NEW HOURS

For workers

I have often been asked to present and defend here a reform which interests both bosses and workers. No season lends itself better than this one to understanding its usefulness. So let's explain it in a few words:
In France, cities, such as Paris, Lyon, Marseille, industrial centers gradually concentrate all business on their markets where the factory, the trader, the sales representative can handle a large number of operations in the same place . Material result of this concentration: the hearts of cities become congested, the smallest apartment becomes commercial premises, the most modest room is transformed into a writing office. Thus, the center of activity of a city like Paris expands; we work there, we no longer live there. The bourgeois move to the outlying neighborhoods; As for workers, more and more of them are settling in the suburbs. From then on, whatever the multiplication of means of transport, the distances will soon be so great between the office and home that no one will be able to afford the luxury of going to lunch at home. And here's where I come from: why not radically change the habits of the working world? Instead of stopping our factories and closing our offices from noon to 2 p.m., why not practice what is called the English day, as many of our friends in England and America have long since adopted it? ? Why not replace the big lunch, an absence which lasts an hour and a half or two hours, with a lunch lasting three quarters of an hour, the compensation for which would be, after the day is over, the departure advance of a full hour for everything? the staff ?
Without doubt, we are shocking here an old French habit, that of the long and copious lunch where we talk a lot, where we weigh ourselves down with so much meat and wine that it is very difficult to get back to good work afterwards. But let us consider the benefit which consists of bringing forward by one hour the release of the office, the store, the factory, for the father of the family who finds his brood, for the young husband who joins his wife, for the sportsman who has time to train, take a trip to the swimming pool or play a game of football. Finally, and this is the most common case, the mother, even if she works outside the home, now has the means to put her house in order, to prepare the evening supper, while the father can farm at home. enjoy his garden. Let's see things as they are: with the congestion of sprawling cities, all city dwellers will be put in the absolute necessity of emigrating to the periphery. We have defended here the weekly rest, the English week, the eight-hour law, summer time, all improvements which contribute to enlightening and beautifying the lives of workers. It would not be to detract from the collection of these very useful reforms to be able to make the world of work understand the excellence of this initiative which presents infinite advantages and very few disadvantages. The debate is open. Are there serious objections to it? What do we think?

LEON BAILBY