Conditions in the United States show the greatest variations. There a difference of from forty-eight to eighty-four hours per week exists in the working time of laborers. Even in industries of the same kind different work hours occur. It may, however, be stated as a fact that the movement looking toward a reduction of excessive duration of work hours has gained strength within recent years. Thus it was ascertained that in Massachusetts, where the investigations covered 44,606 workmen, in 1903 only fifty-four to fifty-nine hours per week were the standard in important industries. The average, as will be noted, was accordingly only slightly in excess of that in England. Very comprehensive statistics are given by the Commissioner of Labor in his annual reports on wages and hours, on wages paid in the United States, and equivalent hours of labor. The summaries given show likewise that in many branches of industry the daily extent of the working time is being gradually reduced. Thus, in the report for 1904 a general survey is given showing that for all industries the average work time per week had been reduced 4.1 per cent during 18901903.

A factor of great importance is found in the fact that, according to Shadwell's comprehensive studies, American workmen are compelled to work harder than English or German workers in like circumstances. The hurry and excessive exertion entailed are consequentially a main reason why American products frequently lack superior finish. Comparing the hours of work in the three countries, the Oxford professor arrives at the following results: Shorter hours of work turn out to be an 'advantage for England if the hours are reallly utilized in intensive work. The point here is to secure the full benefit of the hours of work. In Germany the problem is how to achieve a shortening of the work day without diminution of performance. To the American union, on the other hand, is confided the task of making possible improvements in the quality of products without decrease in the volume of the work accomplished.

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Two questions seem to hold the fore in discussions pro and con regarding a shortening of the industrial workday: To what extent is it possible to balance a diminution in the hours of labor by intensified production, and does the greater exertion called for entail a more rapid waste of physical powers? In general, sentiment rather than experience will play a part in judging the relative importance of all points to be considered. Among the few who sought to find by exact investigation a satisfactory solution for these important problems we would name before all others Ernst Abbe (+ 14. Jan., 1905), the manager of the optical works of Carl Zeiss, in Jena. The results of his methodical studies have been made the basis of two lectures on the economic importance of a shortening of the industrial workday. These were delivered before the Staatswissenschaftliche Gesellschaft zu Jena, on November 6 and December 5, 1901, and have very recently appeared in print from the shorthand notes then made, in the third volume of the "Gesammelte Abhandlungen von Ernst Abbe.” As is well known, the optical works of Carl Zeiss in Jena were among the first to reduce considerably the hours of labor, thanks to the great socio-political insight of Ernst Abbe. Originally lasting 11 hours, the workday in these works was reduced until 1891 to nine hours, the arrangement lasting till the spring of 1900. The question of a still further reduction of time coming up for renewed discussion, the management declared its willingness to introduce the eighthour day if at least three-fourths of all their adult employees should declare for it by secret ballot. The consideration was that all wageworkers would in future receive the same compensation for eight hours' work as for the former nine hours' work, but that all compensation for piece or contract work should remain unchanged, the expectation being that all the workers affected would succeed in producing a like quantity in the eight-hour day as in the former ninehour day. The change was accepted by the workers not only with a threefourths majority, but with a six-sevenths or seven-eighths majority. Already before the end of the first year, set aside for the trial of the new system, it was ascertained by way of estimate that neither a diminution in performance had taken place, nor that the workers had been worked to excess, not even the older men.

The statistics on this subject are very instructive. On the basis of detailed wage tables it was made possible to compare the wages of the individual workers in the eight-hour day with those received last year in the nine-hour day. Persons so situated that an unbiased comparison could not be made are not included here. The investigation was confined to such persons who in the year preceding the establishment of the eight-hour day were at least 21 years of age and had

been employed at least three years; therefore well trained to the work. Altogether 233 workers were investigated. Comparisons made yielded surprising results:

These figures show that the hourly earnings increased in a proportion of 100 to 116.2. If the increase had occurred in the ratio 100: 112.5, or 8: 9, the meaning would be that the workmen had earned in the eight hours exactly as much as in the nine hours, and that they had produced the same output, since the rules of contract work had remained unchanged. Since, however, the increase was 100: 116.2, it was clear that the day's performance had even increased per cent, i. e., one-thirtieth per cent, more than the former limit of performance.

The increase is pretty evenly divided among the various groups by age of the laborers:

It can not be maintained, then, that the older men fell behind in the work. It was important to ascertain to what extent the various branches of this well-organized industry participated in the acceleration. We present the following tables:

In spite of the great diversity in the grades of occupation, comparatively small differences manifested themselves. It is characteristic that just those groups which used machines exclusively (groups 4 and 8), like the group in which machine work was done in addition to hand work (group 11), registered the highest acceleration. Only one group (group 2) did not attain the minimum acceleration 100:112.5.

