View report page

79
The present-day fathers of the Corporation
of London can recall the time when you were
entreated by your responsible advisers—who
merely expressed the accepted opinions of the
day—to view this question from a very different
standpoint, and those who endeavoured to improve
the sanitary surroundings of the workpeople
were held up by them to obloquy as "attempting
"to harass English trade by mischievous senti"mentalism,
fettered by the fantastic rules of a
" visionary system of hygiene."
The tendency of modern requirements has
been to modify these views in the interests of the
employer and employed, and both are beginning
to appreciate the fact that in proportion to
provisions made and enforced for better ventilation,
more appliances for cleanliness, and improved
methods for lighting by the substitution
of electricity for gas will be the capacity for
work, and the greater enjoyment of life when so
employed.