STAGGER PLAN. The great congestion of transit facilities in some of the larger cities of the United States, due to a uniform ity of opening and closing hours, led to the formulation of a so-called stagger plan. The acuteness of the problem in the city of New York is mainly due to the large number of persons in volved, to the fact that business areas are highly concentrated as the result of tall buildings and to the fact that travel is confined largely to two directions, owing to the shape and geographical loca tion of the island which forms the centre of New York's business activity. The department of health, feeling that the congestion of the transit facilities constituted a menace to health, conducted a survey to determine the feasibility of "staggering" or varying the opening and closing hours of firms employing large numbers of persons. As the result of this survey, a plan was determined upon
and a considerable number of organizations voluntarily agreed to shift their opening and closing hours in conformity with the recom mendations of the health department. Some of the larger com panies found it desirable to divide their employees into groups, one group arriving at 8.3o, another at 8.45, another at 9, another at 9.15 and another at 9.3o. Each of these groups left at corre spondingly different times in the afternoon. The groups were chosen in such a manner as to be co-ordinate with the flow of work in the organization. In addition to relieving congestion on the transit lines, this also tended to relieve congestion in the company's building. The plan was first advanced in 1926 and developed only voluntarily thereafter. (0. G. S.)