The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-06-19
THE WORK DAY IN EUROPE
LONGER AND WEARiER THAN MAN
CAN WELL STAND.

| 0ficia1 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,
1e48, 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
1885 a circular was issued stating that
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-
the act that did not employ more than
twenty hands in any one shed. The re-
port saws: at is likewise to be borne in
mind that there is in France no compul-
sorry observance Of Sunday, and 10 day
of habitual rest"
"EFFECTIvE LABOR"
The reports of the French inspectors
of labor appear to show that the act Of
184S 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 I'M
der the act Of 1S48 are from in the
morning until in the evening, or a total
of fourteen hours, cut 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, Gas a rule" it may be taken that
Frenchmen employed in factories are
present in the shops ct 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 a certain time after child
birth. In Hesse-Darmstadt 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. N. to 7
p. M, with half an hour for breakfast,
an hour for dinner and half an hour for
supper. In the manufacturing industry
there are departures from these hours,
the period of work in spinning and
weaving mills not infrequently being
twelve hours.