108 ADMINISTRATIVE SECTION 



many others. In provincial towns the workers and 

 subscribers have a real community of interest with the 

 mothers, whom they serve, as women of all ranks 

 depend on the commercial well-being of the city. 

 But in London conditions are different there is more 

 money available, more voluntary workers, more ex- 

 perts, but the three are linked by chance or geo- 

 graphical relation, there is no real tie, and neighbours 

 may be widely separated by race, trade or religion. 

 I have not worked in London, and reports show com- 

 pleted work, not difficulties that have been overcome. 

 Local conditions and local difficulties are very im- 

 portant, and I think I can show best the sort of local 

 problems that all provincial welcomes have to contend 

 with in describing those I know. 



The Leeds Babies' Welcomes Association receives 

 no grant from any public source. The sanitary 

 department of the Corporation has only six salaried 

 women sanitary inspectors, one to every 56,000 in- 

 habitants, so it is not surprising that the medical 

 officer of health can only afford us encouragement 

 and sympathy. Women sanitary inspectors register 

 and chart at some of our meetings, our superintendents 

 visit the mothers whose names the sanitary office send 

 us, and fill up the official cards, reporting all the 

 mothers on our books. (N.B. The Notification of 

 Births Act has never been adopted in Leeds.) 



Geographical conditions differ in each locality. 

 With us the coal measures end on the north side 

 of the Aire, and therefore the residential quarter 

 stretches into the beautiful country north of the Town 

 Hall, while the greater part of the town lies south, 

 west, and east of it. First the shops, then railways, 

 wharves, river and canal, then works and workmen's 

 dwellings, stretching into the coal country. The 

 town is a collection of small villages with separate 

 industries, still separated by steep hills and valleys 

 now covered by small houses. 





