The Share -The -\(/ork National Plan

(Continued from Page 10) put into widespread operation the dividing of the rvork gives the worker a feeling of assurance of steady, if somewhat curtailed employment. Thus FEAR, that greatest destroyer of.happiness and health, is routed, and a sense of confidence and hope takes its place.

Restoring the conlidence of the wage earner tends to restore his customary mode of living and, due to lower costs, his normal consumption of commodities, a situation which is quickly reflected in a corresponding restoration of confidence in every other interdependent part of our complex economic system.

The plan of sharing work to aid employment has already been practiced by many business institutions in various cities and in widely divergent lines of industry, and with unvarying success. That the idea is practical is proven by results obtairied by some five thousand companies of all sizes who reported their experiences recently on the methods used by them.

In 3,857 cases, the rvork rvas shared by reducing the number of days in the working r,veek or period; 2,336 reduced the hours per day; 1,338 alternated shifts or individuals; 1,170 rotated days oft, and 380 introduced shorter shifts. Some of the companies found it necessary to use two or more of the above methods to meet the specific needs of individual departments.

Other methods are extended vacations or furloughs without pay; maximum and minimum rvork rveek; training and transfer. And there have been a number of special methods developed in certain cases. The New Hampshire Plan contemplates the employment ofl0 per cent additional workers, and shortening hours correspondingly, without increasing costs. inventories or output.

The following outlines of actual experiences illustrate some of the methods employed: The California Walnut Growers' Association decided to give the women in the cracking plants two weeks' work six days a lveek, and one week layoff. This would increase the number of workers 33 per cent. All men employed in the cracking plants, warehouses, and blending plants worked five days a week, eight hours a d,ay. The inspectors, branders, and clerical help were staggered on a five-day week basis. Through this system there will be employed during the season between seven and eight hundred more people than would otherwise be possible.

A manufacturer of box shooks had originally a schedule of hours based on 55 hours or 5l days of 1O hours each. The company's product went largely to export. Rather than completely disorganize the business and lay off old men, it was decided to drop the hours to 48, afterwards to 4O hours. The plant is now operating successfully on a 32-hour week or four eight-hour days. The office force and supervisors have also been reduced to a maximum 4o-hour per week basis.

A large bank on the West Coast adopted a work-sharing program, with variations necessary to maintain operating efficiency, in its several divisiond. In such mechanical departments as clearing house, mail transmission and the like, employes worked five days out of each week rotating on such schedules as were best adapted to the work. Heads of departments, junior executives and specialists, who require building up of undeistudies, take vacations without pay of one week out oI six or one month out of six or such other variations of one-sixth time off as may be most adaptable to duties.

A department of a retail store in a midwestern city had six employes working full time. A reduction was called for by shrinkage in business and only five full-time employes weqe required. Rather than lay off one employe a schedule was worked out which left three employes on full time and put three on part time.

A retail clothing store ina small Michigan city has maintained its entire'alteration department in employment by having each employe work three days a week. The schedule of the individual is so arranged that complete service can be rendered at all times

A hotel system operating houses in several large cities has been able, through sharing work, to maintain in employment over 1400 workers who would otherwise be out of work. Early in this period with the dropping off of business, the general procedure was to require the entire force to take three days off each month.

Public utilities used many of the established methods of sharing work. Among 78 public utilities reporting on methods used, 60 shared work by reducing the days worked per week, 17 reduced the number of hours in the working day, six shortened shifts, 19 alternated shifts or individuals, and 2l employed the rotation of days off as a means of sharing work. Some of the companies used more than one of the above methods.

These various and varying methofr bring out the point that any Share-the-Work plan is the application of flexibility to the working period (whether it be the working day, the week, the month or the season), and to the working organization, or particular segments of it.

How the work schedule is arranged in any particular community or any business house is unimportant-whether days are shortened, vacations without pay lengthened, or working weeks or months alternated. The point is to provide work and livelihood for an increasing number of workers.

In the regional and community operation of the Sharethe-Work Movement, the active support and participation of the executive heads of business are enlisted. The importance of the campaign, its vital purposes, invite and demand the service of.the most important and progressive men in each community.

Appointed Chairman of U. S. Public Invited to Vrit Exhibits at Timber Board Retailers' Annual

Washington, September 30.-The new Secretary of Commerce, Roy D. Chapin, will succeed his predecessor, Robert P. Lamont, as Chairman of the U.S. Timber Conservation Board. Although the Board recently issued a comprehensive series of recommendations, President Hoover took note of the fact that there remains considerable work yet to be done. The active chairmanship of this body, accordingly, was one of the first additional assignments given the new Cabinet member.

Appointed a year and a half ago to inquire into fundamental obstacles to economic balance in the forest products industry, the Timber Conservation Board in its report a month ago pointed to fundamental factors that must be adjusted before permanent economic recovery can be assured. Existing systems of taxation rvhich force liquidation of standing timber on an un-wanting market was emphasized as the most disturbing present factor. Twenty recommendations, dealing largely rvith marketing, forest management, and sound management of public forest were included in its report. The Board has since made public a recommendation of its Lumber Survey Committee calling for a further reduction of existing lumber stocks by 3% billion feet as a means of balancing supply to greatly depreciated demand.

One of the features at this year's annual convention of the California Retail Lumbermen's Association will be the comprehensive exhibits of lumber and building materials rvhich is being arranged for by the Association. The exhibits will be held on the mezzanine floor of the Hotel Alexandria, Los Angeles, rvhich will be the convention headquarters. The Association reports that many firms rvho made space reservations are planning exhibits of unusual interest to which the public is invited to attend. The convention will be held on November 3, 4 and 5.

It is expected that this year's meeting will attract one of the largest gatherings in the history of the organization. In extending an invitation to the general public to visit the exhibits, President Harry A. Lake, states:

"In the past we have not developed the exhibit feature of our conventions to the point that we have felt entirely satisfied. However, this year we have given more time and effort with the end in view of placing before the public, the products and service offered them by the retail lumbermen.

A no more propitious time could have been selected for this presentation. The day of transition, in the lumber business as in all fields of commerce, is at hand. Adjustments are being made, obsolete methods and equipment are being scrapped, and newer and higher quality products are being offered.

Therefore, the officers and members of the California Retail Lumbermen's Association are happy to extend to the general public an invitation to visit this splendid exhibition of the wares of the retail lumber dealer. We are proud of the modern products we offer."