be growing. In Hudson river towns in the summer of 1920, factories
employing less than 50 people were found to shut down on Saturday
at 12 or I o'clock. In the building trades and clothing industry the
44-hour week is prevalent. Twenty-five per cent of the telephone
operators in New York State have the |4-hour week.
The best known studies in the United States are reported in Goldmark's Fatigue and Efficiency, which is the collection of material used in preparing the brief for the shorter workday for women, in the famous case of Bunting v. Oregon, 37 Sup. Ct. 435, 1917, and in U.S. Public Health Service Bulletin, No. 106. Other references on hours of labour are the series of bulletins on the subject published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, reports appearing in the Monthly Labor Reviews of the Bureau and reports of the National Industrial Conference Board. (J. R. Co.)
INTERNATIONAL ACTION
Demands for international agreement or legislation on the standardizing of the hours of labour have been frequent since 1890, when the International Conference on Labour in Factories and Mines the Conference summoned officially by the then German Emperor suggested a general adoption of the 8-hour day in mines. The need for uniformity in hours in order to re- move at least one awkward cause of friction in international relations was voiced in 1893 at Zurich by the Metal Workers' Congress, and again in 1904 at Amsterdam. In 1894 it was the turn of the Tobacco Workers; in 1905 of the International Con- ference of Trade Union Secretaries. At Geneva in 1906, and again at Zurich in 1912 the International Association for Labour Legis- lation emphasized the same point. In 1916 the General Federa- tion of Trade Unions of Great Britain, and in 1918 the United States Socialist party adopted resolutions on the subject. Steps were taken in the same direction by the Scandinavian and Inter- Allied Conferences of 1918.
This movement culminated in the inclusion of the international labour agreement (see INTERNATIONAL LABOUR) in the Peace Treaty of Versailles. The Labour part of the Treaty was drafted by an International Commission on Labour Legislation, appointed by the Peace Conference on Jan. 31 1919. Its chairman, Samuel Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor, sub- mitted a declaration of the aims of labour, which included the following clause :
" It shall be declared that the workday in industry and commerce shall not exceed eight hours per day except in case of extraordinary emergency, such as danger to life or property."
Various national delegations proposed amendments in the terms, but finally certain " principles " were adopted by the Commission, including the following:
" The adoption of an eight hours' day or a forty-eight hours' week as the standard to be aimed at where it has not already been attained."
The Peace Conference approved of these general principles in its plenary sitting of April 28 1919. An International Organiz- ing Committee, representative of the United States, Great Brit- ain, France, Italy, Japan, Belgium and Switzerland, appointed to prepare for the first session of the International Labour Conference created by the Labour part of the Treaty, placed first upon the Agenda for that Conference the question : " Appli- cation of principle of the eight hours' day and of the forty-eight hours' week."
Working Hours in Industry. On May 10 1919 the Organizing Committee issued to the Governments of all the States which were named in the Annexe to the Covenant of the League of Nations a questionnaire, the object of which was, firstly, to se- cure information as to how far the 8-hour day was already ob- served, whether as a result of legal enactment, collective agree- ment, or custom; and as to the immediate intentions (if any) of the various Governments in the matter; and secondly, to elicit by categorical questions the attitude of the Governments towards the proposed limitation of the working day to 8 hours and the working week to 48.
Thirty-five Governments replied to the questionnaire. To the categorical question: " Is the Government prepared to adopt the limit of eight hours a day exclusive of rest-time ? " not one Government returned a definitely negative reply. The Govern- ment of Siam did not contemplate legislative action " in the
present circumstances." In the United States and Canada the distribution of legislative power between the central and state or provincial authorities made a direct reply difficult if not impossi- ble. The Japanese Government doubted the possibility of the immediate application in Japan of the 8-hour day, in view of the relatively unadvanced state of most of her industries and the inexperience of her workers. Similar considerations were argued by India and by Greece. Every other State replying to the questionnaire indicated its readiness to adopt the 8 and 48-hour limits. Many of them indicated that these limits (or lower ones, as in the case of Poland, which had a 46-hour week) were already enforced within their territories.
The list of these States comprised every Power of industrial importance, with the exception of Russia, Finland and the ex- enemy States, and included Argentina, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Great Britain, Guatemala, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Portu- gal, Panama, Peru, Rumania, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzer- land and Uruguay, in addition to those mentioned above.
Of the States which were not consulted or which did not reply, it was known at the time that Finland, Germany, German- Austria and Russia had already taken action by law.
This evidence pointed clearly to the possibility of the successful conclusion of an International Convention on the subject; and the Organizing Committee proceeded at once to the drafting of a project to be submitted for the consideration of the Conference. The basis of this project was the adoption of the 48-hour week rather than the 8-hour day, the Committee giving as its reason for this, that " it allows more elasticity in the arrangement of the hours of work, and it facilitates the adoption of a half-holiday, or even a whole holiday, on Saturday or some other day of the week, by enabling a longer period than 8 hours to be worked on other days. Secondly, it helps to secure the weekly, rest-day, whereas the principle of an 8-hour day by itself does not." The greater part of the project was concerned with the limitations within which exceptions to the general rule should be permitted. It was clearly undesirable to leave unlimited scope for exceptions. " The mere affirmation of the principle of a 48-hour week, while leaving a wide discretion to each State to allow such exceptions as it considers desirable in the circumstances of its country, would not, so it seems to the Committee, fulfil the purpose for which the International Labour Organization has been created." Since one of the motives of such a convention, as indeed of all interna- tional labour legislation, is the removal so far as possible of such sources of international friction as those which arise from the competition of " cheap " labour, or of labour suffering under rela- tively disadvantageous conditions, the Committee was obviously adopting the proper attitude in this respect.
The discussions of the International Labour Conference, which met at Washington in Oct.-Nov. 1919, turned for the most part on the permissible exceptions. To the general principle little or no opposition was offered. The Organizing Committee's project was, after some preliminary discussion, referre"d to a Commission of the Conference, and a Special Countries Commis- sion was entrusted with the task of considering the application of this and other projects to tropical lands and countries displaying unusual conditions.
The Commission on Hours amended the draft in several par- ticulars, and clauses were added to meet the special cases of Japan (a 57-hour week) ; British India (a 6o-hour week, with a clause indicating that further limitation of hours is to be considered at a future session of the Conference) ; China, Persia and Siam (consideration at a future session) ; Greece (postponement of the date at which the provisions of the Convention should come into operation for two years in the case of certain industries, three years in the case of others); and Rumania (postponement for three years).
The Organizing Committee's omission of a provision for the establishment of the 8-hour day was not upheld by the Con- ference, which approved, in the final draft, the wording:
" The working hours of persons employed in any public or private industrial undertaking or in any branch thereof . . . shall not
