236 THE ALCOHOL PROBLEM 
drillers, and platers) showed 31 per cent. of lost time on 
Mondays, they showed 22 per cent. on the other week- 
days. The time-rate workers (shipwrights, fitters, 
joiners, labourers) kept better time than the other group, 
but they showed 15 per cent. of lost time on Mondays 
and 12 per cent. on other days. There is no numerical 
evidence to prove that this Monday absenteeism was 
due to excessive indulgence in alcohol, but it is well 
known that drunkenness in Newcastle is considerable. 
In 1919,* for instance, the convictions for drunkenness, 
per 10,000 of the population, were higher than in any 
towns except Liverpool and London (City), and were 
twenty times greater than in some industrial towns 
(e.g., Norwich, Northampton). 
In many industries it is probable that time-keeping is 
very little influenced by indulgence in alcohol. Agri- 
cultural labourers, for instance, are paid so low a wage 
that they cannot afford much indulgence, whatever 
their desires. In industries which depend mostly on 
women and girls the time-keeping is usually excellent 
throughout the week. For instance, it was found 
that 809 women employed in a tin canister factory, 
when tested over a two-year period, lost only 1-5 per 
cent. of their time from sickness, whilst the time lost 
from other causes was less than o-5 per cent. Never- 
theless, the fact remains that the average annual 
expenditure on alcoholic liquors per family is about 
13s. a week, and as the chief wage-earner gets the major 
portion of this sum, it follows that he must drink, on 
an average, two or three pints of beer a day. Such 
* “ Alliance Year Book,” 1921. 
T H. M. Vernon and T. Bedford, Report No. 35 of Indust. Fatigue 
Research Board, 1926.