New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-03-20
CANNERY ABUSES
Pending Bills Would Remove All Re-
strictions on Working Hours.

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: Three bills known as the Thompson
Bewley cannery bills have been advanced to
third reading in the Senate and Assembly at
Albany. One permits the Gamers to work
their employees seven days a week, a second
allows them to work women after p m.
and third removes all restrictions on daily
and weekly hours of women and minors. The
three together remove during the canning
season every restriction upon the hours Of
labor Of women and minors. May | present
through your columns facts and conclusions
in relation TO these bills based upon very
thorough investigation?
During the summers of 1910 and 1911 | was
a worker in various New York State can
neries In 1912 | had charge of the State
Factory Commissions cannery investigation.
Ny experience in these capacities has led me
10 two very definite conclusions: First, that
the canning industry should not be subjected
to the same laws as other industries; sec
ond, that the canning industry should not
be free from all regulation. Because Of the
first conclusion | have opposed putting the
canning industry under the fftyfour-hour
law. Because of the latter | protest with all
my power against the Thompson Bewley bills.
The conditions which will result if these
bills are enacted are not to be guessed at
We know what they will be. In 1912, by
legislative enactment, and previously through
non enforcement Of the law, the Gamers en-
joyed exactly the exemption they now seek.
What was the result? Twenty three can
neries in the 1911 season never worked WON
en- over sixty-six hours, the maximum al
lowed under the present law; but six worked
them during their rush weeks between 81
and y hours, ten between 70 and 10 hours,
eleven between 50 and 80 hours, seven be-
tween 80 and 100 hours and three over 100
hours.
One woman was found who worked 1192.
hours in week, according to a Gamers
statement under oath. A photograph of a
time card reproduced in the commissions
report shows one woman's hours for week:
Monday, Is; Tuesday, 20; Wednesday, 81;
Thursday, 10; Friday, 21lz; Saturday, 2I;
total for the week, 1l71f.
In support of their bills the Gamers claim
that the hours OF labor are beyond their
control. They point out that they cannot
control the time of crop ripening and cannot
hold products when ripe without deteriora-
ton. / readily agree with both of these con-
tentions, but insist that it does not follow
that hours of labor are beyond their con-
troll Some Gamers, year in and year out,
keep reasonable hours; others, year in and
year out, work women In rush weeks ninety
or one hundred hours or more. The differ
ence is difference in business policy
Every Gamer contracts in the spring to
bug the product of certain acreage, and
tAA kAk,
capacity of his plant is the factor which
more than anything else determines tho
hours his workers must labor during the
coming season. lie cannot know exactly
what return the acreage will yield Che can
estimate it within reasonable lmits), but he
does know that if he contracts for more than
a certain acreage his employees will in rush
periods have TO work much overtime
The majority Of the Gamers of the state
have a desire to do the right thing. Eighty
per cent of them during the last season did
not work women over the twelve hours a
day or slNty-slX hours a week allowed BY
the present law. There are companies, some
Of the largest in the state, which do not
overcrowd their capacities, and year in and
year out have kept reasonable hours.
But there are others-a minority-who be-
lieve, as one Of their superintendent said,
that "the way TO make money in the canning
business Is to carry little larger acreage
than you can handle comfortably, so that
you can run pretty steadily throughout the
season and your plant won't be idle in slack
periods" These men, year after year during
the rush periods, work women over ninety or
one hundred hours, sometimes ten to fifteen
hours longer
ZENAS L. POTTER,
Former chief cannery Investigator, New
York State Factory Investigating Com
mission.
New York, March Is, 1918.