Note 187 — Chapter III
Henry P. (Henry Pomeroy) Horton translation
b. The too great length of the working-day. Workers who are forced to work much longer than the human organism can stand are inclined to the abuse of alcohol for two reasons. In the first place they find in it the means of repairing temporarily the diminution of force caused by great fatigue. Since alcohol gives only a temporary increase of capacity, its continued use, and consequently its abuse, is therefore almost inevitable.187 This is the cause of the great development of alcoholism among longshoremen, who often work for twenty-four hours or even longer at a stretch.