Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-04
THE FRENCH REST DAY
Law Passed by the Parliament
Last Spring.
JUST BECAME EFFECTIVE
Over Sixty Hours Labor a Week
Forbidden.
EFFECTS A GREAT CHANGE
Slowly and With as Little Friction as
Possible Introducing the New
Order of Things.
JUST BECAME EFFECTIVE
EFFECTS A GREAT CHANGE
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS
Written for The Star and the Chicago Record
Herald

| Written for The Star and the Chicago Record
| Herald.
| PARIS, September TO- 1905.
The French parliament pissed a Sunda.
rest law last spring. 1t is not re-enact
| ment of the commandment which admon
ishes as to Remember the Sabbath day
| to keep it holy" but provides that Isl,
| days shalt thou labor ind do all thy work
| thou and thy son and thy daughter anf
thy man servant and thy maid servant
etc. because the human family require
rest and recreation.
This law is the result of a movement
started by pious people in 1897. The lead
ers of the movement were Mr.. Staffer, pas
tor of an Evangelical swiss church at
Passy; DR.. Gabriel Monod, a physician
and member of the French senate, and the
editor of LIE Temps, one of the leading
Paris newspapers. The result was accom-
plished chiefly by the labor unions, who
took 1t up as an economic rather than a
religious question, for the purpose of COM
pelling the public to devote one lay in
seven to rest and recreation for the benefit
of their health; to increase the demand for
labor by lessenng the number of days that
men are allowed to work; to secure the
same wages for sixty hours Of labor that
have been paid for seventy hours. Sunday
was chosen as the most convenient day of
5,
but because a larger portion Of the COM
munity were already accustomed to close
their shops and Offices and devote that .ay
to other than business purposes.
The Holiday Habit.
The holiday habit has not prevailed in
France in other Latin countries. In
Spain, for example, Sunday is not only OBJ
served as a day for pleasure and for wor-
ship but each month three or four other
days are celebrated as religious feasts
when everybody suspends labor and bust
ness, and those who cannot resist tempta-
ton awaken the next morning unfit to re-
sumo their occupations and require an
other twenty-four hours to sober up The
French people are not Incorporate. You
seldom see an Intoxicated man in France,
and the masses spend their Sundays and
holidays in the parks and the woods and
taking excursions to places where they
can find fresh air, sunshine and amuse-
ment. The parks Of Paris, the Bois du
Boulogne the forests of Versailles. st.
Cloud, Fontainebleau and other govern
ment reserves in the neighborhood of the
city are crowded every Sunday and every
holiday with family groups carrying their
luncheons with them and INDUCING In the
most wholesome and healthful recreations.
On a pleasant Sunday you can see several
hundred thousand people in the Bots du
It is the rule for the middle class to dis
miss their servants, close their homes and
spend the entire day in the open air, TAX
ing their luncheons with them md eating
their dinners at cafes.
The department of education has placed
a wise provision in the school regulations
by dismissing the pupils on Thursday in
stead Of Saturday, so that two holidays do
not come together, and making a break In
the children's studies in the middle of the
week. This is much more sensible than
compelling them to study five days and
giving them their two holidays in success
sion.
The new law is based upon a necessity
because half Of the people of France, for
motives of avarice or from obligation, have
been accustomed to work through the whole
week without any recreation. The agita-
ton has disclosed the fact that a large por-
ton of the laboring element, the wage-earn
ers particularly, have no holidays at all.
The large shops and those which cater to
the weather. classes close on Sunday, but
the cheap shops have kept open. The
groceries, butcher shops. bakeries, confec-
TONERS, apothecaries and all the drinking
and eating places make no difference be-
tween the days of the week. AS a rule, they
do their largest business on Sunday, and
that is always the biggest market day of
the week. Building operations are seldom
suspended; yon can hear the sound of the
hammer, the creak of the derrick and the
click of the stone cutter on Sunday just the
same as on week days and meet trucks
loaded with freight and lumber, bricks and
other construction materials. AS rule the
offices of professional men are closed, but
many of the factories and iron mills never
shut down for any reason. but work 365
days in the year. Undoubtedly one-third
of the population of France has been in
the habit of working seven days in the
week. Hence the necessity and importance
of the new law and the great disturbance
which its passage has created.
Over Sixty Hours Work Forbidden
The law forbids either employer or work.
men in any establishment public or pr-
vate, religious or non-religious. professional
or benevolent, to work more than SIX days
in the week and requires that the seventh
shall be day of rest Of not less than
twenty-four consecutive hours. The second
article provides that this rest shall be given
on Sundays except in such cases where the
simultaneous suspension of work by all the
personnel of an establishment shall be
prejudicial to the public or injurious to the
proprietor. In such cases the employees are
authorized to take their rest in turn on
other days than Sundays, but no employee
shall be required to work more than sixty
hours in a week.
The exceptions from Sunday observance
apply to hotels. restaurants, cafes, drink
ing places. bath houses factories of food
products of a per!shable character that re-
quire immediate consumption. hospitals,
homes, asylums. dispensaries, drug stores
physicians, surgeons, newsdealers, bureaus
of information. amusements. museums ex-
transportation by land and water, lighting
plants. water supply. motor power and
other industries in which the interruptton
o. work would be an Inconvenience to the
public or cause the waste or loss of ma
teral used in manufacture.
Article five excerpts measures Of safety to
prevent accident. to repair damages caused
by accidents. etc, but provides that per-
sons engaged in such emergency labor
shall have a compensatory rest of equal
length. 1t is also provided that time occu-
pied in cleaning machines. in making re-
pairs. in preparing generators. ETC., shall
not be included in the period of rest
Railways and other transportation COM
panies and other enterprises which cannot
suspend operations are required. to give
every one of their employees a rest of
twenty-four hours every week and that