The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-05-28

of age has the endorsement OF the min
lister of commerce and of business inter-
ests in all parts of the country.
| A similar advance has been recon-
mended in England by the departmental
committee on education for juvenile en-
ployment after the war. This committee
also advises an effective l4-year age linn
it for required school attendance without
the exemptions permitted by the present
law. Supplementary estimates tor edu'
cational purposes have been presented to
Parliament by the government which
look toward strengthening OF adde's.
cent education along the lines suggested
by the committee.
In England as early as 1915 some en-
ployers returned to regular labor stand
ards. The British chief inspector OF fac
tories and workshops writes in May,
1916:
"T'he tendency grew as the year passed
to substitute system of shifts for the
long day followed by overtime, and this
is particularly reported of munition FAC
tories in the Midlands and in Sheffield.
The number of days on which
overtime was actually worked tended IN
many factories to decrease as experience
grew of accommodating fatigue and les
sened output. Probably for similar rea-
sons Sunday labor also has tended lat
terly to decrease"
The reports of the British official com
mittee on the health of munition work
ers on the waste involved in the long
hours worked during the war are well
known. They urge the restoring OF re-
strictions and are full of such statements
as the following:
even during the urgent claims OF
war the problem must always be to OBJ
tain the maximum output from the in
dividual worker which is compatible with
the maintenance of his health. In war
time the workmen will be willing, as
they are showing in so many directions,
to forego comfort and to work nearer TO
the margin of accommodating fatigue than
in times of peace, but the country can
not afford the extravaganza of paying
for work done during incapacity from
fatigue just because so many hours are
spent upon it, or the further extrava-
gance of urging armies of workers to- |
wards relative incapacity by neglect OF !
law
Conditions of work are accepted with |
out question and without complaint |
which, Immediately detrimental to out
put, would if continued be ultimately |
disastrous to health. 1t is for the nation
10 safeguard the devotion of its workers
BY its foresight and watchfulness lest ir-
-eparable harm be done to body and mind
both in this generation and the next.
very young girls show almost imme-
late symptoms of lassitude, exhaustion
md impaired vitality under the influ- i
,nce of employment at night. very
similar impression was made by the APP
,earance of large numbers of young boys
Who had been working at munitions for
/ long time on alternate night and day
hits"
In England the war exemptions to the
actory laws have not included lower
ng of the age limits for factory work.
And the exemptions TO the school attend
nee laws permitted for agriculture and
light employment" are now bitterly re
retted by the general education author
ty which has sanctioned them.
A fuller memorandum on child labor
n warning countries will be supplied by
he childrens bureau, Washington, ID. c., :
pom request.