Executive Order 2605—Suspending Eight-Hour Law in Contracts Under the War Department

Under authority contained in the Naval Appropriation Act approved March 4, 1917 (Public No. 391, 64th Congress) it is hereby ordered that the provisions of the Eight-Hour Act of June 19 1912, are suspended with respect to persons engaged upon work covered by contracts with the United States, made under the War Department, for the construction of any military building or for any public work which in the judgment of the Secretary of War is important for purposes of national defense in addition to the classes of contracts enumerated in Executive Order of March 24, 1917.

It is further declared that the current status of war constitutes an "extraordinary emergency" within the meaning of that term as used in the Eight-Hour Act of March 3, 1913 (37 Stat., 726), and that laborers and mechanics employed on work of the character set forth above, whether employed by government contractors or by agents of the government, may when regarded by the Secretary of War as necessary for purposes of national defense, be required to work in excess of eight hours per day, and wages to be computed in accordance with the proviso in the said Act of March 4, 1917.

This order shall take effect from and after this date and shall be operative during the pending emergency or until further orders.

WOODROW WILSON

THE WHITE HOUSE,

April 28, 1917.