42 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



it found that the members of a board are more ward politicians 

 than sanitarians, and the health officer, being a general practi- 

 tioner having to earn his living in the community for which he acts, 

 often without pay, the net result is that no notice is taken of these 

 matters. Thus it is that the evil starts, and under this sanitary 

 inertia it grows and luxuriates, greatly to the joy of the landlord, 

 be he an individual or a company. It is profitable fun for him but 

 slow death to the unfortunate tenants. 



That the evil is marked in the city where there is the well-paid 

 health officer, is still further evidence of indifference and inertia on 

 the part of these guardians of the people's lives. The powers of 

 both the health officer and each member of a local board of health are 

 very considerable in nearly every province in Canada; yet where is 

 the evidence of their activity? 



As a rule, our health laws are modelled after those of England 

 and Scotland and they confer considerable powers upon these health 

 officials. Except in one or two provinces the Provincial Board of 

 Health only serves in an advisory capacity, and too often the advice, 

 when given, is not followed. 



The failures of public health work in Canada have been due to 

 the governments not taking more direct control in administration. 

 In Ontario, for instance, the Government assumes the responsibility 

 for the enforcement of factory laws and maintains a staff of inspect- 

 ors which is yearly increasing in number. The working man and 

 woman are better housed for eight hours a day in the factory than 

 they are for the other sixteen hours in the case of the man, or, than 

 his wife and family are for the twenty-four hours. If the state has 

 a duty with regard to the enforcement of the factory laws, how much 

 greater is that responsibility in the matter of the housing of the 

 working man and his family and all the rest of us who do not come 

 in under this particular class, but who work as hard and who are 

 equally as valuable to the State ? But this is not the only anomaly. 

 The education department requires the proper housing of the child 

 in school, but what of its environment the remainder of the day? 

 The school teacher wears out brain and brawn in the attempt to 

 educate the children of slumdom, but the good done in four or five 

 hours of school is undone in the slum. Properly house the child, 

 give him the sunlight and air of a clean house, and how much greater 

 will be the progress in his mental education and his physical and 

 moral make-up! 



The above are two examples where the State acts. In the 

 former instance it enforces the measures by its own officers; in the 

 latter it withholds monetary aid unless its regulations are complied 



