The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-10-12
Tvs Regulating a Days Labor Nom
Existent in Most European
Countries.
here Men Toll From the Rising
Till the Setting OF the
Sun.
ceptIonaI Cases Of Austria, switzerland
and Erance-No Uniformity In the
United States.

he report to mAk6--thAe guch laws are
lctically n~on-existent. OF the several
TIES forming the German empire, mono
10 any special enactments on the subject,
! imperial Legislature alone being COM
snt to deal with il, and that body has
adult labor entirely untrammeled,
kept in forbidding the employment of
mon in certain kinds of work, and exact
that employers may not compel their
Ekmsn to ply their yocations on Sundays
feast days, only where the special nature
an industry makes it important that the
rk should not be postponed or interrupted.
n 1885 the Belgian Labor commission
bnounced against any legislative inter
ence with the freedom of working men.
Ether i n Sweden, Denmark, the Neither
Ids, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Italy, Greece
Turkey has the idea of fixing the limits
a working day by law been entertained,
lie the Roumanians, Bulearians, Scr
lns and MontcneQrins, although many
IA of many minds on most subjects, agree
the important point Of leaving masters
men to make such arrangements
long themselves as they deem best for
Dir mutual interests, says the New York
-
nday News.
Very little information has been cleaned
far Is to the actual working hours in
ne countries where freedom of contract
mains unchallenged. Still, we are not
quite in the dark. It is learned that a
rkish working day lasts from sunrise to
pset, with certain intervals for refresh
MT and repose. In Montenegro the day
borer begins work between five and six in
bmorning, knocks off at eight for half an
Or, works on till noon, rests until two,
d then continues his labor till sunset.
IL is in summer. In winter he COM
noes work at half past seven or eight,
rs from twelve to one and works unln-
ruptedly from that time to sunset. The
les respecting skilled labor are theorsti-
" the same, ,but considerable laxity pre-
Ia in practice.
II Spain and Portugal from sunrise to
hset is the usual length of the working
Y. With field laborers and workmen in
building trade the summer working day
gins at half-past four OF five O'Clock In
morning and ends at seven in the even
4, two to three hours' rest being taken in
middle of tho day. In winter the hours
from half-past seven to- five, with a
prter interval of repose. In manufactor-
tho rule is twelve hours in summer and
in winter, with al hour and a half
owed for meals. u
eleven hours is the average days labor
ISelgium; but brewers men work from
b to seventeen hours; brickmakers, six
m; the cabinet makers of Brussels and
lent are often at work seventeen hours a
y: horse car drivers are OH duty fifteen to
kenten hours. per diem, with an hour and
half off at noon; railway guards some
hes know what it is to work nineteen and
e-half hours on a stretch, and In the
ming districts women are often kept at
lcks loading and similar heavy labor for
irteen and fourteen hours at a time.
The normal work day throughout Saxony
thirteen hours, with two hours allow
CO for meal taking. In Baden the medi-
a duration of daily labor is from ten to
Give hours; but in some cities it far ex-
eds this, often rising to fifteen hours in
pneware and china works and cotton
Ills; in saw mills to seventeen hours;
hile the workers in the sugar refneries,
+ the full twenty-four hours, finding what
mpensstion they can in having the next
|enty-four hours free. In any of tho
Eden factories it is a melancholy fact that
Lnday work is the rule rather than the
ception. In Russian industrial establish
ents, the difference in the working hours
something quite extraordinary, varying
jill bLA W uWcAUys IL 10 tCIuul Vhno
ese great Emergencies occur in the same
anchas of industry. within the same in
ector's district, and among establishments
hose produce realizes the same market
ice.
The only European states in which the
W controls, or pretends to control. the
mands of employers are Austria, Switzer-
md and France. In the first named. the
ctory hands must not be asked to work
nrn than N1nvor hrOrp n dav ayn1nHlvn nj
hour and a half for refreshment and re-
lperation; and in mines the actual work
g period ia limited to ten hours; but these
les are liable to modification, with the
int consent of the minister of tie in
rior and the minister of commerce, while
special cases the industrial officer Of the
strict ia empowered to permit a temper
briod of three weeks or, less. "A perman-
it extension of time has for some reason
len given by ministerial ordinance to
Iinning mills and silk factories, by which
Q hours of labor have bsen heightened to
Eelve and thirteen hours respectively.
In Switzerland a normal working day
ust not exceed eleven hours, with ono
ours of five a. m. ana eight p. M. during
Q months of June, July and August, and
tween six d. m, and eight p. m. during
Q remainder of the year, the time to be
|gulated by tho town clock. On Saturdays
Id holidays the shops must be closed two
purs earlier. Exceptional temporary pro-
|ngation of the working time il
Ptainable in cases Of necessity, but
pt simply TO suit the convenience
the employer. Sunday labor, except
here it is absolutely necessary, 10 prohib-
ed altogether, and under no circum-
|ances il feminine labor permissible OF
lat day. She is expected to look we'll aftel
10 ways OF her household on that day, nnc
zen on ordinary week days n woman hay
a home and family to look after Ii
Fivileged to leave the shop or factory I
Rlf hour before the midday rest.
The hours of adult labor in France arc
bGulated by a series of DEGREES. tho earliest
which. promulgated as far back az ls4B
hacted that the workingmen's day in man.
factories and mills should not exceed
selvs hours of effective labor" In 1856
mother decree exempted certain ccupa
ons from the limitation: and in 1885 1t wal
ficially laid down that the twelve hours
init was confined to such manufactures
nd mills as were moved by machinery b,
ay, or machinery in motion by day OF
light, without extinction Of fires; andthat nj
orkshoDs en- Employing less than twenty-one
ands in any one shed came under the law
1913. OF the 6.0o0, 600 or 1000. 600 Of
eople earning daily wages in France no
bore than q million are computed to bt
object to the provisions of that law; in
eed. ths inspectors of factories only re-
prd 1858, 600 adults, of whom Al per cent
70 women; and il may be accepted for ,
act that F%renchmen In factories pass a
bast fourtsen hours out of every twenty
1ur in the factory, while the workers out
dc. such M carpenters, maBohs and la
orets, work for n number of hours in
p~ination may prompt or necessity compel
WhA Npltllan rn an claims fhnk th., r,au,ttat
7 the British workman compares favorabl,
kith that nf Ala xparln1nr nArnul suhafAa