Shorter Hours for, the Same Pay Lord Trent, the chairman
of Boots Pure Drug Co., has announced his intention to introduce an experimental five-day week, without reduction of pay, for employees in the Nottingham factories, and extra holidays-with-pay for retail assistants throughout -the country. 'This is an enlightened and patriotic policy which is to be 'recom- mended to 'every firm financially capable of adopting it and catering mainly for the home trade. Its adoption obviously depends on high efficiency in production. The preliminary, in the case of Boots, was, Lord Trent said, "modern plant, up-to-date machinery, and modem methods." There are three courses open to an employer in such a position. He may turn off some of his staff, and produce the same quantity of goods at the old price. (That increases unemployment.) He may retain his staff at the old working hours, and sell more goods at a lower price. (A possibly sound policy if the market is not saturated, but likely, if the market is nearly saturated,' to cause unemployrnent among the workers of his competitors.) Thirdly, he may retain his staff at shorter hours, and sell approximately the same number of goods at approximately the same price. That, the method adopted by Boots, is a policy which, if it had been universally 'adopted in America in time, might have averted -the slump. Unfortunately enlightened pioneers may be defeated by unenlightened competitors.
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