The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-06-29

|fentific basis. Science makes out it's
 case for the short day in industry.
 Factory legislation has been found f ed on a priori logic. It has been rather. essentially illogical, the result
 of half way measures and opposing
 forces. Not mans foresight but the memorable results of labor long car ried on counter to natures laws. have been. on the whole responsible for the meager protection which industrial communities have granted their w1fkfrA Self-interest on the one side. self defense and philanthropy on the other. hampered by prejudices of ev- cry sort-these for the most part have brought about such protection as exists to-day.
 But the laws of fatigue furnish a scientific basis for legislation and an explanation of the effect of over-work ion health, output and production. This is the more important because regu- lation of the length of working hours has been so bitterly opposed by those who fear that the lessening of the hours of labor means g corresponding economic loss. From the first dawn of protective legislation in England over century ago-to the present day, the ra1lying Cry for the most diverse minded opponents of legislation has been the threatened ruin of industry and manufactures. Yet the uncon- scious consensus of testimony from various states and countries on the economic benefits of. the short day,
 recorded in official and unofficial documents, is in it's turn as impfes
 sive as we found the unanimity of ev-
 idence on the physical effects of the long day3
 The essential injury of overtime is
 dhe to what has been graphically
 proved by the ergograph that effort
 increases with fatigue, that work con-
 tfnued after fatigue has set in re-
 Quires so much more subsequent time
 for recuperation. But during rush
 or overtime season such time for re-
 cuperation is necessarily lacking. The
 girl who is kept in the great depart
 ment stores until ten or eleven or
 twelve o'clock at night during one. or
 two frenzied weeks before the holi- day which heralds the reign of Peace;
 the girl who works at fever heat all evening stitching women's shirt
 waists in January for the spring trade,
 is not relieved from the necessity of
 reporting for work at seven or eight o'clock the next morning. She comes
 to work unrepaired and with each day
 of overtime; accumulated fatigue nec- essarily grows. j
 In theory, the requirement. of ov-
 ertime is supposed to be balanced by
 the slack period which often follows.
 A short period of over-exertion is as
 susned to, be compensated. by a sub
 seauent let7Hp. But the slack period
 which often follows overtime, does s~nat
 give the supposed opportunity for
 leisure and rechperation.. 1t is it. self season of deprivation. For slack work means slack pay, with a
 consequent loss rather than gain in opportunities for recuperation.
 But deeper than this objection to the attenuation of overwork and idle ness, is the physiological objection. During overtime leisure and rest are cut down at the very same time that heavier and longer demands are made upon the human organism. Regular seasonal overtime in such occupations as those cited above, leaves the work CT with too great a physiological de- felt. There is no rebound. Compen- sation fttimes comes too late. Fa- tigue let run is a debt to be paid at compound. :. interest. It has been shown that output and wages tend to rise rather than fall with shortened working hours, so that income is in the long run increased, not curtailed.
 No thinking person can deny that in the last resort health is determin- ed by the total standard of living; that besides long hours, poverty and low wages, unsanitary tenements and bad food, dirt and overcrowding, are the tangled causes of lowered vital ity and illness among working people, Nor would we minimize the physical effects of mental diseases and worry among workers who are only a few months off from real Restitution Yet, so far as the overworked are concern ed. all these causes of distress might be removed-wages, food, housing, higher leveIand yet the essential cause of breakdown would be un- touched so long. as the few extra hours of work remain, as our SUD- posed critics would call them The shorter work day and relief from ov-, erstrain are not in themselves the cure for the ills we have considered; but they are the sine qua non with ont which no other cure is possible 0f conceivable. Just because a fa- tigued person is poisoned person, poisoned by the accumulation of his owu waste products, nothing can fun damentally cure the exhausted work CTS Which does not eliminate the cause for such accommodating poison-