ANTE-NATAL HYGIENE : DISCUSSION 417 



legal redress for the bad spending of the maternity 

 benefit actually had to be taken by the mother herself 

 in the home against her husband. As one who went 

 in and out of the homes of the working people she 

 would like to ask whether what they were proposing was 

 worth while. What sort of trouble was it going to cause? 

 Where did the money come from which kept the home 

 going? Was that not why they heard so little about com- 

 plaints, because it was obvious that there were a good many 

 people in the country who did not do their duty ? It was 

 said that the husband paid, and that was a very sound argu- 

 ment. They must not forget the fact that at the Foresters' 

 Conference those present were delegates who represented 

 opinions of all the local organizations, and the opinion 

 expressed was no doubt that of thousands of people. She 

 was a member of an Insurance Committee, and as they knew 

 there was always talk about two-tenths for this, and so much 

 by the State, and so much from one source and so much 

 from the other. There was plenty of money which by some 

 alteration and readjustment could be easily paid to the 

 mother directly from the State, and then the husband could 

 not complain. Had they ever realized what it meant to be 

 a woman and not have a penny to call her own, and to do 

 all the work of the house and all the weekly washing ? The 

 woman looked after the baby and did all the work of the 

 home, and for all the accumulation of years of work she 

 had not one penny she could call her own. She felt that the 

 first benefit which the woman was entitled to call her own 

 should be the maternity benefit. If it was thought that 

 it was not equitable that the men should pay the money and 

 then hand it over to the woman, then let them set their 

 backs to the wall and say that it should come straight from 

 the country. 



