FOUR HOURS A DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 99, Issue 16652, 18 November 1925, Page 8

FOUR HOURS A DAY.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—During the election the Labour candidate for Hamilton was reported to say that with society properly organised—presumably upon a socialistic model—the world’s work could be done in a working day of four hours. I have read the same assertion before in books on Socialism, but I have never seen one scintilla of evidence advanced in proof of it- Thinking that, although I have been studying economics for years, I might have missed the proof, or attempt at proof, I referred the matter to a University professor who is regarded as New Zealand’s greatest authority on economics. The following extracts from his reply will be of public interest: “I can say that I have repeatedly noticed the claim you mention, but I do not know of any book in which ah effort is made to substantiate it. Various. Utopias describe such a state of society, but a detailed statistical or accounting proof seems to me to be in the nature of things impossible. It is one of the claims that can be proved or disproved only by experience. In any case, it does not appeal to me as anything more than an idle assertion with very little relation to current economio problems.” More rainbow stuff, la short.—l am, etc.,. STUDENT.