the average, can do more in the short day of eight or
ten hours than he did formerly in the sixteen-hour day. It is not
contended, however, that every laborer actually does this. This phase of
the question is a large factor in the labor problem. But from the point
of view of the average man and of society, labor with the aid of
machinery can produce probably twice as much as it produced formerly
without that aid. This fact has had great influence upon industrial life
everywhere, and makes for increased opportunities and growth.

=The Mental Factor Growing.=--The trend alluded to above implies that
the mental factor is growing larger and larger in occupations of all
kinds. Success is becoming more and more dependent on knowledge,
ingenuity, prudence, and foresight. Especially is this true on the farm.
There is scarcely any calling that demands or can make use of such
varied talents. All fields of knowledge may be drawn upon and utilized,
from the weather signals to the most recent findings and conclusions of
science and philosophy. As the hours of labor both in the factory and on
the farm are shortened still more--as is possible--the hours of study,
of play, and of social converse will be lengthened. Indeed this is one
of the by-problems of civilization and progress--to see that leisure
hours are profitably spent for the welfare of the individual. In any
event, the prospect of reasonable hours and of social and cultural
opportunities in rural life is growing from day to day. The intelligent
man with modern machinery and ordinary capital, if he has made some
scientific study of agriculture, need have no fear of not living a
successful and happy life on the farm. A knowledge of his calling in all
its aspects, with the aid of modern machinery, and with sobriety,
thrift, and industry, will bring a kind of life to both adults and
children that the crowded factory and tenements and the tinsel show of
the city cannot give. But one must be willing to forego the social and
physical display of the surface of things and to choose the better and
more substantial part. If we are a people that can do this there is hope
for an early and satisfactory solution of the problems of rural life.

=The Bright