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42
workshop with as many workers as can be crowded into it ;
and consequently overcrowding is the rule rather than the
exception. Long hours are bad enough, but employment
in an overcrowded, ill-ventilated den, in which artificial
light is frequently burning 10 or 12 out of the 24 hours (for
the men at any rate work on until the small hours of the
morning), is infinitely worse. A woman may survive
occasional long hours without any serious ill-effects; but
continued confinement in such places and under such
conditions must produce physical deterioration and permanent
ill-health. When long hours are superadded to
overcrowding, as is often the case, we have an insanitary
condition which demands serious attention.
Prior to the introduction of the Act of 1895, although there
was no regulation as to the amount of cubic space to be
allowed during the daytime, we had power under an order
of the Secretary of State, to deal with overcrowding during
overtime, when its effects are worst. The Act of 1895,
which for the first time regulated the amount of cubic
space which must be allowed both during the daytime and
during the overtime, marks a distinct advance in the right
direction ; but, unfortunately, these most salutary regula
tions cannot be enforced with the machinery available for
the purpose. The section of the Act which deals with
these matters is included amongst those the provisions of
which are enforced in the first instance by the local
authority, and this authority has neither the administrative
machinery nor the legal powers to cope satisfactorily with
the evils at which those provisions are aimed. There is
not a sufficient staff of sanitary inspectors to ensura
systematic inspection; inspection at night, i.e., during
overtime, is such a new departure that it is, in most
districts, not seriously attempted ; whilst the local
authority is further debarred by the Public Heath
(London) Act from dealing summarily with a nuisance,
without in the first instance serving a notice to abate it.