s latent in
inventive brains would quickly make good any momentary loss."[191]

When, in England, a law was passed forbidding the practice of forcing
little boys through chimneys, to clean them, chimneys did not cease to
be swept. Other, less disagreeable and less dangerous, means were
quickly invented. When the woolen manufacturers were prevented from
employing little boys and girls, they invented the piecing machine.[192]
Thousands of instances might be compiled in support of the contention of
Professor Giddings, equally as pertinent as these. Another important
point is that the amount of such disagreeable and dangerous work to be
done would be very much less than now. That would be an inevitable
result of the scientific organization of industry. It is likely that, if
the subject could be properly investigated, it could be shown that the
amount of such labor involved in wasteful and unnecessary advertising
alone is enormous.

Addressing an audience composed mainly of scientific men upon the
subject of Socialism, the writer was once questioned upon this phase of
the subject. "Gentlemen," was the reply, "it is impossible for me to
say exactly how the intelligence of the people in a more or less remote
future will solve the problem. The Socialist state will be a democracy,
not a dictatorship. But if I were dictator of society to-day and wanted
to solve the problem, I should assign to such men as yourselves all the
most disagreeable and dangerous tasks I could find. This I should do
because I should know that at once your inventive brains would begin to
devise mechanical and other means of doing the work. You would make
sewer cleaning as pleasant as any other occupation in the world." There
was, of course, nothing original in the reply, but the men of science
recognized its force, and it fairly states one important part of the
Socialist answer to the objection we are discussing. Still, with all
possible reduction of the quantity of such work to be done, and with all
the mechanical genius brought to bear upon it, we may freely concede
that, for a long time to come, there must be some work quite dangerous,
altogether disagreeable and repellent, and a great difference in the
degree of attractiveness of some occupations as compared with some
others. But an occupation repellent in itself might be made attractive,
if the hours of labor were relatively few as compared with other
occupations. If six hours be regarded as the norm