Gaps Left by War to Fill From Our Own Correspondent London, Feb. 21.
The papers every day are full of aspects of what one may call the "Nation and the Child" movement. It is clear that the community is at last realizing, particularly as a result of the war, the value of child life. We have every sort of society coming into existence, some dealing with the mother, and the others with the child. The former put in the forefront of their programme the adoption of mothers' pensions, a movement which has established itself in the United States, and which consists in an allowance made by the State to mothers, not merely during the period of maternity—this is already done under the Health Insurance Acts—but during subsequent years. People are generally favourable to the idea, but they realize that it would mean a very heavy burden on the State, and for that reason they are a little disinclined to adopt it. Its friends, however, argue that much money has to be given to such mothers, under the operation of the Poor Law, and similar State provision, and that in the long run there would be no essential outlay.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.