PREFACE

Jy weeks G attention is being focussed upon the fiveday
 week as a basis of plant operation or of employee
working schedules in American industry. This interest
has been stimulated by publicity given to somewhat spectacular
 individual instances of its recent adoption, and by the
spread of the shorter work week under labor union pressure
In special localities and occupations, such as the building and
garment trades.
At present, as this study shows, the extent of the five-day
week in American industry is insignificant in comparison
with the field of industrial operation as a whole, particularly
if highly unionized activities in special fields, and a few largescale
 instances like that of the Ford Motor Company, are set
apart. Nevertheless, sporadic and slight as the movement
still is in the manufacturing industries and mechanical
trades, its potential importance should not be under-estimated.
 Since, however, it is the responsibility of industrial
leadership to discern such issues and problems far in advance,
a study of the five-day week schedule in industry at this
‘ime does not seem premature.
The five-day week issue, at the present stage, is in part a
question of rearrangement of working hours and in part one
of reduction of the work period. But variance in purpose
and practice does not conceal the fact that the fundamental
objective and tendency in the movement is the reduction of
the weekly work period for employees, whether or not the
work period for machines is restricted or extended. In effect,
the five-day week is only the current form of the movement
toward progressively shorter working hours for labor. Since
this tendency is coupled generally, or in principle, with the
assumption that wages are to be maintained or increased, the
five-day week is, at bottom, also part of the general movement
 for higher wages.
The question of shorter working hours in this form has
thus become one of social economy and industrial technology.