Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-08-21
EUROPE SEES IDLE AIDED
BY ADOPTING 5-DAY WEEK
Avoidance of Permanently Unemployed
Class Believed by Many Dependent
Upon Shorter Hours.

shifts will be introduced this month,
reduces hours from 56 to AZ per week
and makes possible Unemployment Of
Is per cent more workers.
So serious has become Germany's
financial burden in caring for her g.
OOO,OOO unemployed that the means
test" hitherto applied only to married
women, is now applicable to all persons
who have received aid more than seven
weeks. The test determines the ex-
tent to which a person can support
himself either upon his own reserves or
family funds.
Hereafter assistance will be granted
only where resources are not sufficient
TO provide minimum subsistence"
rms monthly minimum is fixed at
Leipsig at $3.50 go marks for an en-
ployed person, $3.50 for an idle adult
and S2.08 and S1.56, respectively, for a
school age and non-school age child.
An entire family Is expected to live on
less than $40 per month.
Italy's Plight Serious.
Fascist Italy, struggling under a load
of 100000 unemployed, also is giving
serious attention to reabsorbing its
voorhees, through reducing hours with
out waiting for international action.
Prof. Gaetano Napoletano, in his re-
port in Lavora Fascista, argues that
only Fascist state Is capable of car
rying out, arbitrarily, a reduction In
working hours. In order that such
reduction may not place italian indus
trialistS at disadvantage in relation to
those OF other countries, he recon-
mends customs barriers to protect af-
fected industries, these barriers TO be
lowered in favor OF countries which
also reduce hours.
SnnntOr AOnolE nrae;Io~k -
Fiat Automobile Works, advocates a
36-hour week (six six-hour working
days. with no reductions in wages.
While preferring that the reform be
international. Senator Agnelli agrees
with Prof. Napoletano that an eco
nomically strong country or Fascist
state could safely put the measure into
effect independently.
In several industries the reform has
already been adopted on a small ex-
per1mental scale and, according to
Slgnor Bruno Biagi, president of the
Fascist Confederation Of Industrial
Workers, it has been proved that "bet-
ter organization of shifts and greater
speed of work, with a better system
OF rotation and measures to prevent
waste end loss Of time, have recon-
ciled the interests of workers and en-
ployerS."
Fascist Greed Stated.
While heretofore it was considered
that technical progress, including ma
chinery and naturalization, has the
object Of producing the maximum
quantity in minimum time and with
minimum labor without regard to the
resulting unemployment" the new
Fascist creed is ito produce a maxi
mum in minimum time and shorten
the hours Of each WORKER without re-
ducing the number of workers"
Austrian industry, by experience,
claims to have demonstrated the de-
STABILITY of revising working hours.
The Meinl Co. of Vienna reduced the
working week from 43 to 43 hours and
held wages up to the equivalent of a
45-hour week. According to Kurt
Schneider, general manager, costs of
production dropped instead of increas-
ing. Entry Of large numbers Of women
into Austrian industry (the labor sup
ply has doubled in voiume) Is as much
to blame for unemployment as the eco
Reduction Of working hours, II large
enough, will suffice to balance the in
crease. A bill for the 40-hour week IS
now before the Austrian Parliament.
Highly industrialized CZechoSlovakia
has halted dangerous growth in her
unemployed by reducing hours of work,
it is reported. The large steel company,
Cesko Moravska Kolben-Danek, after
dismisSing 1000 workers since January.
started shortening hours instead and
has been able to retain all its workers
Municipal councils everywhere in
CZechoSlovakia are inaugurating a 40
hour week and the tobacco monopoly
will follow suit shortly. The lowering
Of wages does not enter into the ques-
ton at all.
Greece Tries New Plan.
In Greece the move for q 4o-hour
week has the support Of the govern
ment.
Switzerland, particularly hard hit by
unemployment and depression because
of its gold standard and high prices,
first sought relief by increasing hours
Of work. Now the tendency is in the
opposite direction, although most indus
tries still operate on a So to so hour
weekly basis. A normal 48-hou- week
is the aim of Swiss trade unions
France, among all big European ili~
dustr1al nations, stands firm for exist
ing working hour schedules unless re-
duction is international. But as her
unemployment problem is relatively
simple at the moment she has not felt
Tie pinch. premier Herr1Ot stated the
governments views clearly in a reply to
the Socialist party demand for q 40
hour week:
IT agree that a reduction of hours
may lead to decrease in unemploy-
ment," he said, but France cannot
consent to application of a statutory
4O-hour week unless it is applied inter-
nationally, without reducing the COM
petltive efficiency Of her industry,
which would further aggravate unem-
ployment"
The most radical reforms yet sue-
gested in any country come from the
Antipodes, where Australia and New
Zealand find their situation unusually
difficult. As a final resort recommen-
dations have been made to the Yelling
ton government by New Zealand labor
CARNATIONS that: Cd the recent 10
per cent wage cuts be rescinded. 90
working hours be reduced to sey-n.
with a f1ve-day week, and 90 In in
dustries where shifts are worked a six
hour six-day week be instituted.