An Eight .Hours Day. By W. J. Shaxby. (Liberty Review
Publish- ing Company.)—Mr. Shaxby marshals the arguments, theoretical and practical, which may be urged against the proposal of State interference. But this does not imply hostility to the general aim of a reduction of the hours of labour. When it can be done by voluntary agreement, it is a benefit to employers and employed. But compulsion is quite another matter. It is scarcely necessary to go beyond the multiplicity of exceptions. Agricultural and seafaring occupations are such. Coasting trade and fishing, often done in small craft, with crews of two men and a boy, are instances. Haymaking and corn harvesting is another. Probably the result of the engineering strike will be to throw back the cause. It was very remarkable how the eight-hour demand was practically ignored long before the end.
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