MORAL PROBLEMS

Hokitika Guardian, 2 May 1931, Page 3

MORAL PROBLEMS

ECONOMIC ROOTS. HARDSHIPS OF WORKING WOMEN. LONDON, March 12. The spirit of research is peering in every direction to discover the exact sources of the evils of our day, and Mrs Corbett Ashbv, president of . the National Union of Societies tor Equal Citizenship, told delegates to the annual council meeting, which opened in London yesterday : “The moral problems of our young people are largely the result, not of the generation, but. of the economic situation which postpones marriage.” Custom, trade union regulations and legislation were combining, she added, to exclude women from new work. Lower salaries, lack of promotion and earlier retiring were threatening the unmarried. She discussed the question of equality of sexes in regard to nationality and referr-u] to the F>ill introduced by tV late Dr Ethel Bentlmm. savin; that owing to a technical difficultv it seemed unlikely that anyone would be able to pick un the B'H wliem it was left at the time of Dr Tlenthnni’s death. The British Government 1"M appnmntlv taken the line that it did not like to do anything on its owir. but must “wait for the dominions.” Surely, without coercing with him dominions, this country could give them a lead. The conference decided to presa on the Government the need to parry "Out the recommendation of the Hngu<> Convention to introduce into them law tl'o princinle of the CoiP'litv of s c, xes in the matter of nationality.

BTRTH CONTROL

The fact that the Minister for Health has rescinded the policy hitherto followed by his department and removed the ban on dissemination of birth control information was received with pleasure by tile delegates, who supported a resolution calling on the societies affiliated to their union to bring pressure to bear on town councils and other local, bodies >to miake} use of the Powers’ now within -their' reach. The Open Door Council . gave evidence • before a committee . now • sit ting in the House-of Lords through their president, Miss Chrysfcal Macmillan. The committee is inquiring, into the way in which power is being arrogated Ivy Ministers who achieve b.v .depart mental order what is not set forth by Statute, This power in the hands of Ministers, she averred, was being used' to affect the status of women relatively to that of men.

Minimum rates of wages had l>«eii fixed :by Trade Boards in forty-two trades in Great Britain, and in the great’ majority tile, minimum rates were . fixed very much lower for women than for men. These forty-two trades covered l-.p00.000 workers. The system had the effect of standardising the position of the woman as lower than that of the male worker: lie was by ]aw authorised to enforce a higher minimum wage because of In’s sox. By the operation of this delegate,i •lower low status was being legally im-oosed on women in an ever-increas-ing number of trades, by Ministerial edict.

THE WORKING WOMAN'S LIFE. Just what is happening among tho s e millions of working women who now constitute the electorate is dworhod in a book which, to use the w-'l!-vo;ii cliche, contains some real human documents—the life .stories of number-, of the Women's Co-opm'’tivo Gui'd “Life As I Have Known Tt” 0»»garth Pi'cS'S. os'). Within its covers is unfolded tli e life of the many viic live- on round about a poivd a week. One can best indicate what li 's 1••

its pages by quoting from the i v,l ro ductorv letter from Vir'obrn' '’'no! 1 ' tc Margaret Llewellyn Davies, the vet era.il founder who lias rdii.ed the book ; —' ”T!ie writing. a literary eriti'- might say,, lacks detachment and iniagm- ; v . breadth, even as the wom~H tlmmselyes .lacked variety and play of fe !l tore. ... When Mrs Burrows bringo ti mind that hitter day when the children were about to eat. their cold dinner and drink their cold tea under th° hedge and the ugiy woman a.sk >d th " into her parlour, saying. “Fl ing tlics ’ children into niy house and let thereat their dinner there,’ the words are simple, but it is difficult to see how they could .say more. ... These, Hys are still half-hidden in profound obscurity. To express even what is expressed here, lias been a work of labour, and difficulty. The writing has been done in kitchens, at odds and ends of leisure, in the midst of distractions and obstacles—but reap' there is no need for me, in a letter addressed to yon, to lay stress upon the hardships of working women’s lives.”

WOMEN POLICE. Opposition to the idea of women police is showing some signs of de crease. Thus at a meeting of a bon: fifty members of the House of Commons this week, Sir John Sandemnn Allen, M.P., supported the view that pressure ghould he put on local police. He lias had. experience as a Town Councillor in Liverpool of the problems a Watch Committee has to j'aoe. and that, experience has convert, ed him. There the question IP's been very acute, for n very determin d chairman of the WHcli Committee who. .word,l have? nothing to do with online, lias long obstructed public feeling in their favour.

• An"entertaining point of view ' \v«s put forward liy Sir Robert Hutchison, M.P. (formerly Liberal Whip), ,who believes that , policewomen would be more effective if they, did not eo'y p l.icrmfit in uniform, but were "to adopt somethin'! softer and more refined.’’ He declared for pressure on the Home Secretary to review past e- pc’rienoes and to report- .privcre-5... Lady. Iveagh, M.P. for- Sout'’pnd (who was at Onslow), was for. hurry-ii-*rr Scotland on also, and her resofiiti in enllinc on the Home S cretary and the Secretary for Scotland to draft resolutions for policewomen for submission to a Police Council called and selected for that purpose. wa ß carried.