LABOR: The Twelve-Hour Day

The twelve-hour shift in industry will not stay out of the news. Every week some new organization or group of investigators declares the twelve-hour day dangerous, inhuman, and unnecessary, and at least every other week Judge Gary or one of his technical experts denies the charge. The history of the movement against the twelve-hour shift shows that criticism of industries using the long work day is becoming more and more conservative and respectable. At first only a few radicals and professional muckrakers protested. Then the American Federation of Labor began a series of futile efforts to organize the steel industry with abolition of the twelve-hour shift as their chief talking point. The next important protest was made in the Interchurch World Movement's report on the Steel Strike. Now the Federated Engineering Societies of America has published a thick volume called " The Twelve-Hour Shift in Industry," in which the authors endeavor to substantiate, amplify, and enhance by scientific authority all the arguments of previous investigators.