The Dominion MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 1942. PRODUCTION AND THE WORKING WEEK

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 261, 3 August 1942, Page 4

The Dominion MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 1942. PRODUCTION AND THE WORKING WEEK

Representatives of the United States War and Navy Departments, the Maritime Commission, the War Production . Board, the Manpower Commission, and the Departments of Commerce, Laboui and Public Health a few days ago issued a statement regarding the most efficient working week. 1 hey said that 48 hours was the best schedule for sustained efficiency, with one day off in seven and holidays '‘staggered” over the whole year. Hie report is of interest, fpr it has been based on close investigation. Lhe United States is not the only country where the morale and efficiency of the average worker have become strategic factors in the present grim woild struggle. In Great Britain they have concluded that the 54-liour 'week gives the best results, but the matter is under constant investigation. Recently an expert in these and allied matters, Professor Douglas Brown, of Princeton University, in a review of the position, said: "As we apply more fully the restrictions and controls of total war the volume, quality and speed of essential, production will be limited less and less by' the availability of materials or facilities, and more and more by the availability and sustained effectiveness of manpower. To a great extent that conclusion could be applied to this Dominion, although shortages of certain classes of materials might be, relatively, a greater factor here than they are in the United, States. The reported intention of President Roosevelt to frame legislation mobilizing the total American manpower, estimated at 60,000,000, suggests that that is now becoming the decisive factor there. The professor’s prediction is being borne out by the facts. American experts have pointed out that the tendency’ 01. waitime production, with the unceasing pressure for deliveries, has increased the industrial pace, and that is why the report mentioned, and the findings of other investigators have emphasized, the woid “sustained.” For a limited spell the average worker might maintain his rate of production for a good deal more than eight hours daily, but no one can say how long this struggle may last, and, however long, the industrial effort will have to outstay it. For that reason it becomes essential to discover the working period, capable of, being maintained day after day and week after week, that will give the most effective results. It has been found in some instances that the increase of the working week from five to six day’s has less effect on productivity’ than an extension of the working hours pei day. Anything that tends to slow down production, to increase absenteeism, and undermine health hampers the national effort, for that is not the work of the individual but of a great team in which each one has a place.