)

THE FIVE-DAY WEEK

During the early fifties of the nineteenth century the ascendancy
 of labor unions changed the philosophy of the movement
 for shorter hours of work. Fearing that legislative action
might weaken their organization and power, union leaders
discouraged attempts to standardize working hours by legislation.
 They preferred to extend the influence of the unions
by securing reduction of hours in individual industries or
establishments through strikes or trade agreements. Also,
the social arguments for shorter hours—to protect the health
of workers and to give them more leisure—were for the time
largely abandoned in favor of the argument that shorter
hours would provide work for a greater number of wage
earners. For a period legislative action ceased, and it was not
until nearly three decades after President Van Buren’s order
that legislatures again turned their attention to the question
of restricting hours of work. The first enforceable law limiting
 hours of work applied only to women and was passed by
the Massachusetts legislature in 1879. It proved effective
because by that time state bureaus and factory inspection
agencies, to enforce its provisions, had been organized.
Thereafter, the movement for legislative restriction of hours
of work of women steadily spread, until in 1927 only five
states! were without such a law.
Statutory limitations upon the hours that women may
work now range from eight to eleven hours per day in manufacturing
 industries. Only six of the states which have such
statutes fail to limit the hours of work per week. In only
five states is the legal maximum of hours of work per day for
women in excess of ten hours. Some states, in which seasonal
 industries are important factors, make special provisions
 for permissible overtime at certain seasons, or provide
a fixed overtime allowance that may be distributed throughout
 the year at the employer’s option.
The constitutionality of laws restricting the hours of work
of women was upheld in 1908 by the Supreme Court of the
United States in the famous case of Mueller v. Oregon?
which affirmed the right of the state to exercise its police
power in this manner for the protection of the health of
1 Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Iowa and West Virginia.
Y Mueller 0. Oregon, 208 U. S, 412; 28 Sup. Ct. 324 (1908).