The Connecticut labor news., 1922-06-16

that it would be nice thing to do. If the change is made it will be be- cause the steel manufacturers are convinced that it is good business to ; do so or because an organization of workmen force the change.
 In Europe the trade unions forced
 the manufacturers to establish the three-day shift. The argument re- garding it's proftableness persists there, but meanwhile the workmen have an eight-hour day.
 In the United States most of the scientific societies are convinced that a three-day shift would be better and
 the manufacturers that have made the change are convinced of 1t, but because the steel industry is unor- ganized, the two-day shift and the 12-hour day still prevail.
 There are enough Bourbon-minded men in control of the steel industry to prevent action on program which extends any benefits to the work1nen.
 A I2-hour day destroys a mans initiative and efficiency, according to the engineers, but the point of view of some employers is that it also keeps the laborer down where he belongs" The point of view deter mines whether this is vicious or an ideal system.
 MT. Gary's statement that 14 per cent. of the employees of the U. $. Steel Corporation are employed I2 hours a day is misleading in any dis cussion of the two-day shift in the steel industry because the IA per cent. does not apply to the steel industry It includes all employees of the Steel Trust.
 Of the 100000 men employed 7oooo are not i'll manufacturing plants at all but are employed in coal mines, ore mines, or on railroads, ships, etc, where union organization has forced the adoption of the eight-hour day. A society composed of employers inter ested in the science of management, the. Taylor Society, says in a recent report:
 "The truth of the matter would seem to be that, so far as concerns those continuous operation processes which make up the heart of the steel industry, such as the blast furnaces, the openhearth furnace, and most types of rolling mills, together with the various auxiliary departments necessary to keep these processes going, and make a complete plant, the bulk of the employees work I2 hours. The proportion of I2-hour jobs in these places is not a full 100 per cent; for the reason that in many departments there is certain amount of work, usually of a common labor or mechanical type, which can be concentrated in the daylight hours and is commonly performed on a TO- l. | IL f. the men whose presence is essential to the carrying on of the processes, from the chemist and bosses down to the lowest helper-the technical graduate, the American-born roller, and the unski1led foreigner-all these, with very few exceptions, work I2 hours"
 It is obvious, therefore, that the 12- be glossed over by it's apologists who 1. contend that it applies only to a few laborers in the steel mills and that these men prefer to work I2 hours.
 The reason for the I2-hour day in i the steel industry is discussed in the l report of the Taylor Society, which ! says:
 Individually men in all walks of life are tempted to give up their 1 leisure i'll order to earn little more money and raise themselves and their families little higher in the social ] scale But when men arc organized in unions Cor even shop cOmmttets) they come to feel that ii they all agree 10 work a standard day of reasonable length all will be aS we'll off relative to one another as before, and the larger measure of leisure will more than counterbalanCc the reduction in weekly earnings, if such there be-
 'The unions are not always able 10 keep their individual members from for overtime and greater earnings at the expense of hours, but