100 ADMINISTRATIVE SECTION 



He said that in all seriousness, because the infant death- 

 rate of Burnley in comparison with that of several other 

 towns amply warranted such statements, and on the whole 

 he thought the best that they could say for Burnley was 

 that it was ignorant. But the reason he was there that 

 morning was to say there were other people who were 

 ignorant besides themselves the central authority was 

 equally ignorant. In one of the papers which had been 

 read part of the work of the central authority was referred 

 to as being a very important part, and that was the work 

 of inquiry. It urged that the inquiry should be extended 

 over a sufficiently large area, otherwise it would not result 

 in much good. The position of Burnley and several other 

 Lancashire towns warranted that there should be a specific 

 and detailed inquiry. He believed that an inquiry would 

 reveal the fact that various local authorites were hampered 

 in their administration, and very often dare not give free 

 expression to their opinions. That could be removed only 

 by the central authority doing as he believed they had done 

 in other cases. For instance, they had an epidemic of 

 typhoid fever, and the Government had sent down special 

 Commissioners to inquire why that thing had happened. 

 The same thing should be done with regard to a town like 

 Burnley and others that had excessive infant death-rates so 

 that exhaustive inquiries might be made. After all, the 

 question was not summed up as between Battersea and 

 Burnley, where the women worked on the one hand and not 

 on the other. The fallacy of that argument was shown by 

 Mr. Burns himself several years ago, when he stated the 

 death-rate of Battersea was equal to that of Burnley now. 

 At that particular moment the women of Battersea were 

 no more working than they were now, and the women of 

 Burnley were working just the same as they were at present, 

 so in his (Mr. Irving's) view the change had come from 

 something altogether different. His municipality had done 

 its level best from the point of view of appointing health 

 visitors. They were supplying milk to feed the children, 

 but they had reduced their death-rate very little indeed. 

 ( )ver against them was the neighbouring town of Nelson. 

 The death-rate in Burnley was very much higher than in 

 Nelson, where the women equally went to work, and where 

 upon the surface the circumstances were exactly the same. 

 He was quite sure too that the town of Burnley was not 

 behind in its housing accommodation; it had a water car- 

 riage system of sewage, in fact it practically had all those 

 things that they were recommending. What he contended 

 was that in specific instances where the death-rate had been 



