Are there any other gentlemen who wish to be heard? If not, and it now being after 12 o'clock, we will close the hearing. Hon. ARCHIE D. SANDERS, CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, D. C., February 12, 1930. Chairman Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, DEAR CONGRESSMAN SANDERS: Kindly insert the following statement in the hearings on H. R. 167, introduced by our colleague, Hon. David O'Connell, of New York: 66 'I am heartily in favor of the provisions of the bill (H. R. 167) introduced by my colleague from Brooklyn, N. Y., Hon. David J. O'Connell. I do indeed hope that this half-day holiday for postal employees will receive most favorable consideration and action by the members of this committee. "I am wholly in accord with the aims and purposes of this bill." Sincerely yours, EMANUEL CELLER. (Whereupon, at 12.20 o'clock p. m., the hearing on H. R. 6603 was concluded.) HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON THE POST OFFICE AND POST ROADS, Thursday, February 13, 1930. The committee met this day, the Hon. Archie D. Sanders (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen of the committee, please come to order. Mr. Cochran of Missouri, desires a moment of our time in which. to make a few statements. STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN J. COCHRAN, OF MISSOURI Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I wish to make a statement with reference to the bill under consideration, the 44-hour bill. It was under consideration yesterday also. It is bill No. 6603. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I desire to record an unqualified indorsement of the pending legislation providing for a 44-hour week for postal employees. Coming from St. Louis, where we have a large number of men employed in the Postal Service, and where a division headquarters of the Railway Mail Service is located, naturally I am interested in this bill before you. First, let me say that articles have appeared in the St. Louis papers in regard to the effort to secure favorable action on the bill, and I have received not a single communication from any business man which would lead me to feel that there was any opposition whatsoever from the patrons of the St. Louis post office. It might be to your interest to know that a number of trade-unions in St. Louis have adopted the 5-day week. This has resulted in many shops being closed all year round on Saturday. Our main department stores and retail establishments are all members of the Associated Retailers, and by agreement they are closed not half a day, but all day Saturday during several months in the year. Down-town St. Louis is practically deserted on Saturday afternoon. The mail men have been delivering their mail, but they find it necessary to place it under the door or through the mail slot. Unless it is picked up by the charwomen it remains there unopened until Monday morning. The employees of the post office in St. Louis are entitled to a halfday holiday on Saturday. It will enable them to take advantage of the wonderful recreation facilities close to our city. With the construction of our wonderful highways the Ozarks of Missouri are now but two hours from the city, and without exaggerating I can say that not less than 100,000 of our citizens go to the country to spend Saturday afternoons and Sundays. They return to work on Monday refreshed, and in the long run the employers derive the benefit. A 44-hour week will enable the postal employees to do likewise. If the patrons of the post office are satisfied, I can not see why the Post Office Department and the Congress should not approve of this legislation. I sincerely hope that it will be favorably reported, and that we will have an early opportunity to vote thereon. I thank you. The CHAIRMAN. I have a communication from Congressman Fitzgerald, also a letter from a constituent of Congressman Bell, also a statement from Congressman John J. Douglass, of Massachusetts, which we will have go into the record at this point. The letter from Congressman Fitzgerald is as follows: MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: I am heartily in favor of increased salaries for the postal employees as I believe they are underpaid at the present time, and that the great Government of the United States should be willing to at least give its employees a living wage, so that they can bring up their children and give them the same opportunity that the children of other American citizens have. I am also in favor of a half holiday for the postal employees as I realize their task is a hard one and they have a great deal to contend with. A half holiday on Saturday would give them a little chance for rest and recreation which I believe this great country owes all of its employees. I am in favor of all legislation that will improve the working conditions of all Federal employees. The next one is from Congressman Bell, and is as follows: DEAR MR. SANDERS: I am inclosing herewith a letter in behalf of the 44-hour bill which is self-explanatory. This letter is from a seasoned railway post-office clerk, and a good one, too. I trust this will be read at the hearings on this particular bill. The letter he refers to will be printed in our record at this point. BLUE RIDGE, GA., February 4, 1930. Hon. THOMAS M. BELL, Member of Congress, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR SIR: The passage of the 44-hour week bill for postal employees by the present