Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1888 — SUNDAY LABOR IN GERMANY. [ARTICLE]

SUNDAY LABOR IN GERMANY.

More Than Half the Working People Do/Not Heat on Sunday, L Expressions of surprise have bean indulged in by some portions of the press at the existence of such a state of affairs as systematic labor in Germany on Sundays. The immediate cause of the late appearance of the subject in the daily presses the report of the United States States Consul at Leipsic to the Secretary of State, Washington. This report is based on certain inquiries instituted by the German Government concerning the extent to which Sunday labor is practiced in Germany. The purpose of these inquiries is for the enactment of imperial legislation regulating Sunday labor. The Consul writes that “the laws of the various States ot the German Empire are by no means uniform on this subject. In Saxony, for example, Sunday labor is prohibited in the manufacturing and farming industries, and in trades, with the exception of work necessary to prevent accidents or injury to health, repairs which cannot be delayed, and works of ‘urgency.’ In Prussia the legislation is not so strtet. For sometime past a demand has been raised in various quartersfor the limitation, or, at any rate, for the uniform regulation of Sunday work throughout the empire for it is obvious that a manufacturer or trader in a State which permits Sunday labor possesses a considerable advantage over his rival in a State where Sunday is a legal day of rest.” In Prussia, out of 500,156 establishments of all kinds employing 1,582,591 hands, 288,939 establishments are kept in operation on Sundays With 668,027 hands. Here is a proportion of nearly fifty-eight per cent, of the establishments kept open on Sunday, or every day in the year. Examination shows that Sunday labor is much greater in trade and transport occupations than in those devoted strictly to manufacturing. In the trade, the Consul writes, “the keeping open of the shop or sale department may be taken as the definition of regular Sunday work. In factories and great industries regular Sunday work applies chiefly to repairs and keeping the machinery and so on always going.” The opinions of those to whom the inquiries were addressed seem to have been solicited concerning the practicality of prohibiting Sunday labor, with the general result that 23 per cent, of masters, and 32 per cent, of the men believe in an unlimited prohibition*, 39 per cent, of masters and 41 per cent, .of men in a limited prohibition, while 38 per cent, of the masters and 27 per cent, of the men hold any kind of prohibition to be impracticable. While this is so in Germany it should not be lost sight of that in this country Sunday labor is systematically required to some extent on ourrailways, in some of the Southern and Western States among tradesmen, and perhaps in ottfer occupations.