A Local Government Scandal
Shocking treatment of children at a nursery known as the Bowling Municipal Institution are revealed in a report presented to the Bradford City Council by a committee appointed to investigate charges made by Ministry of Health Inspectors. It tells of in- sufficiency of food, bad supervision, filthy bedding and unhealthy general conditions in one of the blocks ; and most disturbing of all is the statement that poultry from the institution's own farm were sold to members of the social welfare committee, councillors and others " in the know." That the Bradford City Council has taken stern measures to deal with the offenders is not sufficiently reassuring. What further measures are to be taken to eliminate the anti-social spirit which seems to have affected so many persons concerned in the Council's activities? What confidence can be put in a Council under whose aegis such deplorable mismanagement can occur? No doubt the citizens of Bradford will feel that their city's good name has been smirched by this miserable scandal ; and one is tempted to ask, Is it not the case that electors not only in Bradford but in many other places take far too little care to ensure that public-spirited people devoted to the social welfare of their district get elected to local authorities? When the Government addresses itself to the task of a reform of local government, not the least of its cares should ,be to create conditions which will attract the most suitable persons to the work of local government and make it patently to the interest of voters to return responsible repre- aentatives.
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