Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-11-29
THE WORK DAY IN EUROPE
LONGER AND WEARlER THAN MAN
CAN WELL STAND.


Ohicial Reports for All Continental Coun-
tries-Ten Hours Is a Short Days Work.
Women Work Ten Hours-Men Twelve
or More.
A return just issued IN pursuance of
an address from the house of commons
throws considerable light on the question
of working hours in Europe.
In France the hours of adult labor are
regulated by series of DEGREES. of which
the earliest, promulgated September,
1S4S, enacts that the workingman's day
in manufactures and mills shall not ex-
coed twelve hours of effective" or actual
labor A decree issued in May, 1851,
made exceptions, SO that more hours
might be worked in certain trades In
the limit of twelve hours per diem was
not to be imposed where hand power was
employed. but was to be confined to
manufactures and mills in which the
motive power was machinery. No work
shops were to come under the clauses of
the act that did not employ more than
twenty hands in any one shed. The re-
port saws: 1T is likewise to be borne in
mind that there is in France no compul-
sorry observance of Sunday, and no day
of habitual rest"
REFLECTIVE LABOR"
The reports of the French inspectors
of labor appear to show that the act of
1913 is very loosely interpreted 1t is
even doubtful whether the section limit
ing the actual working day to twelve
hours was intended to include or exclude
hours of rest. Practically, the legal time
is made to exclude rest. This makes the
working day SO much the longer. Thus,
one of the French inspectors states that
the hours of attendance in factories IN
der the act of 1913 are from in the
morning until in the evening, or a total
of fourteen hours, out of which there
are twelve hours of effective labor. -
But the same authority also states that
effective" time often extends to thirteen
and fourteen hours in many weaving
establishments. Finally, we are told
that, las a rule it may be taken that
Frenchmen employed in factories are
present in the shops at least fourteen
hours out of every twenty-four
Among the countries having no laws
affecting the hours of adult labor, Ger
many is conspicuous. Employers, how
ever cannot force their servants to work
on Sundays and feast days. Employ
ment of youthful or female labor in GER
tain kinds of factories, which is attended
with special danger to health or morals
is forbidden. or made conditional on Ger.
tain regulations, by which night labor
for female workpeople is especially for
hidden. In Germany. as in other coun.
tries also. women may not be employed
in factories for certain time after child.
birth. In Hesse-Darinstadt the medium,
duration of labor is from ten to twelve
hours; the cases in which the latter time
is exceeded being, however, more fire.
quent than those in which the former is
not exceeded. The normal work day
throughout Saxony in all the principal
branches of industry is from a. IN. TO {
p. M, with half an hour for breakfast
an hour for dinner and half an hour fol
supper. In the manufacturing industry
there are departures from these hours
the period of work in spinning anc
weaving mills not infrequently being
twelve hours.
EXTENSIVE LEGISLATION.
In Austria the law provides that the
duration of work for factory hands shall
not exceed eleven hours out of the twenty