The sun., 1919-09-06
FRANCE Is WORRIED
OYER 5 HOUR LAW
Great Advantage for Germany
Seen in Twelve Hour
Shifts There.
BY a stdr Correspondent Of THn Sun.
Copyright, 1919, all rights reserved.

PARIS, Sept. 5.-The international
labor charter embodied in the treaty Of
peace may undergo revision when the
labor delegates to the Peace Conference
meet in Washington in October. The
principal agitation for some kind OF
change appears to be coming from sec
tons of the French labor organization
and to be directed chiefly against the
eight hour day.
1t is pointed out that although no
changes are possible in the text the
labor congress is invested with power
to determine the conditions of the ap-
plicatiop of the eight hour law. The
French delegates will urge the universal
and the rigid application of the law,
particularly in Germany, where labor
has consented for patriotic reasons to
extend the working day to twelve
hours.
The application of the law in France,
which is incidentally q constitutional
amendment of recent creation, already
has resulted in throwing the regular
machinery Of production and distribu-
ton out of gear, and consequently Is
contributing to the high cost of living
Produce dealers in the markets COM
plain OF a shortage of farm products
and adjust their prices to conform the
supply to the demand.
Due to Lessened Transport.
This condition has been traced to a
lack of transport. which Is the outgrowth
of the application of the eight hour law
to the railroads and the inability Of
these roads to supply the personnel to
man trains in three shifts of eight hours
each. which Is necessary now to assure
the movement of the same number of
locomotives that hitherto required two
shifts. The same situation exists in and
is paralyZing other industries of pro-
duction.
A considerable wave of apprehension
il sweeping over France lest full recog-
milton of the principle of eight hours
may plunge the country into state of
economic lethargy from which It never
would recover. Moreover, the intensity
of German production, aided by stimu-
lated patriotic labor, 1t is realized, would
cause France to lose the race for COM
mercial supremacy on the Continent,
which she had hoped to win as result
OF the handicap upon Germany grow
ing out OF her defeat
BENEFITS Are Admitted.
The outcry against the eight hour law
comes chiefly from the small bourgeois
and the commercial and industrial
classes. No complaint is made against
the principle, the sagaclty Of the aver
age Frenchman permitting him to &C
knowledge that 1t was this concession to
labor-admitted by the latter as the
greatest victory OF the masses in a
century-which enabled France to pass
over the critical period between the ar
mistioe and the final state of peace.
Not the least of the benefits derived
from the passage of the eight hour law
was the prevention of at least two
serious and nationwide strikes. Yet the
average Frenchman places the economic
welfare OF his country, present and
future, before the concessions to labor
and the mere thought Of a Germany,
resuscitated and on its feet, competing
with and even passing France by rea-
son of the sheer efforts of its laboring
masses, causes him to revolt against
such legislation, which nEnimlzes the
hours of work and reduces production.
In France it Is within the power Of
the Chamber of Deputies to revise,
amend or throw ont the new enactment.
On the other hand, the Socialists are
protesting bitterly against what they
characterize as vicious campaign to
dIscredit the eight hour law by placing
upon II the responsibility for the in
creased cost of living and the paralysis
of transportation.