THE FIVE-DAY WEEK

Bill is amended before the Legislature adjourns as this vitally affects
about 800 workers of ———— and one of —— largest industries. We
are more than pleased with our present way of working and ask you
to help us in our effort to continue our present working schedule,
Respectfully yours,
————— Company
Employees’ Aid Society
President.”

This company, upon failing to obtain relief from the legislature,
 worked out a schedule for continuing the five-day
week by shortening their weekly total hours and using overtime
 allowance. Other companies could not find in this
method a solution of their difficulty and returned to a fiveand-one-half-day
 schedule. Without exception, these companies
 voiced their approval of the five-day week operation
and its popularity among their employees, but found it impossible
 to reconcile their production requirements with the
restrictions of the law,
This situation suggests that over-rigidity in restrictive legislation
 can work to the disadvantage of the very group it is
intended to benefit. It probably did not occur to the framers
of the statute in question that, in thus limiting the maximum
hours that women could work, they were legislating some
women out of a free Saturday and preventing others from
obtaining it. There is grave doubt whether any of the physical,
 social or economic advantages urged in favor of the socalled
 48-hour law for women would not have been served
better had this law provided the reasonable latitude that
would permit the distribution of the forty-eight hours over
five days, if desired. Legislation assumes the prerogative of
exact science when, in effect, it asserts that nine hours rather
than nine hours and thirty-five minutes constitute the maximum
 number of hours per day that a woman can work with
out detriment to health.
The number of hours to be worked per week in case of
change to a five-day schedule is a matter of great importance.
If the change to a five-day basis can be effected without disturbing
 the total hours of work per week, two problems that
are really troublesome are avoided altogether—that of the
number of hours which would otherwise have to be dropped