SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY ASSOCIATION.

Evening Star, Issue 2853, 11 April 1872, Page 2

SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY ASSOCIATION.

To the Editor. Sir, — There is no doubt the Association is under a debt of gratitude to the Pre-s of Dunedin for the iree and full ventilation of its cause. I have carefully perused the letters which have appeared from time to time in your columns in reference to this subject. Many of these writers testify to the goodness of their cause by the soundness of their argument; but there are others who give indirect evidence of the necessity of “leisure and fresh air” from the puerile character of their reasoning. It is true a man that desperately rushes to the front and illustrates in himself the wretched effect of “long shop hours” on the intellect, becomes at once an object for sympathy and tuition. One of the unfortunates made his debut in Tuesday evening’s Star under the name of “Ives.” He attempts to spread out the economical side of the half-holiday question before the eyes of the public, and in doing so quotes an article by a working man in England on the advantages of the Sabbath. According to this English writer (and his sentiments are echoed by “Ives”), “the institution of the Sabbath was a wise act on the part of God, for the reason that, by making a stoppage of all work, it allowed work to accumulate and helped to regulate its supply and demand ; for if there were no cessation the market would soon be glutted, and men would have forced idleness. ” This is a most cheering announcement. To regulate and adjust the claims of labor and capital is a problem that has puzzled political economists not a little ; and if it be true that one day of rest in seven “helps” to regulate, two would be a greater benefit still, and three or four days of rest in the week would would probably bring the social scales to an equilibrium. It is pretty generally known that capital is as essential to production as labor, but this theory takes no account of the acc initiation of capital. What is wanted is to accumulate work by a cessation of labor. I confess I cannot see how the observance of the Sabbath prevents the markets being glutted. I have always entertained the idea that the Sabbath was favorable to production, inasmuch as constant labor would soon reduce the producing power to a minimum, and the markets would soon be empty. Undoubtedly this should be ‘ ‘ Ives’s ” line of argument, for he has a horror of over-much production. With him the supreme business of life is to regulate the markets; and to have the national pantry full is to him the greatest possible evil. When there is little or nothing in the cupboard is exactly the time when he would cease from labor and enjoy a holiday, and he would do so in order to introduce prosperity. He would wear boots and give the bootmaker a job; wear clothes, and employ the tailor ; go pic-nicing, and consult confectionery, &c. Did it never strike this sapient economist, that if he could get .a pair of boots, a suit of clothes, and a stick of lolly that could serve h : m his life time, he would be benefitted, and that his neighbour or “any other man,” would reap a like advantage from similar articles—those that now make his boots and coats included. Surely, to find the few necessaries of life not included in food and raiment would give ample leisure. I do not think it would require a great cffoit to show how the country would benefit by a Sat unlay half-holiday ; but it is right that we should have sound views in reference to this matter, and this letter of “ Ives” may well induce the Association to exclaim “ save me from my friends,—Yours, &c. W.M.B. April 11, 1872.