The government of the city is administered by a lord provost, ten bailies, and forty-eight councilors, to whom are added the dean of guild from the Merchants', and the deacon-convenor from the Trades' House. See paragraph on Local Government under GREAT BRITAIN.
Glasgow has led in the work of municipal reform in Great Britain. Its various improve ments and great undertakings have been carried out by the Municipal Council, which, under an act of Parliament, constituted itself in each case as a 'trust,' such as the Improvement Trust, the Police Trust, the Market Trust, the Naviga tion Trust, etc. For purposes of practical work, the various trusts, i.e. the council in its several capacities, elect sub-committees, which have im mediate supervision of the respective depart ments of city administration. Thus the Sanitary Department, or Board of Health, is under the supervision of a council committee of eighteen, with sub-committees on cleansing and hospitals. It is administered by a chief inspector, assisted by some hundred and fifty inspectors, the work of each being highly specialized. The thorough organ ization of the Board of Health and the numerous other improvements of the city were necessi tated by the extreme density of the population, and the consequent high rate of mortality among the working people. In 1865, the year marking the beginnings of the various public under takings, the average density was nearly 600 to the acre, exceeding 1000 in certain districts. The average mortality in 1864 was 32.8 per thousand, and as high as 38.64 for a series of preceding years. The great work of the Improvement Trust in cutting wide streets as well as in laying out new ones, in demolishing old buildings and creating vacant space, and in a good many other ways helping to disperse the population over a wider area, resulted in reducing the average density to 92 in 1891. Still, at the present day, a vast number of families occupy single-room dwellings. The death-rate has been steadily fall ing, as seen from the following figures: In 1864 it was 32.8; in 1872, 28.7; in 1886, 24.3; in 1896, 20.4; in 1898, 21.2.
In addition to its work of prevention of disease, the Sanitary Department pays due at tention to combating prevailing disease. Its two great municipal hospitals are not only models in appointment, but are built in a very attractive manlier. Special buildings are provided for in fectious diseases. The sanitary wash-houses are used for disinfecting the belongings of families whose members are afflicted with contagious dis eases, the families themselves at the cost of the city in its 'house of recep tion' while their homes go through the process of disinfection and whitewashing. The Cleansing Department probably contributes as much to the health of Glasgow as its Sanitary Department. In addition to the usual sweeping and sprinkling of public streets, this department attends to the cleansing of private court-yards and passage ways, the owners being assessed a slight tax to cover the expense. The street-sweeping is done by machines at night. The litter swept up by men and boys during the day is deposited in covered iron bins, located under the surface of the streets at short intervals. There are three principal 'dispatch stations,' together with a number of minor ones, at which the city gar bage undergoes a treatment which converts the greater part of it into manure. The city owns a number of farms for the utilization of that part of the refuse which cannot be marketed. To avoid contamination of the waters of the Clyde, the city's sewage is treated chemically in a special sewage plant, where it is made to precipitate all its solid ingredients, which are then made into 'cakes' by powerful presses, and passed automatically into freight-cars standing on tracks below. Most of the cakes are utilized at the city's farm for raising fodder for the horses employed in the Cleansing and Street Railway departments. The water re maining after the precipitation of the solid in gredients is filtered, and passed entirely pure into the Clyde. All of these improvements, though originally involving a considerable out lay of capital, have more than paid for them selves.