PHYSICAL TRAINING 



149 



work ; the pace is not determined by machinery, 

 but by the weather and the condition of the soil 

 and crops. It is one of the most healthy occupa- 

 tions and, although the low wages have not attracted 

 the best types of manhood, a good standard of 

 physique has been maintained, and unrest and strikes 

 are not generally associated with work on the land. 

 Coal miners belong to a modern indii^try ; they are 

 as a class very healthy, brave and efficient men ; 

 they do not work in the open air, and have strenuous 

 and monotonous labour in constrained positions, 

 but they have compensated for these drawbacks by 

 insisting on shorter hours of labour and higher pay ; 

 their strikes nave been the expression of their 

 physiological needs, a high standard of food and 

 reer^^tion in games and sport in the open air. 



The healthy man is not injured by hard muscular 

 work, when he himself sets the pace and is guided 

 by his own sense of fatigue. The evil arises when 

 a machine, which has no soul, sets the pace ; then 

 &^-w^rkers can'esclpB degeneration only by in- 

 sisting on shorter hours. In fact there appear to 

 be legitimate grounds for discontent in much factory 

 work, for the conditions pay little regard to physio- 

 logical needs. A monotonous piece of mechanical 

 work, such as feeding a machine day in and day 

 out throughout the year, is bad ; it leads to work, 

 which may be done reflexly and with little effort, 

 btit it is so one-sided that pleasure is absent, other 



fit 



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