The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1917-02-03
SHORTER DAY
IS Good POLICY
Tendency Of the Time Is To-
ward Lssssning Hours of Toll
MANY WORKMEA AFFECTED

reports from ln1ernabloHai SHloHo
Show That Nearly Half Million, of
Members of Organized Trades Have
Received Reductions In Labor Hours.
Movement Has Become Nation Wide.
By DOROTHY KIRCHWEY BROWN In
Survey.
Berlin factory puts 1000 women
workers on eight hour day"
So runs note in the New York
Times of last July. Even under the
pressure of war a German arms fac
tory reduces the hours of its workers
to eight day. The tendency of the
time Is too potent to be altogether
checked. And it is safe to assume that
when hours are shortened III NUM-
lions factory Of belligerent country
it is not mere sentimentalism that Is at
work.
To what extent is the United States
showing this same tendency, this con.
viction that shorter hours are good
policy? In April Of last year report
was made in the Survey showing the
progress that had been made toward
shorter working hours in the United
States in 1915. This article concludes
by stating that 'in the last ten months
nearly 100000 men and women have
won the eight hour day."
Information has been obtained from
state bureaus Of labor, from chambers
of commerce, from trade unions, from
individual firms, and the net result Is
realization of the nation wide sweep Of
the movement to shorten working
hours and to penalize long hours by
treating them as overtime. This move
ment is shown in cases where unions
are powerful and have forced conces-
sions from employers; it is shown in
partly organized trades where employ
ers have granted shorter hours to fore
stall demands already imminent; it is
shown quite as markedly in the nu-
merous cases where the employees,
though not organized at ALL have been
given shorter hours through the en-
tirely voluntary action of their en-
ployers. Comprehensive statistics are
not obtainable ON this subject records
are kept of current events by only
few of the state statistical bureaus;
trade union memberships vary from
} day to day, so that it is almost impos-
sible to report definitely how 'many
men were affected by the shorter hours.
The hest figures we have, however,
come from the annual report of the
executive council of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor issued Nov. 10, 1916,
and dealing with the twelve months
from September, 1915, to September
1916. Thirty five of the national and
international unions directly affiliated
with the American Federation Of La
Dor report a-reduction in hours for part
or all of their members. Many others
report that organized members of their
trades work shorter hours than unor-
ganized ones and report also a large
increase in membership, which, Of
course, implies shorter hours for the
new members.
A careful study of the figures in the
reports Of these national and interna-
tiOnal unions shows that approximate
1y 100000 of their members had their
hours of work reduced during the
year. This does not include the poten-
tial reduction Of hours of the four
great railroad brotherhoods by the
Adamson law, but does include the
! 1E0 000 Dt hrn nj 70 MIN 1Tybn
hours were shortened April /, 1916, by
the agreement between the coal opera
tors and the United Mine Workers of
| America.
Aside from the miners, a conservative
estimate gives us some 100000 of the
most highly organized workers in this
country whose hours have been reduced
in the past year-to say nothing OF
those who are not organized or whose
unions are not affiliated with the Amer
lean Federation Of Labor, who would
| greatly increase the total. The amount
of the decrease ranged from the one
hour week gained by some $4,000
members of the Ladies Garment Work
ers' union, whose weekly hours were
reduced from fifty to forty-nine, to the
twenty-four hours a week of the $50
stationary firemen whose working day
was changed from twelve to eight
| hours.
The workers who benefited most from
reduced hours were the teamsters with
an increase in membership Of nearly
1000; the garment workers and tailors
the textile workers, 10000 of whom Sc
cured the fifty-four hour week; the pa.
per makers and the pulp, sulphite and
i paper mill workers, whose hours were
reduced from twelve to eight, and the
electrical workers, fathers, metal pol
| fishers and machinists. Forty thousand
of the last named now enjoy the eight
hour day; 10000 have gained it since
Jan. l, 1916.
Among the other national and inter
national unions which report shorten
ed hours are the bakers, boot and shoe
workers, railway carmen, carriage ant
wagon workers, wood carvers, railway
clerks, diamond workers, cloth hat ant
cap makers, laundry workers, litho
graphers, pattern makers, powder ant
high explosive workers and toDacc'