The Forty-Hour Week Discussion There is danger of misunderstanding the
issues involved in the proposal for a universal 40-hour week put forward by the Italian Government at Geneva, and alluded to with approval by M. Daladier at the Economic Confer- ence. The discussion has been deferred for further inquiry. There is much to be said for reduced hours, as a makeshift in one set of circumstances, and as an ideal in another. The former is a device for sharing out available work, and is comparable with the plan first adopted at the Blaenavon Collieries. But a universal 40-hour week would inevitably have one of two results : either it would lead to reduced wages, or, if it' did not, it would impose a severe handicap on the countries where wages are highest—that is to say, it would benefit most the countries where labour is sweated. But the principle of reduced working hours as an ideal is quite different. It is one that ought to be applied when the-conditions are those of real plenty. The existence of a glut -of goods today implies neither plenty nor even a sufficiency for the consumers of the world—it is due to a breakdown of the means of distributing goods among consumers. The only immediate remedy is to solve the problem of distribution. When that has been done, and unham- pered production has brought plenty into the homes of the consumers, then will be the time to reduce the hours of work from a minimum of 48 to 40 or to any lower limit which may serve to satisfy the needs of mankind'.
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