FAMILY ALLOWANCES.

Evening Star, Issue 19276, 15 June 1926, Page 4

FAMILY ALLOWANCES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir—ln your loader on family allowances you say 11 The question then naturally arises, however, it the community is to help parents, has it not a right to demand an assurance that the trust Ls being duly executed? Would this lead to increased State supervision of family life?” Most certainly it would, and is that not what many reformers advocate as a check for child delinquency? The system of motherhood endowment is described by Mary Sellers in the ‘Contemporary Review,’ 1922, as followsA month before a baby is born its mother is required by law to cease any work she is doing, except her own housework, for two months, and any employer who gives her work to do during that time is, if discovered, heavily lined. If she is a teacher or a State employee of any sort she is given leaves of absence for the whole two months, and_ meanwhile is paid the same salary as if she were at work. On the day the baby is born she is granted for its maintenance 330 francs a year until it is sixteen. If she is not in the employ of the State and belongs to the working class, she is for two months under the care of the State and practically in its keeping. The State provides her gratis not only with a doctor and a. nurse, but also with a. visitor, whose business it is to see that she does what they tell her to do, and that she lives under conditions that ensure for her and her child a fair chance of health and strength. When she presents to the authorities the doctor’s certificate that her baby is coming, a.s she must a month before it is expected, she is given 35 francs and is granted an allowance of 15 francs a month for the following two months. As soon as the baby has actually arrived she is given 28 francs more, and is given a grant of 15 francs a month for twelve months providing 'she nurses her baby and takes it to a babies’ clinic to have it weighed and examined. The money she receives comes out of .the State coffers, AAU jnust he paid to

her personally. It may not be deducted from any other help she may be receiving from public funds, private charity, or her own employer. Also, it may not be seized by creditors or anyone else.” The above is a war measure certainly, to increase the birth rate of the French nation; but, nevertheless, it is a sound system, and could be put into operation in any other country. It beats all your family allowances, baby bonuses, and the hundred and one halfmeasures that seem to clog the minds of politicians and others. Tour fears for the young man who might marry and who should be protected are premature, as no one would suggest that a half or a quarter of his income be forfeited; but there are fears for a race who are pleasure-mad and who shirk thoir responsibilities, giving no thought to the child next door and caring less if it is fed or clothed, —I am, etc., Mother of Six. Juno 13.