Genre:

Regular Feature, Editorial, News-Commentary

Subjects:

Industry, Experiment, Political Economy, National Efficiency

    After reporting the formation of a new ministry following the resignation of William E Gladstone and the end of the civil war in Brazil, suggests that 'so far as the mass of men are concerned it is probable that a simple experiment carried on in a Lancashire ironworks [will] exceed all these imposing political and military events in intrinsic importance. Mr. William Mather, well-known as a public-spirited ironmaster, last month published a report on an experiment as to the effect of the eight hours' system on the output of a great industrial establishment', and the 'scientific economic experiment' at the 'Salford Iron Works' has shown that the reduction of hours 'practically left the amount of work done unaltered' (333).