Congress is a matter of very vital importance to myself and family of six. I trust that this bill meets with your hearty approval and that you will see that it is reported out of committee, you being a member of the subcommittee to consider this bill. Also I trust that you may feel constrained to use the necessary influence to get this bill through the House as speedily as possible. The present system of demanding eight hours a day from railway postal clerks and holding a few minutes each day deficiency against me to be absorbed by late trains, Christmas holiday extra trips, and any other emergency extra trips works a great injustice and hardship on me. The system works like this: I am deficient in time 10 minutes a day, for which I am not responsible; I could easily make it and never feel it. But it is held against me, and in time it amounts to something. It amounts to about four hours a month with me. With no late trains December of each year will find me about 24 hours deficient. I run up behind a freight-train wreck and stay all night, and have to work 101⁄2 hours next day without any rest. The same thing could happen the next night and next day or I could be called out for two extra trips for the holiday rush, which comes mighty hard, and I would not receive a penny in overtime until that 10 minutes a day deficiency, about 24 hours since July 1, is satisfied. Now, that picture is not overdrawn, and it takes a man of iron to make that schedule. And when my check comes on the 15th it may be $4 or $5 more than usual. The Saturday half holiday-the 44-hour week bill-will correct this vicious evil and will provide for my being treated fair. Then if I must make all of this extra time as mentioned above the department will have to pay for it, and my family will benefit from the extra money. Knowing your great heart and tender feeling for the under dog and your great zeal in looking after the interests of your constituents, I take this liberty of writing you fully and frankly of the matter which so vitally concerns myself and family. My salary is not sufficient to support my family and educate my children. Respectfully yours. OSCAR C. BEAM. The statement from John J. Douglass is brief and I will read it. It is from John J. Douglass, Member of Congress of the tenth Massachusetts district, and he says: I respectfully urge that this committee take action favorable to the bills now before it, which would reduce the number of working hours each week throughout the Post Office Department from 48 to 44 hours. This may easily be accomplished without impairment of the splendid efficiency of our postal establishment by arranging the working schedules of employees, so far as it is practicable, so that they will be required to work but half of each Saturday. The 5-day week already has been admitted in private industry as a necessity and compliment to this machine age; and in various instances in the business world now is in operation. Cutting down of the hours of work appears as the only practical solution of the unemployment problem. If private business, in the interest of solving the unemployment situation, plus its desire, to increase personal efficiency, can see its way clear to reduce weekly work schedules from 48 to 40 hours, I can see no sound reason for this great Government of ours being unable to lop off four hours per week from the work schedules of our postal employees, so that they may receive the benefits of an increased week-end respite from their admittedly rigorous labors. Mr. O'Connell will now speak on bill No. 6603, the 44-hour bill. STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID J. O'CONNELL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK Mr. O'CONNELL. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committe, I am very much interested in this legislation. I saw in the papers this morning that you had before you on yesterday the Postmaster General, and that he is not friendly to it. I am somewhat surprised that he took this attitude, and yet, on the other hand, it is not always to be expected that the head of a department will go along with the personnel. Mr. SPROUL. Would it not be well to take into account that the Postmaster General argued from the financial end? Mr. O'CONNELL. That is true, but from the standpoint of health and usefulness to the service, I think, the 44-hour week is about the best thing we could adopt. Some time ago I made a speech on the floor of the house, Mr. Chairman, going into this matter very thoroughly, a speech which, perhaps, the gentlemen of the committee have not seen. The 44-hour week is practically already adopted all over the country by big organizations. Mr. SPROUL. It is adopted and is in force for a number of years in a number of places. Mr. O'CONNELL. That is true, and I made many references to this fact in my speech. Mr. Filene, the merchant humanitarian, of Boston, indorsed it; Henry Ford indorsed it; former President Coolidge in his last annual message, on December 4, recorded himself in strong terms as favoring it. President Green, of the American Federation of Labor, has indorsed it. President Sayers, of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, has indorsed it. All of these men, who have studied this subject, recommend the 44-hour week. I can see no reason why the members of the committee can not look with favor upon it. Sickness among letter-carriers is known to be larger than among any other employees of the Government