INCREASED  LEISURE

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the  volume  of  consumption  and  of  production,  spoiling
the  trade.
All  reasonable  advocates  of  a  general  policy  of  shortening ­
  the  working-day  must  make  just  allowance  for
trades  in  this  last  condition.  With  these  important  exceptions ­
  and  modifications  it  is  true  that  the  shorter
working-day  will  contribute  to  strengthen  the  economic
position  of  the  workers  and  to  increase  the  proportion  of
consuming-power  which  falls  into  their  hands.  It  will
directly  absorb  a  certain  proportion  of  “unemployment.”
It  will  do  away  with  certain  irregularities  of  employment
which  are  not  truly  inherent  in  the  nature  and  conditions
of  the  trade,  but  are  due  to  the  disturbing  existence  of
a  large  margin  of  spare  labour.  By  relieving  to  some
degree  the  glut  of  the  labour-market  it  will  assist  labour
to  organise  more  effectively  and  to  raise  the  general
standard  of  working-class  consumption.
§  a.  Increased  Leisure  a  Condition  of
Rising  Consumption.
The  indirect  effects  of  a  shorter  working-day  are  not
less  important.  Provided  the  increased  leisure  is  not  purchased ­
  by  an  injurious  over-strain  in  the  shorter  workingday,
  the  increased  opportunities  it  will  afford  for  the  cultivation ­
  of  unused  faculties  and  the  satisfaction  of  new
tastes,  will  furnish  an  ever-growing  stimulus  towards  an
elevation  of  the  standard  of  life.  By  yielding  a  continuous
demand  for  the  satisfaction  of  new,  strong  desires  it  will
supply  the  moral  force  which,  allied  with  improved  intelligence ­
  and  the  more  effective  means  of  organisation  which
modern  conditions  of  industry  and  of  life  afford,  makes
powerfully  and  persistently  for  enforcing  the  claims  of  the