416 



MEDICAL SECTION 



said he rose with a good deal of pleasure to add his testi- 

 mony to the value of the resolution that he hoped would be 

 passed at the subsequent meeting. He represented on the 

 Ashford Urban District Council the whole body of the 

 workmen of the district. Ashford was a railway centre, 

 and they had a good deal to do with the administration of 

 the benefits under the Insurance Act. He represented the 

 Oddfellows Society, and he had associations with all the 

 Friendly Societies, and there they were thoroughly of 

 opinion that the maternity benefit under the Insurance Act 

 should be given to the mother and child. He was confident 

 that the Oddfellows at Ashford would be disgusted at the 

 resolution passed by the Ancient Order of Foresters. They 

 in Ashford as working men did not consider it an insult to 

 hand over the money to the mother, and indeed they found 

 in connection with the work at Ashford that it was often 

 the mother who took practically all the wages, and saw to 

 it that " father's club" was paid; she kept it by until the 

 club night came, and consequently it was the woman who 

 managed the financial affairs and who had become some- 

 what interested in having the benefit conferred on her when 

 the time came. He knew of an instance where the other 

 day a sick visitor from the club took the maternity benefit 

 to one of the member's homes, and the man was at home. 

 The visitor said, " Here is your benefit," and the husband 

 replied, " Lord bless you, the woman must have that; take 

 it to mother." He believed the vast majority of the work- 

 ing men of the country would be glad if it could be made 

 impossible for men to have it to deal with at all. They 

 would rather that the woman had it. They had working- 

 men who were not fitted to be trusted with sixpence, and 

 they had women who w r ere not fitted to be trusted with six- 

 pence, but he believed the vast majority of working men 

 in this country intended honestly towards their wives, and 

 when this maternity benefit for which they were subscribing 

 was due they were only too glad that it should be handed 

 over to the person concerned without any restrictions. He 

 hoped that the Conference would pass with no uncertain 

 voice a resolution contrary to that passed by the Foresters, 

 and so show that it did not believe the payment of the benefit 

 to the mother would be one of stigma on the working men. 

 The workmen of the country he was certain would say that 

 it was not an insult, but that on the contrary it was reposing 

 a trust in their honesty and their right dealing with those 

 who needed all the help they could get in their time of trial. 

 Mrs. ROGER GREEN (Burton-on-Trent Health Society) 

 said one thing they had to consider was that the 



