AMAXD ROUTH, M.D.. F.R.C.P., OX MOTHERHOOD. 69 



(d) Should it be limited to widows, and to mothers whose 

 husbands are mentally or physically or morally 

 incapable ? 



Endowment of motherhood in the lowest classes, such as 

 perhaps that of the casual labourer, whose children are often 

 propagated without any regard to the " spacings " of about 

 two years' interval between births, would only lead to more 

 reckless rapidity than already exists, but in the lower middle 

 class of clerks, and to poor professional men, clergy, etc., endow- 

 ment would tend to reUeve the financial anxieties of parenthood, 

 and perhaps help to diminish the incentive to restrict the birth- 

 rate. 



In e^ddence before the National Birth-Rate Commission,* 

 taken in February, 1919, the Family Endowment Committee 

 suggested a scheme for aU classes of the community at a flat 

 rate of 12.s. Qd. a week to the mother for the eight weeks before 

 confinement, and so long as she has any child under five years 

 of age. She is also to receive 5.s. a week for the first child and 

 3^. 6(7. for each subsequent child. Thus a woman with three 

 children under five years of age would have 21.s. Qd. a week. 

 Even with our present low birth-rate this would cost in Great 

 Britain and in Ireland £21:0,000,000 a year, which is, of course, 

 impossible. Modifications of such a scheme to poor widowed 

 mothers or to women whose husbands are mentally, physically 

 or morally incapacitated, or where the income of the parents is 

 less than a certain sum, such as £130, £150, or £200, according 

 to various suggestions, would cost much less, ranging round 

 £10,000,000 a year only. The need for inspection by the State 

 or Municipahty adds greatly to the total cost of all such schemes. 

 Judge Lindsay says, and I think he is right, that we must begin 

 with the mother before confinement, but it is equally true that 

 after birth our interest should centre on the rearing of the 

 offspring through the mother's care, or by outside help if the 

 mother is dead or incapacitated. Mr. Harold Cox says : For 

 the State to give a subsidy to every woman who bears a child 

 would only iucrease the evil. A child born and reared in a 

 crowded area has a poor chance of becoming a fine specimen 

 of humanity even if the State pays for its maintenance." 



* Problems of Population and Parenthood, pp. liv-lviii, London: 

 Chapman & Hall. 



