UNSANITARY HOUSING 43 



with. And why does the State act primarily for the health of the 

 two classes concerned? We have seen how the enforcement of 

 health laws works out when left to the local authorities. 



From the standpoint of hygiene it would seem that the cart has 

 gone before the horse in the eight-hour day movement, for the aver- 

 age mechanic working in the modern, up-to-date factory spends his 

 time in a better environment than he does the remaining hours of 

 each twenty-four. Physically, he is better off at the factory than 

 at home. The question of sanitary housing at moderate rents is a 

 question well worthy of his earnest and undivided attention. The 

 provinces can, if they only will, accomplish as much good for the 

 sanitation of the home as they have done for the factory, with much 

 better results, not only to the men, but also to the unfortunate 

 women and children who are compelled by circumstances to spend 

 their days therein. 



It is somewhat farcical that a state should decline to 

 Health Laws -,-,, c. i 



Inadequate accept any responsibility, financial or otherwise, to pro- 

 vide the means whereby crime and disease may be mini- 

 mized, if not prevented, by bettering the housing conditions. Yet 

 that same state will plan and devise the most approved and up-to- 

 date sanitary home for a man after he has become a criminal. It 

 damns him first and then attempts his reclamation after. How 

 much better, wiser and politic it would be to assist in the prevention 

 of his fall; for certainly the criminal of to-day is better housed and 

 fed after incarceration than he is in his own slum home, or, for the 

 matter of that, than is the busy, honest artizan or agriculturalist who 

 is carving out in Canada, a home for himself and family. 



To bring about a change the preventive measures to be adopted 

 must clearly be of a different character than are now found in our 

 statute books or among the by-laws of our cities and towns, which, so 

 far as securing any practical results is concerned, have, up to the 

 present, proved a negligible quantity. 



Epitome of Canadian Health Laws 



The laws at present in force in Canada are either provincial 

 laws or regulations, or municipal by-laws. They are, in the main, 

 either (a) health measures of the Public Health Act or regulations 

 thereunder; or (b) provisions of the Municipal Code. The former 

 deal mainly with the question under the head of nuisances, and 

 there is but scanty power given to public health officerslto pre- 

 vent nuisances of this or any other kind. Taken as a whole, the 

 present laws do not deal efficiently with the problem nor, except 



