ENDOWING THE FAMILY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 60, 12 March 1927, Page 20

ENDOWING THE FAMILY

MAN AND HIS HOBBIES.

"In Great Britain children aro looked Tipon more or less as a hobby. One man may care to spend his money on betting and gambling, while another may prefer to spend his wages on keeping his ■wife and children." This statement ■was made by Mrs. E. M. Hubback, Parliamentary secretary to the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship, speaking on family endowment at the Conference of Health Visitors and School Nurses, at Bedford College for "Women recently, reports tho "Daily

Mrs. Hubback said that at the preient moment the amount of wealth produced in England was not even enough to give a living wage to everybody, assuming that the average family numbered three.children.; "If all the husbands in the country were perfect husbands, ana handed over every penny of their wages to their wives, the prob-lem,-of providing adequately for the children.in Great Britain would still remain with us," added Mrs. Hubback. "If we can clear away the question of dependants we can treat all men' and women employees merely as workers and pay them accordingly. And there "are.ways by which this problem of dependants can be divorced from the problem of wage-earning. In many .parts of Europe family allowances have already been adopted. Even in England among those employed at the London School of Economies a form of family allowances is in force. Our soldiers receive marriage allowances, and further allowances based on the number of their children. It was during tho war that we had the greatest experiment in family allowances ever known in England, and I think during that period the "children were better cared for.and clothed and fed than they had ever been before or have been since."

Mrs. Hubback pointed out that there were- three possible schemes of family allowances. First, direct provision by the State; second, what was known as the "pool" system, in which contributions were paid into a pool by employers; and third, the insurance system which was worked on similar lines to health insurance. "Whatever scheme you may like best," she added, "there is reason to hope that something will be done soon, or rather that the number of schemes for family allowances we have already will be increased." The.speaker gave some interesting figurea showing the proportion of adult men. who,were married and had children.. The figures showed that 26 per cent, of the men were bachelors, 34 per cent, were married and had no dependant children, 16 per cent, had ono dependant child, 10 per cent, had two dependant children, 6.6 per cent, had three dependant children, and 6.7 per cent. had over three dependant children.