are, of
short hours of labor.

Nor was the business aspect of the case neglected. That people
accomplish as much in an eight-hour day as in a twelve-hour day has
actually been demonstrated. The brief stated, for one instance, the
experience of a bicycle factory in Massachusetts.

In this place young women were employed to sort the ball bearings which
went into the machines. They did this by touch, and no girl was of use
to the firm unless her touch was very sensitive and very sure. The head
of this firm became convinced that the work done late in the afternoon
was of inferior quality, and he tried the experiment of cutting the
hours from ten to nine. The work was done on piece wages, and the girls
at first protested against the nine-hour day, fearing that their pay
envelopes would suffer. To their astonishment they earned as much in
nine hours as they had in ten. In time the employer cut the working day
down to eight hours and a half, and in addition gave the girls
ten-minute rests twice a day. Still they earned their full wages, and
they continued to earn full wages after the day became eight hours
long. The employer testified before the United States Industrial
Commission of 1900 that he believed he could successfully shorten the
day to seven hours and a half and get the same amount of work
accomplished.

What can you do against testimony like that? The Consumers' League
convinced the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Oregon
ten-hour law was upheld.

The importance of this decision cannot be overestimated. On it hangs the
validity of nearly all the laws which have been passed in the United
States for the protection of women workers. If the Oregon law had been
declared unconstitutional, laws in twenty States, or practically all
the States where women work in factories, would have been in perpetual
danger, and the United States might easily have sunk to a position
occupied now by no leading country in Europe.

Great Britain has had protective legislation for women workers since
1844. In 1847 the labor of women in English textile mills was limited to
ten hours a day, the period we are now worrying about, as being possibly
contrary to our Constitution. France, within the past five years, has
established a ten-hour day, broken by one hour of rest. Switzerland,
Germany, Holland, Austria, Italy, limit the hours of women's labor. In
several countries there are special provisions giving extra time off to
women