386 BIOLOGY AND HUMAN LIFE 



colds and other infections. For these reasons sufficient sleep 

 is one of the prime necessities of healthful and efficient and 

 happy living. People whose daily tasks are too long are most 

 likely to get their fun in time taken from sleep. It is during 

 sleep that the working and growing cells can make up for the 

 losses resulting from the day's work. It is also during sleep that 

 excretion can catch up with the day's accumulation of wastes. 



288. Hours of work. There was a time when mill workers 

 had to be at their tasks sixteen and eighteen and even more 

 hours a day. They got along somehow, but they died young. 

 The injurious effects of long working days upon the worker are 

 coming to be recognized by society at large as well as by the 

 workers most concerned. The workers are constantly demand- 

 ing a shorter and shorter work day, and legislation is steadily 

 making the legal work day shorter and shorter. 



Most of the states now have laws Hmiting hours of labor, 

 either in special occupations and industries or in general, and 

 many cities limit the hours on public works. The public de- 

 mand for shorter hours rests chiefly on two considerations : 



1 The human stock must be preserved from the evil effects 

 of overwork, and the ordinary methods of bargaining about 

 hours and wages cannot be relied upon to secure what is fair for 

 the workers. This is especially true in certain dangerous indus- 

 tries like coke-making or work in compressed air. 



2 'in certain occupations the fatigue of the worker is a direct 

 menace to the public. This is especially true in such occupa- 

 tions as railroading of all kinds, elevator operating, work on 

 boats and ferries, telegraph and telephone operating, and so on. 



The human side of the problem was recognized in legislation 

 as long ago as 1913, when Oregon declared that ^^no person shall 

 be hired nor permitted to work for wages, under any conditions 

 or terms, for longer hours or days of service than is consistent 

 with his health and physical well-being and ability to promote 

 the general welfare by his increasing usefulness as a healthy and 

 intelhgent citizen." This law sees in the worker's health a 

 necessary part of good citizenship and progressive civilization. 



