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161
house in a satisfactory condition, and the good effects of the
health inspector's visits are nullified. Any legislation whereby
the payment of the worker would be placed on a fair and less
precarious basis would be welcomed by all seeking for economy
in administration as well as improvement in the health of the
people.
The overwrought physique of the sweated worker, with
underfed body and weakened constitution, and consequent lack
of resistance to the inroads of disease, must be one of the causes
of an increased death rate.
Obviously all sweated labour will be ultimately paid for to
the full by the State, when the prematurely incapacitated worker
finds his or her inevitable place in the Infirmary or Hospital, or
is kept alive by timely but limited payments from some source
of Insurance.
St feet Tnading.
So much street trading is carried on by many of the poorer
and more sordid inhabitants of the East Ward, that although
their trading is by no means confined to this borough, it is
incumbent upon me to point out the importance of this form of
hawking on the social conditions of the people.
Fortunately, religious and other bodies are taking an
increasing interest in social welfare, which fact may be considered
as one of the most encouraging and hopeful signs of the
times. Street trading commences in childhood, and although
no immediate ill effects seem to accrue, yet the more remote
effects are in many cases disastrous.
From an industrial point of view street trading appears to
be a most harmful form of employment for a boy over 14 years
of age, for it leads to nothing and offers no prospect of any
kind. The employment may be attractive in that the wages