128 ELEMENTARY BIOLOGY 



A further step in the public use of special knowledge is 

 illustrated by laws specifying that workers in stores and fac- 

 tories must be allowed at least an hour for lunch every day. 

 Such a law means that the agents of the public have recog- 

 nized the importance, for the health of the people, of an 

 opportunity to eat the midday meal without haste. A further 

 regulation requires the provision, in factories and large estab- 

 lishments, of suitable special rooms in which the workers may 

 eat their meals in surroundings that are more pleasant than 

 the sight of the machines or piles of goods. Another regula- 

 tion requires the provision of suitable washing facilities, to 

 enable the workers to come to their food with clean hands. 

 Ordinarily these arrangements are not of great importance to 

 the manufacturer or employer ; if his workers get sick he can 

 always get others. But the health of the people is important to 

 themselves, and thus to the state. Yet it has been found that 

 whenever the conditions for eating lunch have been greatly 

 improved in any factory or store, there was an immediate 

 improvement in the character of the work, so that what many 

 employers did reluctantly under compulsion from the state has 

 turned out to be profitable to them. However, such regulations 

 are made in recognition of the importance of human life and 

 health, and not in consideration of making greater profits. 



As the public comes to know more and more about the 

 relation between proper feeding and right living, it will no 

 doubt extend its community activity in food matters farther 

 and farther. For some time to come the food question to 

 receive most discussion is that of the school lunch. It has 

 been found that thousands of children in the larger cities 

 come to school improperly or insufficiently nourished. The 

 argument is made that the money spent in the effort to edu- 

 cate such children is all wasted, and that in order to save all 

 this money it is necessary to put the children into condition 

 to profit from the efforts of the teachers. This means that 

 the school should supervise, or even provide the means for, 



