The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1922-10-13
ENGINEERS FOR SHORT DAY
(Continued from page onel

Y
hour shifts is now considerably |
larger than the total number of en-
ployes on 12-hour shifts. Taking into
consideration all continuous industries
between one-half and two-thirds of
all workers on the continuous opera
tion are on shifts averaging IL hours.
10000 Workers Still Work 12-Hour
Day
There are upwards of 40 continu-
Gus industries operating more or less
completely upon shift system They
employ between 100000 and 100000
wage-earners on shift work Their
families constitute from 100000 to
100000 persons who are dependent
upon earnings from shift work.
"There are 100000 wage-earners
working on 12-hour shifts. They and
their families number more than
100000 persons.
"The logical alternative to the two
12-hour shift system is the three
eight-hour shift system, and this is
the usual procedure. Nevertheless,
other shift systems have been resorted
to in limited way, in changing from
| the 12-hour shift.
The effect of the eight-hour as COM
pared with the 12-hour shift opera
| tion on the quantity and quality of
production, absenteeism and indus
trial accidents, has been satisfactory
| where good management and cooper
alton of labor have been secured. In
practically every major continuous
industry there are plants which have
increased the quantity of production
per man as much as 25 per cent. In
| a few exceptional cases the increase
has been much higher
Evidence shows also an improve
ment in quality of production follow
ing the reduction in the length of
the shifts"
Investigation Covered Period of
Two Years
Dr. H. E. Howe, of Washington,
chairman of the work rk-periods commit
tee, presented the report, which was
| written as the result of Investigations
covering period of nearly two years,
in the undertaking of which the Cabot
fund-bequeathed by John Cabot, of
Boston, for promoting good relations
in ndustry-co-operat with the
American engineering council. The
field of the survey included practic-
ally every industry in the country
that operates continuously "a hours a
day.
AS presented, it consisted practic-
ally of two reports. One inquiry was
directed by Bradley Stoughton, of
New York, former secretary of the
American Institute of Mining and
Metallurgical Engineers, and former
adjunct professor of metallurgy at
Columbia University. This embraced
the steel and iron industry of the
country. The other inquiry was di-
rected by Horace B. Drury, a widely
noted economist, industrial investi-
gator and former member of the fac
ulty of Ohio State University. This
was described as a general survey of
all continuous industries, with regard
to the comparative results of two
shift and three-shift operation.
DR.. Howe's associates on the work.
periods committee were j. Parke
Charming, of New York, one of the
leading mining engineers in the
country and large figure in the
copper world, being vice-president of
Miami Copper Company and associat-
ed with Adolph Lewiston & Sons, one
of the big copper groups of the coun-
try; L. P. Afford, of New York; Fred
J. Miller and Dwight t. Farnham, of
New York; Morris L. Cooke, of Phil
adelphia, industrial engineer and in
vestigator, and L. w. Wallace, of