CHAPTER VII 



The Working Day 



The demand for a shorter work day in the iron trade be- 

 gan with the close of the Civil War, and the struggle has 

 been kept up unabated until the present. The success of 

 the union in diminishing the hours of labor has been gradual 

 and continuous, though not uniform in the various depart- 

 ments of the industry. Reductions in hours of work once 

 gained have been well defended and seldom relinquished. 

 In times of depression, the incentive for employers to re- 

 duce wages is stronger than to increase hours, since there 

 is less demand for labor. Efforts to maintain Sunday and 

 the usual holidays as days of rest also have met with suc- 

 cess. The shorter workday, although sometimes obtained 

 by means of strikes, has been procured in most cases by 

 trade agreement. The present discussion will concern itself 

 with the development of the policy of the Association with 

 reference to the standard hours of labor in the several de- 

 partments — (a) boiling, (b) finishing, and (c) sheet and 

 tin divisions. The problems of each were essentially dif- 

 ferent. 



Boiling Division. — Complaints against slavish hours of 

 labor were commonplaces among the early puddlers. In 

 1870 certain mills were reputed to be working fourteen and 

 fifteen hours a day. The length of the day was fixed by 

 custom ; the puddlers fired their furnaces between three and 

 four o'clock in the morning, and considered six " heats " a 

 day's work. The time required varied with conditions, as 

 for instance, the quality of the metal, but the puddler 

 selflom quit before sunset. 



The earliest reductions in the working hours were closely 

 associated with measures designed to limit output. The 



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