New Britain herald., 1915-12-23

1 the findings is made and kept on file 1 for reference in making our reinves- i legations.
 1 There are many laws governing the ] work and health department must 1 do it's work to conform to those laws, as fast as we find abuses of the health 1 laws the ones responsible are notified ! and ordered to correct the condition. Right here may be cited one of the ! misconceptions of our work that oc- casionally comes to our attention. As already stated, the actions of a health department are governed by laws; that is, there must be a law to cover that which we seek to correct. Now the law often decrees that a certain length of time shall be given the owner to carry out an order we issued to him respecting some part of his building, and during this period of waiting we occasionally receive abu- sive letters that are pitiful exhibitions of moral degeneration, so wrathful and spjteful are the writers because of their belief we are '1etting up" on the owner. There are eXtenuating cir cumstances in some cases that force us to extend the time on our orders. Again, there are cases which have to
 
 so that we are often several weeks accomplishing what should have been completed in as many days. In other instances we have no authority to act.
 Many will say, What about the law? Is there no redress?" Most as- sured1y there is! But it is our aim to prosecute only in those cases where our authority is not recognized. The time may come when, because of the pressure of our work, it will be im- possible for us to give the time we now occasionl1y have to spend on certain cases in order to get the orders completed. Should this occur, we shall have sufficient cause to have an average of a case day in court. That we have succeeded in our present method, however, is evident by the fact that during the first year of our work we had but sixty-nine incom- pleted orders out of thousands issued. There are on file today about the same number of orders not compiled with out of thousands issued during this year; and nearly all of these are backed by reasons over which we have no control and which, we believe, would be upheld by the court.
 It is by Following up'' orders that has proven successful, and it is during the follow up'' work that the inspectors have need of all the will power and sticktoitiveness they pos sess. for not one quarter of the work would be completed were they easily discouraged.
 What Investigations Show.
 Their investigation reveal rooms poorly lighted and ventilated, scar city of plumbing facilities, and de- fective plumbing. Tn few instances they have found the entire household sewage leaking into the cellars. Base ment tenements not fit for human ha- bitation have been emptied and closed up.
 What is it all for? Not to work a hardship upon the owner but in order to better protect the health and well fare of those W ho must live in crowd ed ouarters That the condition may have been for twenty years as we found it $ no proof that it ever was safe, so far as conservation of health is concerned.
 The work of the plumbing inspector is to prevent poor and improper plumbing from being installed in old and new houses. This is of very ma tcrial benefit to the owner, for, due to the inspection of all new work, the owner is assured of receiving that which he contracts for.
 It is not sufficiently known that each master plumber is given a certificate of approval of all work completed to l the satisfaction of the inspector and that these certificates arc often de- , manded by the owner before paying the plumbers bill.
 Food Inspection.
 What has been said of the sanitary l inspectors work and that of the l plumbing inspector, applies to that of 1 the milk, meat and food inspector. , This field of work is as large and of l as much importance as any other work in the department. When one considers that there are 10S farms
 sending milk into New Britain; that 1 the milk is sold by 243 dealers in this
 city; that there are 334 food stores
 in this city; that there are any number
 of outlying sheds in which cattle of i any age or condition may i be slaughtered and sold for food; when consumers of milk
 fully know what this departm ent
 had and still has to contend with in
 order to get more clean milk sold in New Britain, then and only then, will
 become apparent the ridiculousness of expecting a part time employee to ; perform this work well and to the
 satisfa ction of this department In a
 city of fifty odd thousands it never has nor ever can be done by one man
 let alone a part time employee.
 New Britain has been fortunate ir having as milk. meat and food inspect
 ors, men of undoubted energy, ability
 and faithfulness. Yet, even a man o1
 this type can never do the work ot
 milk, meat and food inspector-three
 offices-as it should be done, let alone