Evening star., 1934-10-09
The Thirty-Hour Week

Inc 1n1TIy-nOur week.
The 1922 convention of the United
Mine Workers of America, admittedly
dominated by radical element, de-
manded the flve-day week and six
hour day in the bituminous coal fields
upon expiration of the existing con-
tracts, authorizing a strike to enforce
the demand. But when a four-and-a-
half-month strike over new contracts
was finally settled the demands for
the shorter work week were not
pressed. They had gained little pub
lie sympathy.
At the 1881 convention of the Amer
lean Federation of Labor a resolution
proposed that the federation "go on
record as favoring six-hour day
and q date be fixed when all unions
shall proclaim and start on a shorter
working time" but this resolution was
tabled in favor of q report which
stated that the shortening of the
work day and the work week is an
economic necessity"
Hearings on the Black -Connery
thirty-hour week bill last year, which
passed the Senate. but was held up
in the House, found william Green,
president of the Federation, firmly
convinced" of the merits of the legis-
lation and prepared to support q
plan to bring it Cthe shorter work
week. about and establish it, either
through legislative enactment, through
persuasion on the part Of those who
are willing and ready to yield to the
facts Of the situation, or to exercise
our economic force in compelling en-
ployers to apply the six-hour day and
the five-day week." Replying to ques-
ton about the federation's economic
force" Mr.. Green explained that It
was exercised "by calling strikes
The action of the Federation of
Labor in San Francisco yesterday in
adopting unanimously 0 resolution
favoring the six-hour day and five
day week as one Of the cardinal
planks of Its proposals for recovery
has been foreshadowed, therefore. by
1f ho NoSf faU
The depression has found the volun-
tary adoption of the f1ve-day week as
a "spread-the- work" expedient widely
followed In industry. There are
many who have come to believe that
the shorter work day and the shorter
work week Is an economic necessity
that widespread unemployment and
the development Of the machine have
made inevitable.
There are, of course, grave consti-
tutional objections to such legislative
efforts to enforce the shorter work
week as the Black Connery bill, al
though the Senate's vote of $3.50 in
favor of the measure did not indi-
cate that they weighed heavily with
the Senators. But there are even
stronger economic objections to ef-
forts calculated TO blanket industry
and employers by stroke Of the pen
with the increased costs of the shorter
work day and week. The Interstate
Commerce Commission, for instance,
reported to Congress last year that
the institution of the six-hour day
on the railroads would increase the
cost of rail transportation in the United
States by $500 100000 a year. That
is merely one industry. The increased
cost Of production for industry gen.
orally would, Of course, be tremendous
and Mr.. Greene assertion that the
federation looks to the Government
to institute the thirty-hour week in
Government service would be more en-
Tightening if accompanied by an esti-
mate of the increased drain on public
revenues to accompany the new sched-
ule.
It was little more than a century
ago when ship carpenters and calkers
of Boston struck, unsuccessfully, for
q ten-hour day. 1t was only twelve
years ago that the United States Steel
Corporation abandoned the twelve
hour day in favor of the eieht-hour
day. There are many who regard the
thirty-hour week as inevitable, but as
a goal to be approached with due re-
gard to the increased costs of produc-
tion-refiected, of course, in the in
creased costs of living, which are also
inevitable accompaniments.