The Washington herald., 1922-09-21


! 1000. 900 Americans will benefit d.
rectly by the abolition Of the 12-hour
day. which. IL is predicted. will be
brought about in forty continuous in.
dustries as result of revelations oi
the committee on work-periods of the
American Engineerin~ Council OF the
Federated American Engineering So.
cieties.
The chairman. DR.. II. f. Howe. oi
the National Research Council. Wash
ington. declared the nationwide sur.
vey OF the engineers showed that "ths
/ tendency throughout the world is to.
ward the abolition OF the 12-houl
day"
! Every continuous industry in ths
country was Investigated. the field
work being directed by Horace q
Drury. of Washington. industrial in
vestIgator and former member OF the
faculty OF Ohio State University. and
Bradley Stourhton. OF New York. for.
merly secretary of the American In
/ stitute OF Mining and Metallurgica
Engineers. and one-time adjunct pro.
fessor Of metallurgy in Columbia Uni
versity. Mr.. Stoughton was assigned
to the steel and iron industry. or
H spNCiai TCpoll was
Findings Of the committee have beer
formally approved by the executive
board Of the American Engineering
Council.
| As to the extent OF continuous work
In American industry. said DR.. Howe
there are upwards of forty continu
Gus industries operating more or less
: completely upon a shift system. They
employ between 100000 and 600. OOC
wage-earners on shift work Theil
/ families constitute from 100000 tc
1000, 900 persons who are dependen,
upon earnings from shift work.
There are 300. 900 waEe-earners
working on 12-hour shifts. They ant
their families number more than
1.o00,OC0 persons"
Expressing the opinion that the
l2-hour day in American continuou.
industry must go. the investigators
say: The logical alternative to the
two 12-hour-shift sysaem is the three
S-hour-shift system. and this is the
usual procedure. Nevertheless,
other shift systems have been re-
sorted to in limited way. in chang
I ing from the l2-hour shift"
Experience has shown that, wher-
ever tried. the change from the Io-
hour shift TO the S-hour shift has
proved successful. according to thN
/ Investigators. who add:
The effect OF the s-hour as com.
pared with the 12-hOur-shift ope-n-
tion on the quantity and quality of
production, ahsenteeism and indus
trial accidents has been satisfa:-
tory where good management l1.I
CO. operation of labor have been Sc
cured. In practically every ma i"r
continuous industry there are pants
which have increased the quantity
of production Jer man as much as
IS per cent. In a few exceptional
cases the increase has been much
/ higher. Evidence shows also an
| Improvement in quality of prodIc-
tion following the reduction in the
| length of shifts"
/ Prof. Samuel McCune Lindsay. Of
Columbia University. president 1T
the Academy of Political Science.
who represented the Cabot Fund of
! Boston, which co-operated with .he
engineers in making the investigI-
/ tion. said the report was bound TO
exercise great influence on Ameri-
can Industrial conditions. particu-
larly in view of the work of the
Gary committee.
These studies" added DR.. Lind
say. represent in my opinion the
best highly specialized economic
discussion of an industrial problem
of major Importance that we have
produced in America.
The country now has fact
| basis for the rational cousidera-
tion of a difficult Industrial prob
lem. 1t is most timely that the
results Of the efforts of the enyin-
GERS and of the Cabot Fund should
be presented to the public at the
time that the Committee Of. the
American Iron and Steel Institute
appointed by Judge Gary is MAX
ing a collection. of data and pre-
pairing a report upon the same
problem based upon the experience
of practical steel executives. Some
good result should come from the
public discussion of two such au-
thoritative Investigations.
DR.. Lindsay said that PROT Henry
r. Seager. president of :he Ameri-
can Economic Association. shared
this view.
Taking up the question OF wages
and the effect OF the eight t-hour
day upon the leisure Of the work.
man, the engineering report says
"A comparison OF wage rates
under the eight-hour shift opera
ton with the rates under the tom
hour shift, the daily earnings vii
he the same as they were before
tho chanpe In soma instances a