The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-01-05
MANY RAIL WAY EMPL OYEES WORK
 l2 HOURS A DAY
Highly Skilled Men Compelled To Labor Longer Than Least
 Responsible Workers.

Washington, Jan. 5.-A comparison of the hours of work in the iron and steel industry in the United States and for engineers and fremen in the West ern terTdtory has been made possible by report just published by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics on wages and hours in the iron and steel industry in 191S- This comparison is of especial interest because of the movement for shorter hours for rail- way employees and because of the fact that hours of labor. in the iron and steel industry have long been recog- nized as probably more severe than in other basic industries-
 Using tabulat1ons from the actual pa5roIls of western railways covering 20x0OO engineers and nremen as the basis for the data for these railway eTnplDyes, 1t appears that SS per cent work over 10 hours per day. S5 per cent over 1z hours and per cent over fl hours per day. Contrasted with this is the. fact that in a mum ber of important departments in iron and steel making the percentage of employees working over 10, 12 and 14 hours was consi derabIy lower than in the case Of engineers and ffiremen- AL though the responsibility placed upon engineers and dremen is incidentally grhater and although the strain is in dnftely more serious and the danger, to the public from fatigue of the workers greater in the case of 1ocomotfve en- gineers and drenen, they work on the average SIonger hours than even the IriskiI1ed 1aborers in the blast fur naces-
 Tfae Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that only per cent or the workers in sheet mills and only per cent in tin plate mills work overss1o Q ao4rs a day. In the ResseIner con xefting deparunents 5 per cent and in the bar mills 54 per cent. of the ernployes work over 10 hours day as contrasted with 8S per cent. of the Ioepmotive engineers and hremen on nafHoads in the western territory. In fhe standard rail and plate mills less than 2 per cent and in the bar, sheet 3 nd tin plate mills less than one per cent work over IA hours per day as contr asted with per cent. aof the lo-8 .eo1notive engineers and dremen-
 The practice of requiring men to work on long shifts in blast furnaces which received the condennnatio of a stockholders connraittee of Ene United States Steel iCorporatiOn, has been called to the attention of statis- ticians who are inauir1ng into the Jus. f5ce of the claims of railway employees for shorter hours An examination of the reports of IS Western railroads to the Interstate Commerce aIornrnls- lL sion showed that during the 18 months from July 1 1912 to December q, 1918 there were 49, 286 cases where engineers and dremen worked for al contlnuous period of 6 hours or long CT, and over51 6. 900 cases where they worked for a continuous period of 8 hours or more. The extra dinary. situation is thus presented Of employ ing highly skilled men in places of great public responsibility under con dItions which were unmistaks bly con demned hy the federal goYsr'n1le eI1t, the unions and by represent tatives of ernp1oyers for even the most Inski1led and least responsible workers in the iron and steel industry.
 The Comparison Of hours of labor in the fron and steel industry with those for locomotive engineers and fren1ens is regarded as significant one, since the hours of iron and steel workers are notorious1y long.