It may be stated conclusively that transient or extraordinary causes were not responsible for the acceleration of the working intensity, nor for the aver age earning capacity per hour connected with it. The volume of business in the two years was the same. If, then, the reduction of time led not to a diminution, but to an acceleration in production, the result, according to Abbe's detailed studies, may be traced to the fact that after a brief period of transition, the workers-even against their will-became accustomed to work somewhat more rapidly. Asked about their personal experience as regards the diminution of the working time, the laborers concurred in the expression that after some time the work during the last hour did not seem more trying than before, although they were forced to husband their strength more than formerly. By many the acceleration in work activity was hardly noticed.

Here, then, we register the interesting fact that adaptation to changed conditions of work takes place automatically.

This fact tallies with an observation made by Abbe, personally, and reported in the annual report of the supervisor of industries for the province of Brandenburg, 1900, that a transitory lengthening of the working time from eight to nine hours soon led to a diminution in the acceleration of the working activity; in the third and fourth week this had been reduced to almost nil in the case of the workmen selected by Abbe for the experiment.

The experiences made in the Government shops at Woolwich Arsenal and recounted by Abbe are likewise very instructive. There, too, it was found that the diminution of time involved no diminution of performance, although the laborers were under the influence of the trade unions which sought to obtain work for the unemployed by means of reduced hours. The laborers aforementioned certainly did not exert themselves to work more intensely in order to make it harder for the unemployed to obtain work.

Into the reasons which lead to this seemingly paradoxical development, E. Abbe likewise instituted extensive research. The fact that in entirely different forms of occupation and among different peoples a reduction of working hours exhibits a like favorable effect gives rise to the presumption that it must be due to certain general causes. The division of labor, supposedly accountable for the tremendous technical advance of the last decades, has given to almost all industrial tabor a peculiar stamp, inasmuch as the daily recurring uniform activity results in a continuous fatigue of the same organs of the worker. Such continuous recurring, uniform fatigue of the body may, however, be endured only if the intervening period of rest and the effect of nutrition counterbalance the fatigue before the work of the next day commences; in other words, if an equilibrium is found between the waste and repair of forces. The least deficit in recuperative strength must necessarily lead to a destruction of the organism. The fatigue of the laborer is caused by three concurrent factors: (1) By the amount of daily product, which may differ for the various persons according to training and experience; (2) by the rapidity with which the work is accomplished, whereby we must take into account that an increase in waste of forces is really perceptible only when the working intensity is considerably accelerated, and (3) by the waste of energy, depending solely upon the time spent in the workshops. The workman is compelled to stand or sit for from eight to ten hours per day, remaining in the same bodily position; must work under the same strain of concentration, etc. In consideration of these facts, Abbe reached the conclusion that there must be an optimum for every laborer, i. e., a minimum of time resulting in the largest output. He was convinced that three fourths at least of all industrial workers had not yet obtained this optimum with nine hours of labor, and had not passed it with the eight-hour day, and that it was therefore possible in almost every domain of industry to change not only to a nine-hour day, but to eight hours, working at a reasonable tempo, without any loss or deterioration of the output. Naturally, he was looking forward to a gradual, not a sudden, change to eight hours.

According to his opinion, the object should be to gradually accustom people who now are used to dawdle to acquire that degree of normal fatigue which may be balanced by the next day through rest and nourishment.

Abbe's chief reason for repeating the slogan: “Eight hours' work, eight hours' sleep, eight hours to be a man," was that he regarded the intellectual development of the laborer as the decisive element of his proficiency. Long hours of work result in having the lower strata of the natural intelligence lie fallow to a great extent. The industrial division of labor involves beyond doubt the intellectual dulling of people who are compelled day by day to accomplish the same kind of work.

The point, then, is to give the workers a chance, by shorter hours, to use their native intelligence, and thus avoid dulling of their faculties, to enable them, in spite of the monotony of their daily task, to employ their understanding, and to regard with interest things not immediately within the province of their occupation. The fact that in England shorter hours have been more widely introduced than in Germany constitutes a danger that the latter may be outdistanced in the economic race.

Abbe entertained slight hopes of having the working hours diminished by legislative means. He saw clearly enough that in consideration of the present state of social politics in Germany such a radical measure as the legal establishment of a nine-hour day would be out of the question. "All that passes under the name of social politics and industrial protection in Germany is under the influence of motives of compassion for those abused or exploited in an exceptional manner." He believed further progress possible only by effectual support of the interests of industrial workers through powerful organizations, such labor organizations, however, not to remain isolated from all other parties, but to combine with the progressive as against the backward entrepreneurs. While in England an insight of the need of diminished hours and a higher standard of life has spread, particularly in the crcle of entrepreneurs, in Germany these and the educated classes generally, in discussing this whole question, are influenced by fear of the "red flag," as Abbe rightfully pointed out. The “red flag" in particular is responsible for the growing hostility between capital and labor. It is the more grateful to find a great entrepreneur like Ernest Abbe perfectly free from all prejudice against the Social Democratic party. When, in 1894, he discussed before the Freisinnige Verein at Jena, in two addresses, the question "What social demands should the Liberal party adopt in its programme?" he expressed his opinion as follows:

