Septembek 22, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



327 



the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Experi- 

 ments conducted at a sewage farm to test tlie 

 character of the effluent by its effect on the 

 health of fish is an example of work carried out 

 for the preservation of public health. Nearly 

 20,000 experiments were performed for the 

 preparation and testing of antitoxin serums 

 and vaccines and for the testing and standard- 

 izing of drugs. The several registered places 

 were visited frequently by the inspectors, usu- 

 ally without previous notice, and they report 

 that the animals were suitably lodged and well 

 cared for, and the licensees generally attentive 

 to the requirements of the act and the condi- 

 tions attached to their licenses. 



THE REPORT OF THE ENGINEERING 

 COUNCIL ON WORK PERIODS 



"The tendency throughout the world is 

 toward the abolition of the twelve-hour shift," 

 it is held by the report of the Committee on 

 Work-Periods of the American Engineering 

 Council of the Federated American Engineer- 

 ing Societies, ^Vhic]l has been adopted after a 

 long discussion by the executive board of the 

 council in Boston. The report, in effect, finds 

 that the two-shift day of twelve hours each is 

 not an economic necessity in American industry. 



"In almost every continuous industry," ac- 

 cording to the report, "there are plants which 

 are operating on an eight-hour shift basis in 

 competition with twelve-hour shift plants." It 

 is also shown that in practically all major 

 continuous industry plants which have changed 

 from twelve hours to eight hours have increased 

 the quantity of production per man up to as 

 much as twenty-five per cent. In a few cases, 

 the report states, the increase has been much 

 higher. In the steel and iron industry, which 

 is made the subject of a special report, it was 

 found that "the change from the twelve to the 

 eight-hour day has secured results sufiicient to 

 compensate in whole or in part for the extra 

 cost." 



Other advantages of the eight-hour day in 

 the steel and iron industry are described as 

 increased efficiency, better morale, elimination 

 of the "floating gang," which is maintained to 

 give twelve-hour men a day off a week, and 

 greater prestige of the industry with the public. 



Professor Samuel McCune Lindsay, of 

 Columbia University, representing the Cabot 

 Fund of Boston, officialy styled the report as 

 embodying the results of "the most important 

 investigation of any industrial situation ever 

 undertaken in this country." The Cabot Fund 

 cooperated in the engineering investigation, 

 which occupied nearly two years and covered 

 practically every continuous industry in the 

 United States. Professor Lindsay, who is pres- 

 ident of the Academy of Political Science, 

 authorized the statement that Professor Henry 

 R. Seager, of Columbia, president of the Amer- 

 ican Economic Association, shared his general 

 view. 



The results of the industrial investigation, 

 which will exercise a great influence on the 

 general labor situation, were obtained through 

 two lines of inquiry. One enquiry, em'bracing 

 the steel and iron industry of the country, was 

 directed by Bradley Stoughton, of New York, 

 former secretary of the American Institute of 

 Mining and Metallurgical Engineers and 

 former adjunct professor of metallurgy in 

 Columbia University. 



The second enquiry was directed by Horace 

 B. Drury, industrial investigator and fonner 

 member of the faculty of Ohio State Univer- 

 sity. Each enquiry was made the subject of 

 a separate report, the whole investigation being 

 in charge of the council's Committee on Work- 

 Periods, of which Dr. H. E. Howe, of Wash- 

 ington, is chairman. Dr. Howe presented the 

 report to the board. His associates on the 

 committee are J. Parke Channing, L. P. Alford, 

 Fred J. Miller and Dwight T. Farnham, of New 

 York; Morris L. Cooke, of Philadelphia, and 

 L. W. Wallace, of Washington. 



Presentation of the report by Dr. Howe 

 caused a spirited discussion of two hours, 

 during which President Cooley, urging adop- 

 tion, asserted that the report was a remarkable 

 contribution of the engineering profession 

 toward the advancement of mankind. Others 

 participating in the debate were Philip N. 

 Moore, of St. Louis; Professor Joseph W. Roe, 

 of New York University; Irving E. Moulthrop, 

 of Boston; W. W. Varney, of Cleveland; Cal- 

 vert Townley, of New York; E. S. Carman, of 

 Cleveland; John A. Stevens, of Lowell; Wil- 



