But if it be granted that the balance would not be restored, either by pressure upon profits and interest or by increased productivity, it then follows that the wages of labour must necessarily _fall_ 20 to 30 per cent. through such a shortening of the working-day. And this, as we have seen, is not at all an unlikely issue. The absorption of all the unemployed labour force, the industrial "reserve army," in consequence of the adoption of the eight hours day, is an assumption quite as unproven as the one with which we have been dealing. This result would not necessarily ensue even in the first generation, since production might be limited, and even if the hopes of increased productivity are not quite vain, it is quite possible that more machinery might be employed without necessarily increasing the number of workmen. It is still more difficult to determine what in all these respects will be the ultimate effect of the eight hours day. The further increase of the working population--and, _ceteris paribus_, this would be the most probable result of the expected increase in the rate of wage per hour--may produce fresh supplies of superfluous labour; but the eventual fall of wages consequent on a decrease in the productivity of national work would necessarily increase the industrial "reserve army," through the diminished consumption and the consequent restriction of production to more or less necessary commodities. If a diminution of national production were really to result from the adoption of the eight hours day, it would affect precisely the least capable bodies of workers, and those engaged in furnishing luxuries, for the demand for luxuries is the first to fall off; and the less capable workers finally become the worst paid because they are able to accomplish less in eight hours. Hence it follows that the uniform, universal, and national eight hours day would have very different results on the labouring bodies of each nation, and on the competing bodies of labourers in separate industrial districts in the same nation. Hence the very uniformity of the national and international maximum working-day of wage policy is a matter which calls up very grave considerations, which, however, we are not in a position to pursue any further in this book.