The seven-hour day is the regular working day.
This does not imply that wood-cutting, digging, stone-breaking, and a
hundred other daily tasks should only be performed during seven hours.
Indeed not. There will be fourteen hours of labor, work being done in
shifts of three and a half hours. The organization of all this will be
military in character; there will be commands, promotions and
pensions, the means by which these pensions are provided being
explained further on.
A sound man can do a great deal of concentrated work in three and a
half hours. After an interval of the same length of time--which he
will devote to rest, to his family, and to his education under
guidance--he will be quite fresh for work again. Such labor can do
wonders.
The seven-hour day thus implies fourteen hours of joint labor--more
than that cannot be put into a day.
I am convinced that it is quite possible to introduce this seven-hour
day with success. The attempts to do so in Belgium and England are
well known. Some advanced political economists who have studied the
subject, declare that a five-hour day would suffice. The Society of
Jews and the Jewish Company will, in any case, make new and extensive
experiments which will benefit the other nations of the world; and if
the seven-hour day proves itself practicable, it will be introduced in
our future State as the legal and regular working day.
Meantime, the Company will always allow its employees the seven-hour
day; and it will always be in a position to do so.
The seven-hour day will be the call to summon our people in every part
of the world. All must come voluntarily, for ours must indeed be the
Promised Land....
Whoever works longer than seven hours receives his additional pay for
overtime in cash. Seeing that all his needs are supplied, and that
those members of his family who are unable to work are provided for by
transplanted and centralized philanthropic institutions, he can save a
little money. Thrift, which is already a characteristic of our people,
should be greatly encouraged, because it will, in the first place,
facilitate the rise of individuals to higher grades; and secondly, the
money saved will provide an immense reserve fund for future loans.
Overtime will only be permitted on a doctor's certificate, and must
not exceed three hours. For our men will crowd to work in the new
country, and the world will see then what an industrious people we
are.
I shall not describe the mode of carrying out the Truck system, nor,
in fact, the innumerable details of any process, for fear of confusing
my readers. Women will not be allowed to perform any arduous labor,
nor to work overtime.
Pregnant women will be relieved of all work, and will be supplied with
nourishing food by the Truck. We want our future generations to be
strong men and women.
We shall educate children as we wish from the commencement; but this I
shall not elaborate either.
My remarks on workmen's dwellings, and on unskilled laborers and their
mode of life, are no more Utopian than the rest of my scheme.
Everything I have spoken of is already being put into practice, only
on an utterly small scale, neither noticed nor understood. The
"Assistance par le Travail," which I learned to know and understand in
Paris, was of great service to me in the solution of the Jewish
question.