LONG HOURS OF LABOUR.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9991, 10 March 1910, Page 4

LONG HOURS OF LABOUR.

In view of the labour troubles in Pennsylvania, some facts about in- t dustrial conditions in that State, R brought to light by a recent investigation are of interest. In the steel t mills an eight-hours day prevailed. 1 Fourteen thousand men in Alleghany 0 ( County worked twelve hours a day seven days in the week. Sixty per ] cent, of employees in steel mills were classed as unskilled and paid ] eightpence an hour. The investiga- i tions found that the high* wages paid ' to a relatively small number of men J in positions of responsibility had mis- , led the public as to the general standard of wages in this industry. In their opinion the wage paid to unskilled bands was not a living wage. Where these workmen lived drunkenness and immorality were most rife The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ has issued an appeal, applicable to the whole country, for one day's rest in seven, reasonable hours of labour, and a living wage, lor the Council is advised that | what has been revealed in and around j Pittsburg is true, to a greater or less extent, of other industrial centres. The Council declares "that it is the right of every man to have one day out of the seven for rest and recreation of body and soul and mind, and that ic is the duty of every Christian employer so to arrange his business that each of the employees may have one day holiday in seven, without j dimunition of wages." The Council! recognises that Sunday work in some industries cannot be avoided, but contends that those who are emploved on that day should be given a holiday on some other day. The Council is } not prepared to say that an eight- ' hjur day is part of the Christian obligation, but it is convinced that any- ' thing even ten hours "is an abuse I which should not be tolerated in a Christian community, or exacted by ' a Christian employer." In what has e been written about the prosperity of n the American worker, the lot of the unskilled hand seems to have been t left out of account. This appeal of * the Churches throws a rather IWII pleasant light on industrial conditions in the United States.