Evening star., 1933-01-01
Continued From First Page.)

Bethlehem Steel Corporation. by SINH
lar policy, has made work for 10000 of
its men The Standard Oil Co. of New
Jersey, by adoption of 40-hour week
was enabled to keep $500 men on its
pay rolls and to add 500. The Metro
politan Life Insurance Co. announced
IN September that it would continue
its Summer schedule of flve-day week
through the Winter, thereby keeping
on the job / 900 of its 12.075 workers
who would face the New Year without
a job but for the wide acceptance by
thousands of concerns of this share
the-work principal.
But it is not enough to check the
spread of unemployment. We must ac-
lively reduce it, we must get millions
of idle men and women back into the
earning class If we are to achieve real
recovery. At present the efforts OF our
committee and of the II district COM
mittees which are the main contact
agencies throughout the land, are d.
rected toward this second objective
to get the jobless back into jobs.
We have no pet plan. to recommend
We are not advocating tile shorter day
or the shorter week, or the vacation
scheme-though We are glad to report
the experiences of others and to pass
of1 their recommendations.
Thus, the Pennsylvania Railroad has
worked out system in various classi-
fications of Its engine and traii service
by which fixed maximum of pay is
set up for each enploye month, when
his earnings have reached that figure
he gives way to another employe until
the beginning of the next month.
5000 Added to Force.
In the Goodyear Tire & Rubber
Co. it is the siX-hour day that has
enabled this firm to add 5000 workers
to its force. The plan was adopted in
1880 by Goodyear and its success there
is SO pronounced that President p w.
Litchfield declared: IF adopted wher-
ever possible, the six-hour day would
put millions of men now unemployed
into positions where they would be self
supporting"
There are many other plans, each
with demonstrated advantages in GER
tain industries. All that We recon-
mend is the principle of work sharing
that every concern look into its work
ing arrangements and consider II they
work among more workers.
Job sharing has its limitations. We
must frankly admit that 1t is purely an
emergency measure, and should not be
applied beyond a certain point. Many
men and women now at work receive
wages which barely cover the necessi-
ties of life, and they cannot in fair
ness be asked to divide this income
with others. I have in mind one large
industrial corporation which recently
adopted the 40-hour week. Right at
once it was agreed that the scaling
down in hours of work should not af-
feet the wages of any employe earning
S100 a month or less. These workers,
it was felt, were not able to stand any
further limitation in earnings. and the
company itself agreed to absorb the
difference.
Obviously. work sharing cannot be
put into effect without the co-opera-
ton of the employees themselves. The
arrangement must be arrived at by
mutual agreement between the employ
er and his employees. One of the COM
pensations of this work that I and my
associates on the co-ordinating COM
mittee value most is the fine spirit OF
cooperation and sacrifice shown by
the men in small jobs and in large
ones when the share-the-work plan is
proposed. Here. for example, is let
ter that came to me the other day from
a railway telegrapher in Oklahoma, who
heard over the radio an address that I
made in Baltimore:
"I am a member of the Order of
Railway Telegraphers employed on the
A. T. 81 S. F. Railway. have been
working seven days per week for the
last 10 years. ! would be agreeable to
the five-day week, six-hour day, for !
realize that Is the only way We will ever
put the unemployed to work. Practi-
cally every one in my profession that
I have talked to would be strongly in
favor of this, and don't see how the
railroads could object, for it wouldn't
increase their costs any. II this could
be put in operation at once, know 10
or Is men with families that have been
cut of the extra board that would be
called back to work. 1t would probably
cut my pay about 40 per cent, but I'd
be glad to give that as donation for
the duration of the depression.
In Tennessee the $50 motormen en-
ployed by the Nashville Street Railway
Co. volunteered to accept a reduced
working schedule in order that 100 un-
employed motormen might be given
Jobs Also in that State the Tennessee
Paper Mills employees voted unanimous
ly to go on reduced hours and wages
in order to make time for 38 former
employees who were on the streets.
These are examples of the spirit and
attitude which employees are showing
all over the land.
Gains More Safety.
Whatever burden falls on the en-
ploye whose work is subdivided, he at
least has the assurance that his job is
secure-for the adoption of a work
sharing plan is an advertisement that
no further reduction in forces will be
made This reinsurance means a lot
to man after these last three years OF
lob uncertainty.
A criticism of the economics of work
sharing has been voiced. 1t is said that
the plan cannot increase purchasing
power, since its method is the sharing
of the pay roll among more workers,
not an increase in the total pay roll.
True, the method does not provide
more money for spending, but it dis
tributes what money is available among
more people. more spenders. There
fore, while it does not increase pur-
chasing power, it does increase the use
of purchasing power.
Thus, money that would be boarded
and recent figures by the Federal
Reserve estimate the total hoardings
held in stockings or mattresses or
otherwise kept out Of circulation in the
United States at around 81 500 900. .000
is put to use, into circulation, into
exchange for goods and services
/ have often been asked how many