Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/279

 WHATB IN A JOB 273

a stretch; he mnfit frequently interrupt his sleep to attend a suffering victim of disease or accident. But he does not count his hours. A bookbinder must sometimes work twelve or fifteen hours at a stretchy or even more^ two or three days a week, only to be laid off or given part time for the rest of the week; and that is a serious hardship. In many processes in the steel industry the twelve-hour day, seven days a week, was for long the accepted condition. Only within two or three years has any considerable effort been made to change the system to eight-hour shifts, seven days a week. Many occupations are seasonal, allowing many free hours during the year, but these are seldom so organized as to be of value to the workers in any sense. In the tele- phone service the operators in the best centrals work only six or seven hours a day, and have several interruptions for rest and relaxation; but fainting is a normal episode in the day's work.

The question of hours is closely connected with that of pily. It is possible to make a fine statistical showing of a high rate of pay per hour, where the worker makes a bare living and takes nearly all of his waking time to do it. For example, in a number of city railway systems it takes a conductor or motorman fourteen or more hours to put in ten hours of work. They get paid for the time of the actual ^'run^' but have to wait at the bams several hours a day, to be on hand when wanted; this with systems of shifting reduce the weekly earn- ings to very moderate figures indeed. A tailor who works only thirty- five or forty weeks a year should receive his whole year's income during the working weeks. What sometimes looks like a high weekly wage in certain industries is subject to just this kind of reduction. Compari- sons are sometimes made between weekly or hourly wages of different classes of workers without taking these facts into consideration, and the conclusions are accordingly misleading.

Another problem connected with the wage is that of mode of determining pay. In the first place, is pay made by time, or by piece, or by week, or by the year? There are many elements that enter into the determination of a system of payment, and it woxQd not be fair to say that any one system is the best. But the system has undoubtedly a profound influence upon the attitude of the worker toward his work. The "ambulance-chasing attorney'* is obviously influenced by the fact that he is a "piece worker.'' On the other hand, most soldiering is done by men who are paid by the hour or the day. An ideal system of payment has not yet been worked out, although many improvements have been suggested upon prevailing systems. Still, some plans are more advantageous for some people than others, and one should cer- tainly think of this in considering a vocation.

There is another side to the wages question. Does the wage grow rapidly, or slowly, or not at aU? In some manufacturing processes

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