FORTY-HOUR WEEK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 62, 8 June 1942, Page 4

FORTY-HOUR WEEK

Sir,—Ycur sub-leacler on P.W.D. rates of pay and the letters on thes forty-hour week and Russia and Britain in the. Beacon for 3/6/42 are full of interest and suggest several questions. That forty-hour week is certainly like a red rag to a profiteer, almost as infuriating to him as the hammer and sickle in fact. Why is the forty-hour week always spoken of by these people as though . it prevented the workers from doing far more than: fort} 7 hours a week on essential Avar work? They; as well as we do that it does notlx-* ing of the kind, but they evidently? also know that if they repeat this fairy tale often enough a lot of people will believe ti. Does it ever strike you as strange that so many people are getting all hot and bothered about the fortyhour week and big wages, while big incomes don't worry them a bit and they have never heard that dividends paid to shareholders of firms with war contracts have increased 100 per cent or more. Of'course our big daily papers arc not paid! to draw atteention to that kindJ o£ thing. What has happened to this idea of paying everyone at the private soldier's rate of pay? Some people seemed to think our wealthy patriots would jump at a really all in war effort like that—but did they? Perhaps like the young man who was told "go and sell what thou hast and give to the poor" vthey went away sorrowing for they had great possessions. Yours etc., WORKING FARMER.