TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F, 639 
Section F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. 
PRESIDENT OF THE Suction—Professor WILLIAM SMART, M.A., D.Phil, LL.D. 
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 
The President delivered the following Address :— 
For the last two years I have been continuously engaged, as a Commissioner, in 
studying the phenomena of the Housing of the Poor and the problems which arise 
therefrom, as presented in the evidence laid before the Glasgow Municipal Com- 
mission. It is, perhaps, appropriate that I should draw upon the experience thus 
gained for the substance of my Address to-day. 
The problem of housing in Glasgow is, in broad outline, very much the 
problem of all large centres of population and industry. The city grew up, 
without a plan, in days when the laws of public health were little understood or 
cared for; when there was little municipal control and little thought for the 
municipal future. It has now to undo its mistakes. 
Fifty years ago people had not, I think, a very keen sense of smell; certainly 
they did not associate bad smells with danger to health. They did not regard the 
darkness of the narrow street and the narrow window as objectionable. If I may 
trust my early recollections, as one who has lived in Glasgow from childhood, 
they associated smoke too much with their bread and butter to dream of grumbling 
at.it. They were rather afraid of cold water, and baths were almost unknown. 
Perhaps they were fonder of each other's society than we are; at any rate, they 
rather preferred to live as many as possible in one room and sleep three in a bed. 
When the city came to its senses, about forty years ago, and realised what an 
Augean stable there was to clear out, it turned to the work with « will. Consider- 
ing the still unformed state of public opinion, the City Improvement Act of 1866 was 
a very drastic one. It scheduled whole areas of slums and pulled them down, 
dishousing, within five years, some 19,000 persons; rating for deficits to the 
amount of some 600,000/. altogether ; and the burden was borne without much 
demur. By the time the Act had done its work, the public mind had become 
thoroughly awake to the danger of letting things alone. Further powers were 
asked and obtained for closing, demolition, and rebuilding. Four years ago was 
passed the Building Regulations Act, which, in addition to regulating the con- 
struction of new houses, made the provision of sufficient air and light space in front 
of the bedroom windows compulsory, and this was so far retrospective that over 
4,000 houses, conforming to sanitary requirements in other respects, became 
on a certain date ‘ illegal houses’ simply from the fact that they had not the 
sufficient space outside. 
These measures did not pass without criticism, but generally it was recognised 
that they were demanded in the interests of public health. When, however, it was 
realised that dishousing on this large scale was accepted by a very large section of 
