The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-01-06

| law in a prosecution brought by the
| factory inspector resulted in a decis-
ion to the effect that, owing to its
loose phraseology,. the law did not
apply to manufacturing, but only to
| mercantile establishments. At the
present time, therefore, there is no
legal bar to the employment of women
In manufacturing establishments at
night. Following this decision con-
tinuous night shifts without the two
| fours' break were adopted by some
Connecticut factories, the Bridgeport
plants dealt with by this investigation
among them.
| According to representatives of the
| company, last summer was a transit
tionaI period in the management of
the works. AS they express it, the
| change was from a military" to a
"civiP' regime; the explanation being
| that former army officer was sue
ceeded by a civilian executive as man
ager. Under the new administration,
| 1t is explained, new schedules of hours
| have been gradually introduced in
| different departments. One of the
changes thus reported by the company
is that the shift for women from 3
| in the afternoon until eleven at night
has been abandoned.
| At the present time, according to q
statement made by the company, on
| December last, women are employed
in the works in but two shifts. The
day shift works the first five days in
| the week from Z a. M, to 4:36 p. M,
1 with one hour off at noon, and on Sat-
urday from a. m. to IL M, a total
of eight hours and thirty-six minutes
on each day from Monday to Friday,
| with a working week of forty-eight
| hours in all. Overtime may prolong
| the day until 6 p. M, five days in the
| week, making totak working week
| of f1fty-five hours, the limit allowed
by the Connecticut labor law.
| The night shift works from $50
p. m. to 4:S6 a.. M, with a half-hour
| recess, nine hours and thirty-six min
utes each night from Monday to Fri
| day, inclusive. The overtime sched-
ule is until a. M, making ten hours
night and fifty hours week. Thus,
although the hours have been changed,
night work for women continues, and
both by day and by night women not
|infrequently work as long as ten hours.
Moreover, the changes have resulted
In frightening rather than shortening
| the hours.
Thus the general impression, that
since the outbreak of the war Bridge
port is an "efght-hour town has grad
ually ceased to be true in the NUM-
tons industry. I'VE are still consid-
ering an eight-hour department, T"
said one worker, but considering
don't make the day seem any shorter
when they keep us till six clock, as
| they did every day last week"
1t was after a series of strikes in
| the summer of 1915 that the munition
| industry in Bridgeport, like several
! other local industries, was generally
organized on the basis of an eight
hour day. In trades in which the UNI
HONS were strong, as with the nachin-
lists, theSshort day has persisted; but
for the women workers, many of the
schedules have been modified, first by
frequent overtime and later by the
regularly longer day.
The women were reluctant to go
back. to the longer hours. "If the
girls had only stuck together we could
have kept the eight-hour day." said
those foreign girls The money
earned in the time over eight hours
was often referred to as a ''bonus,"
but in fact the work was usually paid
for at exactly the same rate as in the
previous eight hours. AS a usual
thing the girls would gladly have sac
rifced the additional pay in exchange
for two hours more free time.
The Work of Women and Its Hazards
A second problem growing out of
the manufacture Of munitions, that of
accident and disease, was
less conspicuous, although not less i'm
portant than the night work of wo-
men. In Connecticut. as in other
states in which munition factories
have recently sprung up, little atten-l
ton has been paid by the community
to the means of protecting the work.
ers from the dangers incident to the
use Of explosives and to the operation
of the machinery in the factories.
Although Bridgeport manufactures
IA variety of munitions, nearly all of
the thousands Of women employed in
connection with them are at work
upon one single product, cartridges
Several of the early processes on the
cartridge cases are performed on dial
machines, before which the women op-
orators are seated. The women re-
ceive the material in the form of the
small brass cups from which the car
fridge cases are to be formed The
worker slips the cups into hollow
dies set in the revolving dial and these
pass underN punches which draw out
the cups into longer and thinner cylin-
6ers. es
Stories of hands manned by break
ing punches and fingers crushed in the
presses were frequently, told to the
investigators by the girls who had
seen the accidents happen or who had
experienced them. One worker show
ed two crooked fingers, permanently
stiff which had been injured by an
unguarded machine year and a half
before. The punch broke, flew out and
penetrated the two fingers; blood poi
soning set in, and the girl suffered
for two months. ''I often
used to complain about that machine"
she said 'but they didn't put guards
on it until after I was hurt
The Process of Cartridge Making.
!, After the cartridge case has been
shaped, the head" is fitted with a
small percussion cap called the pri-
mer, a process which is also perform
ed on a dial machine. The primer
has already been loaded with .fu1min-