MARRIAGE LOANS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 40, 17 February 1939, Page 11

MARRIAGE LOANS

A NOVEL SUGGESTION

ENCOURAGING FAMILY LIFE

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London Representative.)

LONDON, January 23,

Under the auspices of/the League of National Life, a discussion took place last week on the subject of marriage; loans as a means of helping to stem the falling birth-rate. The league hopes to submit-a practical proposal to the Government on this subject.

Dr. Frederick McCann, gynaecologist, and president of the league, has long interested • himself in" existing schemes in other countries and last summer attended a meeting on the Continent of the' Institut , Internationale pour la Vie et la Famille, to go into such methods as the family allowances which are operative in France, and the alternative possibilities of marriage loans, which have proved so successful in Germany. . As a result the league members adopted the policy of favouring, marriage loans and decided to hold the present discussion, while in France Dr. McCann's proposals have been tabled in the Chamber of Deputies by M. F. St. Juste. • ,

THE GERMAN PLAN.

The proposed marriage loans for this country are based on very much" the same lines as those in. Germany and which have helped to change the falling birth-rate of that country to a rising one.. Figures. since the introduction of the loans show-an. increase of 27 per cent, in the marriage-rate and 24 per cent, in the birth-rate. The loans in Germany are payable to young couples on marriage. They carry no interest, but are repayable at the rate of .1 per cent, a month, unless the wife is also earning, when the rate is increased to 3 per cent. Should the couple have a child, however, 25 per cent, of the loan is remitted, and for each subsequent child the same amount is allowed, 'so that if the couple have four children ihey receive the full benefit of the loan without repayment. The sum suggested in the case of the British proposal, is something between £50 and £100.

EARLY MARRIAGE

It is hoped by this means to give encouragement to couples to marry younger than economic conditions have previously favoured. In particular, it is hoped to benefit those with incomes of between £200 and £400 a. year, who in the past have either tended to postpone marriage or postponed having a family, with too frequently the result that they have no children, or at most a one-child family. It is felt that the age of the wife 'plays an important role in the question of the number of children. On examination of family allowances it was felt that though these give undeniable help to those with existing children, they do not bring about the same results as the marriage loans, which give a more definite stimulus to young marriages and the founding of families at the most favourable age.

It is an integral part of the league policy to encourage not only such definite help as loans but a greater recognition, by the public and; the authorities of the value of the family to the nation. . '.','•