Often a woman will have one week of night work alternating with a week of work in the day time. She hardly gets accustomed to sleeping by day when she is taken off the night shift, to change back again at the end of the week. Thus it is impossible for her to form regular habits in sleeping and eating. Secondly, there is a grave moral danger involved in night work, especially for restaurant workers since at this time they are open to the attentions of an undesirable class of men. “I don’t like to work at night,” one young waitress said. “The men are always fresher to girls at night than in the day time. Perhaps it’s because so many of those gamblers come in drunk.” Nor is it safe for a woman to go home alone after twelve o’clock at night. Instances of hideous occurrences are familiar to everyone. A little widow, the mother of seven children, told the investigator that she had given up her work as a dishwasher for this very reason. A friend of hers working in a nearby restaurant, was set upon, robbed and killed on her way home from work late one night. “I changed my work then,” said the woman, “for what would the children do if anything happened to me?” The majority of restaurants employ men for night duty. It is evident, therefore, that the employment of women is not essential to the convenience and comfort of either restaurant owners or customers. In nearly every branch of industry the working week is six days long. It is universally conceded that there must be one day in the seven for rest and relaxation if men and women are to give their best service. With restaurant workers, thirty-three per cent. of whom have no day of rest in seven, the need for such a time is particularly great because of the long working day. Otherwise they have no opportunity for a thorough rest and the poisons of fatigue are not thrown off. If these poisons are not eliminated, they accumulate in the system and finally result in physical breakdown. And not only is this free day important on the score of health, but it is also the time for recreation and the strengthening of family ties. For the girl who has no leisure, no time for real relaxation and play, there is only a starved and empty existence. A woman who has no opportunity to be with and to know her children, who must leave them to the care of friends or a day nursery or the street, who has no day in the week to be at home with them, can hardly be a potent factor in shaping their lives. She suffers and so do the children, and the stability of such a family life is at best uncertain. One woman said, “If I get a half day off on Sunday to be with my children, it makes me happy all the week.” [Illustration: |UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU |XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX |OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO | | | | | | 10% 20% 30% 40% _KEY_ U under 21 years X 21 and under 30 years O 30 years and over DIAGRAM 7.—Ages of Women Restaurant Workers Employed Over 54 Hours Weekly.]