service. Since the parcel-post feature was introduced the postman is no longer a letter carrier, he is a baggage man. You will find those men lugging bundles that should be loaded on trucks, wagons, and automobiles. After 25 years of such work he can not stand up under such a severe strain. I am in favor of this legislation and I believe you will think the same way when you go into it thoroughly. Nobody questions the work of our postal service men and women. They give the best of their life to it. Mr. MEAD. Mr. Cochran made an observation that the Postmaster General is opposed to this, and the same speaker suggested that was to be expected of the Postmaster General. Don't you believe it is in line with President Hoover's policy as in dicated to the men representing the big business organizations, namely, that if it is opposed to economy or to the economy program of the President it must be in keeping with his prosperity program? Mr. O'CONNELL. I agree with my colleague from New York, that the economy program operates only in certain divisions of the Government work. I do not think, and never have, that we should take into account the question of the expense of the post office. It is an educational institution engaged in the dissemination of literature. I think most of the deficit we get from the postal authorities is more or less a matter of bookkeeping anyhow. If this 44-hour-week program is adopted would it not be possible to give consideration to the applications of many more men whose services we could employ in the post office, following the suggestion of the President of the United States, as he made it to the commercial representatives of the great industries at a recent conference here in Washington. More work, better pay; constant work." Now, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen: In giving consideration to employment standards the two factors of major moment are wages and hours of labor. The effect of those two items on the worker's life and well-being is so profound and far-reaching as to defy overstatement. Moreover, there exists an intimate and apparently interdependent relationship between wage rates and hours of labor. 99147-30-6 Long hours and low wages go hand in hand. Strangely, too, and as an historical review will fuly disclose, advancing wages and declining hours of toil have kept step together. Forecasting the future, the prediction can be safely made that, as the hours of labor go downward, the course of real wages will be upward. My purpose is to give consideration to the continuing trend toward a shorter work week throughout industry, with particular regard to the institution and observance of a shorter work day on Saturday in post offices. Almost eight years have elapsed since former Postmaster General Work, on July 13, 1922, issued the original order concerning the observance of a shorter work day on Saturday in post offices, which, in a restricted way, gave this innovation its initial trial. This trial proved a complete success; so complete, in fact, that on December 1, 1922, former Postmaster General Work issued an order supplementing and confirming the original order, and making its terms applicable throughout the year. Later, on May 4, 1924, and again on September 3, 1924, former Postmaster General New issued orders which in substance invested postmasters with discretionary authority to limit work on Saturday afternoons during all the months of the year in keeping with imperative service. requirements. Behind the shorter work day on Saturday are now eight years of invaluable experience. Introduced in a limited way and largely as an experiment, it has made remarkable progress both in scope and observance. Under varying auspices and for varying periods of time, city letter carriers and other postal employees have been granted respite from duty on Saturday afternoons, while service efficiency has been maintained at a high level. The progress thus made is highly encouraging. The future is bright with promise. It is plain, however, that the time has arrived when serious consideration should be given to a further expansion and liberalization of this observance so as to assist the Postal Service to keep step with social and economic progress on the one hand and permit a more general participation in its benefits on the other. The shorter workday on Saturday in post offices is no longer on trial. Seven years' experience has confirmed, and abundantly confirmed, its practicability and usefulness. It has proven itself on every count. Its initial trial occurred at a timely hour. Throughout business and industry Saturday half-holiday observance, long established, has developed to a point where it is well-nigh universal. The trend of progress now tends steadily toward the 5-day work week. Public opinion with unmistakable voice has registered its approval of the shorter workday on Saturday in post offices. Through broad-scale cooperation this observance during the past six years has served to stimulate service efficiency and enthusiasm, and the innovation has resulted well in every item and particular. Prompt deliveries on the succeeding Monday morning have been the invariable rule, and service morale and employees' health and wellbeing have been greatly enhanced thereby with little, if any, added cost. Every service requirement has been fully answered. Moreover, the Saturday half-holiday idea is fundamentally and economically sound. Wisdom insistently counsels its wider acceptance. |