Bakers and Night Work There should be considerable public sympathy
with the demand of the Union of Operative Bakers for the abolition of night work and a seven-day week. When night-work in bakeries was discussed at an International Labour Conference at Geneva some years ago the British and other employers opposed its abolition, largely on the ground that the public insisted on having its bread and 'cake fresh every morning. So far as bread is concerned it is much less digestible when fresh, and actually most household bread in this country is eaten stale. To bake bread one day and distribute it the same afternoon or the next morning involves hardship to no consumer. Night work is necessary in some industries, but where it is not it should be avoided, for it breaks up family life disastrously, as well as being unnatural and in varying degrees unhealthy.
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