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.