TREND TOWARD SHORTER WORKING HOURS 11

women. This decision was reinforced by a later one,! bearing
on the California statute regulating women’s hours of work,
with the result that the constitutionality of such legislation
with respect to women and minors has been definitely established.
 On the other hand, little headway has been made in
restricting by statute the hours of work of men in private
enterprises, on account of the general view that such action
would abridge the individual’s right of contract. Exceptions
to this general rule have been made in case of enterprises
such as railroad operation, where the safety of others may be
endangered by excessive fatigue of the responsible operators.
Most progress, however, in the direction of shorter working
hours has come as a result of collective bargaining or individaal
 agreements between management and the working force.
At its 1884 convention, the American Federation of Labor
set May 1, 1886, as the date for the general establishment of
the eight-hour day, but although gains were made at that
time and have been made since, manufacturing industry
generally has not yet adopted that work schedule. That the
trend, however, has been steadily toward a week of fewer work
hours is evident from the data compiled by the United States
Census of Manufactures. which are summarized in Table 1.

Tare 1: DistriButioN oF INpusTrRIAL WaGE EARNERS ACCORDing
 To Numer oF Hours or Work Per WEEK, 1909-1923
(Source: U. S. Bureau of the Census)

Prevailing Total Number of Workers : Per Cent Distribution
Hours of a — _— i ——
per isk 1923 | 10m wo | 1014 | 1909 | 1923 | 1921 1919 1 1914 | 1909
All groups A 9,041,311 17,023,685(6,615,046 100.0/100.0' 100.0 | 100.0 [100.0
#4 and
under. .| 865,687 954,908 1,107,991
Between 11.8! 79
44 and 48 95601 203,111) CIE
18. ......12,780,803|2,334,256
Between |
48 and 54{1,925,029 1,262,071)
S4.......| 768,524] 542,581
Between
S54 and 60(1,231,521| 871,961
60. ......| 642.837] 516,520
Over 60..1 168.0641 171,162

L Miller vo. Wilson, 236 U. S. 373; 35 Sup. Ct. 342 (1915).