Evening star., 1934-09-23
How Are Idle Moments EMPLOYED? |
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

This threat of impending leisure
the blessed state toward which the
New Deal moves inexorably-is caus-
ing no end of concern to students Of
human kind, especially human Amer
| leans. It is recognized that steps will
have to be taken to ward of the
Devil, whose busiest time comedies
with the idle hours of men. 1t Is then
that the Satanic Employment Agency
works overtime, idle hands on earth
begetting strange nostalgia and
| nervousness in the breast of Lucifer.
Among the busiest people in the
United States today are the members
of planning boards, larger life COM
mittees, recreation steering consult
ants and all those serious thinkers
who take leisure seriously.
Robert Burns, one of the leading
human economists of his time, and
perhaps all time, laid down the for
mula that ito those fatigued with
close employment a bit of rests a
sweet enjoyment" This laissez faire
attitude is frowned upon by the ofn-
cial sergeants major OF the New
Leisure They do not hold with any
such slipshod doctrine. The moment
a man turns in his tools and gets his
time they want to whisk him OF to
the larger life. The school Of
thought-adhered to by most hard
working people-that the occupation
OF sitting still for awhile, like the
little stone in the dogeerel. is a pretty
good use of leisure is rejected with
considerable contempt. The sounder
idea, it is asserted, is to dash oil,
without delay, in pursuit OF leisure.
Anyway, those who are trying TO
| prepare a way for the oncoming tide
| of idlers are putting in a great deal
| of vastly interesting work. They feel
that all the data which can be
garnered must be studied if properly
managed idleness is to be achieved.
How a large number of people di-
vide up their leisure time has been
reduced to averages and tables, and
we have as fascinating bit of future
| folklore as one could desire.
Time Spent in Eating.
Eating seems to occupy the people
more than any other activity. Eating
Is classed as a leisure occupation
quite arbitrarily. it seems. 1t is ap-
parent that the Investigators who
made this classification have seldom
encountered short-order steak.
Classihcations are pretty much
matter of opinion, anyway. Doubtless,
some would put eating under sports
| Be that as it may, the person VINO
consumes the greatest amount OF
time in eating, out Of all the popu-
lation covered, is the woman who is
unemployed. The girl or woman out
of work consumes 119 minutes day
| in eating. Her runner-up is the
woman Of the white-collar class, who
dawdles over her food for 116 min
utes. The white-collar man uses ia
minutes.
Two other slow eaters run dead
heat, each taking l09 minutes. One
is the laboring woman; the other the
| unemployed man. The fastest time
made over the eating course is by
male college students. They eat in
| SO minutes fiat.
While eating is the big consumer of
time, averaging all classes and all per-
sons investigated, there are few
| notable exceptions if classes be taken
| individually. The longest period of
| time consumed by any person, in any
class, is that consumed by housewives
in visiting. Visiting, it is understood,
includes parleys over the back fence.
These ladies burn up Isl minutes of
| their unmanaged idleness in visiting.
Right after them come the unem-
ployed women, who have almost as
much but not quite as much time for
visiting These spend 1873 minutes a
day at the pastime.