Waterbury Democrat., 1901-07-31
WANT SHORTER HOURS.
Journeyman Barbers Think Patrons
 Can Be Served Properly.
Waterbury, July 31, 1901.


 Waterbury, July 31, 1901. To the Editor of the Democrat:
 The journeymen barbers believe that the public which patronizes the barber shops will be glad to understand the question of hours and will sustain them when they do understand the matter. The journeyman barber works from z i'll the morning to Sin the evening, with an hour for dinner and a half hour for supper, leaving q working day of 121a hours. What other set of men in Waterbury work that long? None. The Clerks association ap- pealed to the public to sustain them and they met with a cordial response from the purchasing public. The re suit is that the proprietors save gas bills on several nights and yet sell in the shorter hours as many goods as they did before the early closing move ment was adopted by the merchants as whole. As in their case, all closed at the same hour, and no one had an advantage over another merchant, so when all barber shops close at the same hour, no boss barber has an ad- vantage over another boss barber, while the journeyman barber can get off at s o'clock and have an Opportun- ity to get acquainted with his children, can accompany his wife of a hot even ing on trolley ride, or call with her on neighbor, and so get little com fort with his family. If he has this refreshment he is better qualified to enter heartily on his labors on the next morning. 1t is not a question of work ing eight or nine or ten hours day. He simply asks that he may work 1112 hours day, and who would exchange their shorter hour with the 1112 hours with which he proposes to content him. self?
 But it is not a question between the boss barber and the journeyman bar Der, as might have been understood by those who read the Democrat arti- cle last evening. The International Union of Journeymen Barbers have a rule that a boss barber is one who employs more than one journeyman. A barber owning q shop and employ ing an apprentice or helper, say dur | ing certain hours, is considered jour- l neyman, and can beSa member of the | journeymen's union, but he cannot em- | ploy both an apprentice and helper. Yet the local journeymen's union, un- l der a permissive rule, does accept as members such as find it to their inter | est to employ both an apprentice and
 a helper. The local union has such in | it's membership. The boss barbers, | including the leading ones in the center and even those who have no union
 card in their shops, have accepted the
 new hours adopted by the journey l mems union. It is only few kickers, | who are members of the journeymen's l union and are not willing to abide by 1 the majority vote of the union, who are trying to create the impression that | the boss barbers will not accept the ac- | ton of the journeymen's union, which l goes into effect tomorrow night. The proposed plan simply proposes | to accomplish by s o'clock the shaving | of ali who otherwise would have till g | o'clock to be accommodated. What l working man who at or o'clock is | off duty will not plan to accommodate | the barbers who ask that they have only an 111a hour working day, and be allowed to sit or walk or visit after l instead of standing at a chair with l uplifted arms till 9 o'clock? They willingly agree to work till midnight of Saturday to accommodate their pat rons. Insreturn for the little they ask they are confident that every sensi- b1e man will sustain them, especially | as there is no contest between the boss barbers and the journeymen.
 Respectfully,
 ONE OF THE WORKERS.