The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-09-01
BRITISH LABOR
EXPERT WANTS
SIX HOUR DAY
Sir w. Fl. Lever, Big En-.
ployer, Also Urges Co.
partnership Plan.

London, Sept Adoption of a six
hour working day for labor and gen.
eraN establishment of co-partnership
between British employers and work.
ingmen after the war are urged by
Baron Leverhulme, formerly Sir w.
H. Lever, a large employer of labor
and formerly a member of the Cen
trail Board of Control TO deal with the
drink problem.
Whatever attempt is made at set
t1ement of industrial troubles" said
Lord Leverhulme in a statement on
labor conditions after the war, 81
think the wage system cannot be
abolished, it must continue to be the
basis of the new conditions. But it
needs improvement and modification.
Wages should be on the highest pos
sible scale,< but no change ought to
impair the supremacy of manage
ment.
1.-THE first thing we must note in
any effort at improvement of working
conditions is the tediousness of me-
pose is the shortening of the days
task from eight to six hours. I think
six hours at monotonous work is long
enough for any man or woman. 1t
is a noteworthy fact that in the his
tory of labor the shortening of hours
has meant not a decrease but an in
crease in production. The successive
changes from thirteen hours in the
day to twelve and again to ten so re-
suited. Even more marked were the
results of the change, from ten to
eight. Production was augmented,
loss of time from. sickness and inef-
ficient handling of machinery was
lessened. The loss under the old sys-
| tenn owing to absence from sickness
alone was rs per cent. I count on
similar advantages from the reduc-
| ton of working hours to six.
''How is that saving of hours to be
turned to. the workn1an's advantage
With a six hour day he. will not be
! too weary to take advantage of edu-
cational opportunity. The state
should insist on two hours daily being
spent in self-improvement. The
young workman should have his mind
! cultivated and his body exercised. In
early manhood these hours might be
partly used for military exercises. Be
yond thirty he will find time for some
hobby, say gardening. And all this
| time he will be gaining in efficiency
and character.
| $50 we shall be opening up fresh
resources for the good of the nation
The precious plant of inventiveness
/ is not grown in a close atmosphere OF
prolonged labor, it is the product of
leisure hours, when mans mind is
free from taskwork.
'sThe six hour arrangement must
not, / need hardly say, involve any re-
duction in wages. Perennially speak
ing, I want to see wages go higher,
for higher wages mean more effici-
ency and more production. The more
machinery we have the greater the
output.
| along with shorter hours I look
to co-partnership as a great remedy
Such a system brings employer and
employed into family relations; il
gives the workman d personal inter
est in his work. Strict care should be
taken that it is not used as a device
for reducing wages, so that any ad-
vantages are neutralized. That would
: be a fraud and sham. The free
objection men had to the piece-worl
| system was their fear Of such de-
vice.
There are critics who would sub
stitute higher wages for the benert
of partnership. That is not my idea
Increase of wages adds to cost Of pro
| duction; sharing of profits does not
Besides. the latter system gives the
workman a personal concern in TIL,
firms affairs. It is also, think ant
hope, that the gulf between capita
and labor may happily be bridged.'