CHAPTER XI.
LONG HOURS _Our life is turned_ _Out of her course wherever man is made_ _An offering, or a sacrifice, a tool_ _Or implement, a passive thing employed_ _As a brute mean, without acknowledgment_ _Of common right or interest in the end._ -- WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.
There is no doubt that among the causes of unrest one of the most serious, probably much more so than either employers or workmen are generally conscious of, is the long hours of work.

Those who have had to hear questions arising out of labour disputes have noticed the state of tension produced by the weariness and strain of too prolonged and continuous work.

Even in the domestic circle an overworked man is often found less amiable and more ready to find fault.

A harassed manager and a deputation of jaded workmen may be really very good fellows and yet find that some comparatively small question raises strong feeling and mutual recrimination, and then leads to rash action resulting in open strife, strikes, and lock-outs, and the judicial proceedings which may be necessary in consequence of them.

"A Skilled Labourer," writing in the _Quarterly Review_, mentions as the first of the four principal grievances of workmen--"the hours are too long." Long hours have been accepted on both sides partly because during the War the call of the country for increased output, especially of munitions, was so urgent, and partly because it was thought that higher profits would thereby be obtained, and certainly higher wages earned.