Social Problems And Their Peaceful Solution.

m akes the article he tenderly guarded from the evils of overwork , whilst the seller of it must be up early and late , not to meet a necessity or suit a real convenience , hut only to humour the foolish caprice and to foster the indifferent carelessness of the purchaser ? Depend upon it that more

real business would be done in the shorter time allotted to it , and would prove as profitable to the master , as beneficial to the servant , for short hours promote a rapid business-like way of getting through work , and are thusin the long runas conducive

, , to the interest of the employer as they are to the health of the employed . In the second place there is another consideration why the whole of a man ' s working hours should not be passed behind

the counter or m the confines of the shop , dawdling through an amount of work that would be far better done if compressed into some hours less time ; namely , if a man be thus occupied from the moment of rising , to the moment of retiring to rest , where is an opportunity afforded him for

the cultivation of his mental faculties ? Where his time for recreation 1 Granted , for a moment , that the workman is regarded as the mere machine of his employer . Granted that he must squeeze out of his machine all the work he

can , yet if the machine is to run properly it must have oil and sometimes repair . So , too , if the man is to work well he must have his times of rest , and his hours of recreation - .

" All work and no play , Makes Jack a dull boy !" Listen to the weary soul , sighing out her very life in despairing slavery" Oh , but to breathe the breath

Of the cowslip and primrose sweet—With the sky above my head , And the grass beneath my feet , For only one short hour , To feel as I used to feel , Before I knew the woes of want ,

And the walk that costs a meal ! Oh , but for one short hour ! A respite however brief ! No blessed leisure for love or hope , But only time for grief I

A little weeping would ease my heart , But iu their briny bed My tears must stop , for every drop Hinders needle and thread ! " And say , gentle reader , should this be so .

Listen ! yet once more , to her appeal : " Oh , men , with sisters dear ! Oh , men , with mothers and wives ! It is not linen you ' re wearing out , But human creatures' lives Stitch—Sti tch—Stitch , In poverty , hunger , and dirt , Sewing at once , with a double thread , A shroud as well as a shirt .

But why do I talk of death ? That phantom of grisly bone , I hardly fear his terrible shape , It seems so like my own—It seems so like my own , Because of the fasts I keep ^ Oh , God ! that bread should be so dear , And flesh and blood so cheap . "

And say , shall this be so . So much then for the moral force brought to bear by the public ; now for the question as between masters and men . Every man , it is true , is in a certain sense a machine , but then this only holds good in the same way of the employed that it does of the

employer , when they are together concerned in the production of wealth . Both are equally men , both have souls as well as bodies alike . And now , how does the wise man direct a master to treat the servant that does his duty 1

" If thou have a servant , let him be unto thee as thyself set hini to work as is fit for him but be not excessive towards any . . . . . Let thy soul love a good servant , and defraud him not of liberty . "

Let not masters , then , be too exacting ; nor let the public , for that is the gist of the matter , drive them to be so . Give fair day ' s wage for a fair day's work , expecting , in return , a full day ' s work for a full day ' s wage . Fix a fair proportion of the day for work , and insist that during this portion it shall indeed he work . Then give up the remainder to improvement of mind and recreation of body . Found