Page:The character and extent of air pollution in Leeds - (A lecture delivered before the Leeds Philosophical Society, on March 3rd, 1896.) By Julius B. Cohen (IA b21534160).pdf/18

18 This report was sent to the Sanitary Committee of the Corporation, and the only answer they vouchsafed was practically to challenge the results by offering to let their inspector accompany a member of the Smoke Abatement Committee on another round of observations, a challenge which, it is needless to say, was not accepted. I do not wish to prolong this subject. Everyone who has considered the matter impartially has been convinced of the defects of the present system.

That is the conclusion of the Leeds and Manchester Smoke Abatement Societies. After appealing to the Local Authority and to the manufacturer for years, the Manchester Society is about to adopt the somewhat drastic expedient of persistent prosecutions of offenders as the only course left open to it.

In one of his annual reports, Mr. A. E. Fletcher, former chief Alkali Inspector, has said:—"The complaints that are brought against the emission of black smoke from factory chimneys are numerous, but too intermittent and desultory to bring about much diminution of the evil. The Alkali Act gives no power to control common coal smoke, yet at two points it comes so near it, that the question has often received my close attention. It is a curable evil, and therefore ought to be cured." The same authority has also said, "There are difficulties in making any change. Masters will not take the trouble to alter their furnaces, nor will the men alter their method of stoking the fires unless they are compelled. The numberless alterations, made in the construction and conduct of chemical works during the last twenty years, would never have been carried out, but for the pressure brought on the manufacturers by means of the Alkali Act. So it will be with the smoke nuisance."

The Leeds Smoke Abatement Committee has, I think, taken a wise course in adopting, in the above resolution, the suggestion of the former chief Alkali Inspector. Under the Alkali Act, inspection is thorough, but not inflexible. The