View report page

51
My investigations lead me to hold very strongly the
opinion that people have no desire to be dirty. They are only
prevented from being clean by the difficulties, some of which
are no doubt slight, but many of them insuperable.
Given facilities, that is handy and efficient appliances, at
the right time, and in the right place, and the people will
take to and practice cleanliness as they have taken to reading,
through the facilities of the cheap book and the newspaper.
We must educate public opinion and the Council ought to
interest itself in the price we pay for not washing, the facilities
we have for washing, the kind of appliance desirable, and
how to enforce their provision in all houses, so that all personal
and all domestic cleaning should be made easy, and the people
clean.
The Blind Alley and the Boy.
It is impossible to be a zealous health official without
reflecting at times on many of the problems which present
themselves and which are evolved in the course of social
development. We have said something about girls, and it
would not be out of place to mention the boy, who is destined
to be in the future either an asset or a loss to the nation.
Even among the middle and upper classes it is only in the
minority of instances that the average boy shows some distinct
aptitude and desire for this, that, or the other occupation in life,
and thus practically determines his own career. But for the
majority there seems to be complete absence of specific
inclination in any direction, and it falls to those in authority to
settle for them the path in life which they shall tread. It may
be said that, for the most part, the sons of the professional
respectable working classes are nowadays, in one way or
another, so well provided for that no boy in this country need
go without occupation, though he may, whether temporarily or
permanently, be prevented from entering the ranks of one