43 



in school, where they rightly belong. And do not let the matter stop 

 at that. Keep them there for at least part of their day until they are 

 eighteen. 



Turn next to the mother at work. The case here is not so simple, 

 because passion has played its part in the old discussion of married 

 women's work. I believe that compulsory exclusion has nothing to 

 recommend it ; but I believe that economic pressure on the mother 

 to earn has nothing to recommend it either ! The true solution of 

 this problem has to be found in a revolutionary measure, the endowment 

 of motherhood or childhood, whichever way you like to put it. There 

 will be a beginning of this in the pitiful number of war orphans. They 

 will be the little pensioners of the State. I think that this sad neces- 

 sity of war shows us the right way. It would, if rightly extended, give 

 a new life to children a life in which their mothers would play a far 

 larger share than of old. It would, this endowment of motherhood, give 

 the mother back from the factory to the home, and free her for 

 her desired tasks of home-making ; but it would give her a new position 

 since she would be there by free choice and not be the slave of a com- 

 pelling restraint. 



The industrial field would thus be relieved of a peculiarly necessitous 

 and dangerous kind of competitor, and the reduction of the hours of 

 labour and the discouragement of overtime would again help the 

 situation, ^.nd it would help even in securing that increased pro- 

 ductivity of labour which will be a necessity in the after-war world. 



But while I feel very strongly that the total exclusion of women 

 from the trades hitherto closed to them would be a mistake, I recognise 

 that there are many processes and even trades in which it is not well 

 that they should work. Health and general surroundings count for 

 much, and it is clear to every observer in the industrial world that 

 under the conditions of to-day the woman and girl worker does need 

 protection against the exploitation of her health and character. There 

 are trades, probably, which .are not unhealthy, but may be described 

 as unsuitable a good euphonious term covering some real and many 

 vague misgivings. It is of course not an ideal world that we live in, 

 and human beings readily fall to low levels under hard conditions. 



Physically, the objections to various trades are less difficult to define ; 

 and war-time experience has given us a mass of evidence as to women's 

 capacity, which clears the position of many obscurities. Admitting, 

 then, that the exclusion of women on these two grounds may be 

 advisable in the interests of the whole body of workers as well as of 

 the women, what method should be followed to define the limits of 

 them? 



If one way is more wrong than another, I think it is the method 

 of the Trade Union rule where the Trade Union has a membership 

 entirely male or almost entirely male. The sense of unfairness 

 will never be lost if that method is to be adopted. The Trade Union 

 rule may follow on investigation, but investigation should be made 

 by a representative and well-instructed body. The Joint Committee 



