The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1917-03-02
STRAIN ON THE WORKERS.

Fatigue Long Continued Leads to Dis
ease and Thus Becomes a Problem of |
Serious agnitude-Physical Exhaus
ton Is Directly Responsible For Low
er Efficiency of Half the Population.
The long day is one of the most hide |
Gus survivals of past age. In some |
industries, such as steel making and |
railroad work, long hours are main
tanned continuously throughout the
year. On the other hand, many indus
tries have rush seasons, during which
the factories work for abnormally long
hours and then do little or no work
In the slack season. The hours in the
steel industry are habitually long.
Whether the long hours be continuous
or intermittent, their result is the
same. Both involve oyerwork.
The strain of industrial effort upon
the worker depends, first, upon the
length of the days work and, second,
upon its intensity. Not only are hours
in American industry long, but they
continue long in the face of a rapid
increase in the industrial strain. A
score of devices are used to speed men
to their uttermost
Within the last decade hours have
world, but with this decrease in hours
has gone an increase in speed. The
girls in the recent shirt waist makers
strike in New York complained that
instead OF watching one needle run
ming as needles did ten years ago, at
the rate of 2,200 strokes a minute, they
were now compelled to watch from
two to twenty needles on the same ma
chine some running as high as 4,400
strokes a minute The needles break,
the thread catches, the material draws
IA dozen things happen, and, as the
work is piecework every minute
counts. While the total number of
hours may be less. the total vitality
expended on the work is necessarily
much greater because Of the increased
concentration and speed required.
Fatigue is the product of the number
of hours of work multiplied by the in
In the steel mills of Pittsburgh super
intendent is pitted against superin
tendent, foreman against foreman,
mill against mill When a record Is
broken it means simply that the goal
to be struggled for has been set
ahead"
Similar conditions exist In the textile
mills of New England Years ago a
woman tended two slowly running
looms Later. as the hours OF work
grew less, the number of looms was
increased TO four and six and now,
with some houses, an operative is eX-
pected to look after from twelve to
sixteen looms
Overwork is a menace to ino lstrial.
social and personal welfare, because
Ii results in one of the most serious
and farreaching human maladies-fa-
tigue Fatigue. long continued. leads
inevitably to exhaustion; exhaustion
leads to disease, and then ultimately
to a death which is due to continual
wearing, intense work. Oyerwork,
with its attendant evils thus becomes
a problem of serious magnitude.
The waste of fatigue i" far in excess
of the waste from illness, since fatigue
is directly responsible for the lower
efficiency of at least one-half Of the
population.
Gripped by the stern necessity which
compels him to earn his bread, the
worker enters American industry and,
caught in it's levers and cogs labors on,
producing what he must, to earn what
he may Society does not need the
extra goods which his weary fingers
shape. There is one primary factor
upon which society must depend for its
maintenance-that is, upon joyous, en-
thusiastic men and women. There Is
neither joy nor enthusiasm in the vic
tim of the long day.
If the average worker in modern in
dustry was engaged in an occupation
of tense interest and broad value, eight
hours might be too few bur the aver
age job is dead job-monotonous
same to the point of madness. Coulc
you make the same motion 1000 times
a day and keep it up day after day
year after year, without growing
weary?
Was industry made for man or maj
for industry? There is one possible an
Swer to that question. Every socia
institution was made for man; hence
when an institution ceases to serve
man and instead demands service o
him that institution must either be re
formed or abolished" Men and womel
need not work twelve hours day il
order to secure a livelihood for them
selves and for their families. Sine
this fact has been established beyon'
question, the long day has been weigh
ed in the balance, found wanting AM
condemned to abolition. Yours, goo
Samaritans, is the task of enforcin
this just sentence.-Professor Scot
Nearing.