THE FIVE-DAY WEEK

arrangement of working hours, should or could be generally
applied in industry, by legislative enactment, by force of
collective agreement, or merely by pressure of popular opinion
 or general compliance with widening custom, it is more
difficult to arrive at a conclusive answer. Complex and difficult
 problems of economic and social welfare are at once
raised for employers, workers and the public, and it is impossible
 safely to settle these problems by appeal merely to
individual preference or experience.
This study is concerned primarily with the first-mentioned
aspect of the five-day week question, that is, the practical
administrative problem for the individual manufacturer, as
it is revealed in the experience and attitude of employers and
workers in cases where the five-day week has been applied.
The more general problems of economic and social theory
that are bound up in this question are outside the scope of
this inquiry. Such problems, of course, are inevitably raised
by the individual and specific experiences described in this
survey, but they can not be solved merely by reference to
them, and this study must not be taken as an attempt to do
so. In order, however, that the purpose and scope of this
study may be clearly understood, it is desirable at the outset
to review in some detail the questions that arise in connection
with this problem and to indicate specifically those with
which this survey is concerned.
Certain surface advantages of the five-day working schedule
 for both workers and employers are evident, but these
may or may not outweigh other, more far-reaching, considerations
 that are involved. It is probable that a considerable
majority of wage earners would prefer the concentration of
the work week into five days, even if this involved the slight
lengthening of the working hours in these five days to include
the hours to be lost on the sixth work day. The possession of
two entire days of freedom from work each week might well
stimulate additional effort during the other five days. But
if the hours of the sixth day, usually Saturday, were not
spread over the week, and if no wage adjustment was made
to compensate for the lost time, it is not so certain that the
shortened work week would be generally acceptable to the
workers.