It is part of the inborn pride of the junker or the acquired notion of the upstart not to recognize that the thousands working in rusty garb for entrepreneurs are not beings of an inferior kind, but members of the same people, who but lacked rich fathers to enable them to get six to eight years more of education than they did. Then they would be able to do all their superiors now do equally well, to speak in general, and some of them even better. With people not quite so dense as not to know this the call for subjection and obedience is necessarily met in two ways: The strong, resentful natures will meet it with bitterness and deep hatred; the weak, with hypocrisy or servility. I hold it to be a veritable piece of good fortune for the German nation that there is a sufficient number in the lower classes of such who meet such impositions with bitterness and scorn; for worse than this acute poison for the soul of a nation is the insidious poison of growing accustomed to hypocrisy and servility. No people has been able to maintain its honorable place among the nations whose institutions led to the cultivation of servile virtues, servile obedience, and submissiveness. Those who in opposition to social democracy make much of the socalled ideal aims' should bear in mind that not to feel oneself to be the servant of another is one of the most ideal of aims for everyone, even for the common laborer. A people whose regulations, political and social, make the free development of the personality impossible will not be able to hold its own in the industrial contest of the nations. The shortening of the industrial workday appears from this point of view of eminent significance, not only economically but politically."

Mr. JOHN J. GARDNER,

MARCH 18, 1908.

Chairman Committee on Labor, House of Representatives, U. S. DEAR SIR: In further substantiation of the statement made before your com mittee that the eight-hour day had been mutually agreed to between the employers and employees of the iron trades in the city of San Francisco, Cal., on June 8, 1907, and that, during the life of said agreement the minimum wage rate per day (of nine hours) of that date would prevail, I herewith hand you, for incorporation in the record, a signed statement from Mr. Jos. F. Valentine, president of the International Molders Union of North America, bearing in further detail on the matter.

I herewith hand you for incorporation in the record a signed statement from Mr. Jos. F. Valentine, president of the International Molders Union of North America, bearing in further detail on the matter.

Mr. Valentine had charge of the laborers and mechanics' side of the said irontrades dispute in San Francisco when the demand was made upon the employers in that city engaged in the manufacture and repairs of machinery for the eight-hour working day.

President International Association of Machinists,

McGill Building, Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR SIR: In reply to your inquiry relative to the agreement reached last year in San Francisco between the metal-working manufacturers and the metalworking trades of that city, I beg to lay before you the form of agreement which was signed by the representatives of each firm to the contract and by the officers of all of the local unions at interest.

You will note that the agreement provides for the gradual establishment of the eight-hour workday, and that during the entire period until the eight-hour day has been established the minimum wage rate remains the same. In other words, the agreement provides that the minimum wage rate for eight hours shall be the same as that existing when the agreement was entered and a nine-hour basis prevailed. The agreement reads as follows:

"Considering the condition in San Francisco at the present time, and the injuries that would result to the city's interests from a continuation of the disputes in the iron trades, we mutually agree

'First. That all shops shall be opened and the men shall return to work during the week ending June 8, 1907, on the hours and pay prevailing on April 30, 1907, the minimum wage rate per day of this date to prevail during the life of this agreement.

"Second. That nine hours shall constitute a day's work until December 1, 1908. From December 1, 1908, until June 1, 1909, eight and three-quarters hours shall constitute a day's work. From June 1, 1909, until December 1, 1909, eight and one-half hours shall constitute a day's work. From December 1, 1909, until June 1, 1910, eight and one-quarter hours shall constitute a day's work. After June 1, 1910, eight hours shall constitute a day's work.

“Third. There shall be no discrimination made by either side against any employees on account of their connection with the present dispute.

Fourth. That a conference to discuss any other matters not provided for in this agreement may be called by either employers or employees in any craft to provide for some method of adjusting questions at issue. Pending a decision, there shall be no lockout on the part of the employers or strike on the part of the employees."

You will notice by reading the provisions of the first clause to the agreement that some statements recently made before the Committee on Labor did not rest upon a foundation of fact and therefore left a misleading impression in the minds of that committee. The specific language of the agreement definitely provides that the minimum wage rate shall remain in force during the entire life of the agreement, which covers a period of three years, and you will note that this minimum wage rate is based upon a day basis. This would make it impossible for any reduction in the total earnings for each day. while the hours of labor were being reduced.

I hope that the information which I am now placing in your hands will be the means of overcoming any misleading opinion which may have been formed as a result of statements recently made before the Committee on Labor. Yours, fraternally,

Jos. F. VALENTINE,

President International Molders' Union of North America.

32796-08

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