72 UNITED STATES - AGRICUETURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAE 



pliance with the laws, and threats of a prosecution, to be made faihng the 

 execution of improvements within a fixed time, have been few but effective. 

 An educational pamphlet on camp sanitation and on housing has been 

 published and placards, on the same subject have been placed in the camps 

 The amendements of the lyabour Camp Sanitation Act passed by the legis" 

 lature of 1915 practically brought the legal standard of Hving condition" 

 up to the level of that advised in the pamphlet. They were as follows s 

 " i) Mess houses, kitchens and dining tents must be kept in a sa- 

 nitary state and all openings must be screened (against flies) ; 



" 2) Adequate and convenient toilet facihties must be provided — 

 latrines or privies must have pits of certain depth, lime or ashes must be 

 used as disinfectants, and all openings must be screened ; 



" 3) Garbage and rubbish must be deposited in sanitary, covered 

 receptacles which must be emptied daily, and the contents disj!)osed of 

 by a sanitary method ; 



" 4) The Commission of Immigration and Housing of California shall 

 enforce the Act, and have the power to inspect all camps to secure com- 

 pHance with the above new provisions, and also with the sections of the 

 Act deaHng with adequate sleeping facilities, general sanitation, clean- 

 liness, etc. ". 



The Commission has supplied detailed plans of bath-houses for men and 

 women in the camps and of refuse incinerators, and instructions for sinking 

 and managing wells, for making portable latrines and for making clean, airy 

 and fly-proof kitchens and mess-houses. It has laid down the precautions 

 to be taken against mosquitoes where there is stagnant water, the necessity 

 of depositing refuse at a distance from kitchens, and the precautions to be 

 taken against the contamination of drinking water, etc. It has been sup- 

 ported by the Bureau of Sanitary Engineering which was created in 

 1 91 5 and which deals with all the technical problems of sanitation which 

 formerly fell to the Commission's engineer. 



It is estimated that 46 per cent, of the camps inspected in 1915 might 

 be classed as " good ", 35 per cent, as " fair ", and 19 per cent, as " bad ". 

 This shows an increase of 12. i on the percentage of " good " camps in 

 1914 and a decrease of 11 per cent, on that of " bad " camps. Moreover 

 51.3 per cent, of the labourers were lodged in " good " camps in 1915 as 

 compared with 35.5 per cent, in 1914. It is evident therefore that there is 

 on the whole a response in the larger camps to the Commission's efforts. 



Facihties for bathing existed in only 420 of the 663 camps inspected. 

 It was found that in only two of these 420 camps did the men use the baths 

 less often than once a week : in 208 they used them daily and in 123 weekly. 



No latrines were provided in 52 camps, but this indicates an improve- 

 ment on 1914 when there were none in 114 out of 876 camps. 



Precautions against flies in mess-houses and kitchens are harder to 

 teach but there has been a noticeable improvement in this direction. 



As regards sleeping accommodation 22 per cent, of the camps entirely 

 failed to satisfy the requirements of the Commission in this respect. In 

 34 per cent, of them there were no floors in the bunk-houses or sleeping 



