WAGES FOR MOTHERS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1911, Page 10

WAGES FOR MOTHERS.

• ♦ AMERICAN PLAN FOB A BONUS ON BABIES. The endowment of motherhood and the taxation of bachelors are the chief provisions of a Bill introduced recently in the Illinois Senate by Senator Beall, popularly knovrn as "the Stork Mayor .of Alton." In a noteworthy preamble it is pointed out that, dc-epite the most liberal provisions made by a paternally' disposed Government, the population of the State of Illinois shows ' a. calamitous decline in . the natural increase. Especially is the decline noticeable among the wealthier classes, among whom "in the craze for luxury maternity seems to have gone entirely out of fashion." The Bill therefore under Section IV. is designated as an Act for the Taxation of Bachelors, and provides that every bachelor over thirty-five years of age who cannot show good and sufficient reasons unfitting him for matrimony shall pay a yearly tax of £2. The fund thus , collected will be allocated under Section I. "to an Increase of Population Fund." ' • For the encouragement of motherhood the Bill provides payment by the . State of £20 to the mother of each child born within two years after marriage and for each additional child born every two years afterwards. For twins a State premium of £40 ana for triplets £60 will, be furnished. The Bill sets forth that the normal increase in tho population of Illinois is less than that of France, aud that' of the total population less than 39 per cent, is composed of boys and girls under twenty-one years.