414 



MEDICAL SECTION 



Lady MEYER (St. Pancras School for Mothers) said she 

 would like in a very few words to associate herself warmly 

 with what had been said, and urge upon that assembly to 

 pass unanimously the resolution which was going to be 

 submitted to them, in view of the very important fact that 

 the measure was before" the House of Commons that after- 

 noon. They had had before them so very logically and 

 clearly the issues on which they had to fight, that she 

 thought it was not for her to push the matter any further, 

 but she would just like to give an illustration of the way in 

 which this maternity benefit went astray amongst the 

 working classes. In St. Pancras, where they did a great 

 deal of work in their school for mothers, their workers had 

 told them that time after time in speaking to the husband 

 on this subject he would comment upon it as " I have got 

 my maternity benefit to look forward to." That only 

 showed how in the short time that this new legislation had 

 been at work already the fashion had grown up of regarding 

 it as the husband's benefit. They could not afford to allow 

 this custom and this fashion to creep in. The other illus- 

 tration she would give was just an anecdote as to how she 

 had known the money to be spent by a good husband and 

 not a bad one, who was not a drunkard or a great smoker, 

 but who erred from want of knowledge of the objects 

 of the maternity benefit. On his way home with the 

 maternity benefit he met a sailor friend, who, as-sailors often 

 did, had brought from a voyage abroad a number of odd 

 things which he did not require, and he offered the man a 

 shawl. The man paid 8s. for it, and the rest of the money 

 he spent on buying a pair of trousers for himself, and a 

 black hat and feather, and these things he took home and 

 laid on the bed with pride, and said, " And here is 55. over 

 for your mother for looking after you and doing the wash- 

 ing." Anyone who had anything to do with poor women 

 in their confinements knew that one of the ways in which 

 the money should be spent was in paying a woman to do 

 the very hard work of the washing, which was extra at such 

 a time, so as to save the mother from being obliged to 

 stand up and work after her confinement. Those two 

 examples might enable people who did not know as much 

 about the subject as many in that room did to see that even 

 a good husband who wished to give his wife great pleasure 

 allowed the money to go astray instead of using it for its 

 legitimate purposes. She hoped they would not have any 

 dissentient voices in the passing of the resolution, and in 

 urging upon the House of Commons, which, as Dr. Saleeby 

 had said, represented men and not women, to do this justice 



