Probably the last kick of the extremists of the Labour party, at the recent inter-state triennial confercence, called by its admirers the par-Tiament of Labour, was delivered the other day when it was proposed to tanka the endowment of motherhood and the. pensioning of babies until they were 14 years of ago a ighting platform" Briefly, it was proposed that all mothers—married or otherwise—sbould receive a weekly oF fortnightly grant from the public treasury. What their financial standing might be did not matter, Jand as in the present case of the baby bonus the grant would become practically universal. The money, required was estimated at first to some $20,000,000, and this was to be found by a capital levy which [would pay wf the war loans, and so release the annual interest and sinking fund payments (amounting to. about £20,000,000) for the purpose lof feeding the eleemosynary fund. in addition there isa grant of 258. per head paid to the States by the Commonwealth, and this amount-{ing to £8,000,000 ' year was to be ftypothecated to the pensioning married and unmarried women, and the upbringing of their offspring.
But what I think seared the delegates to the conference more than hing else was the assertion that this was preliminary to the State taking over dhe complete control and maintenance of children.
Femember my Bellamy aright this Iwas one of his fantastic. schemes.
[The reformers at the Labour conference were vigorously attacked, but (so like politicians) the confer-Jence did not defeat the proposal on its merits, but because it was not embodied in the Labour program: that the levy on en pital would dis-Integrate industry, and lower the standard of living, and that in any case the way the money was to be found should not be tacked on to the main proposition. By " substantial "majority—the numbers "sup. pressed by the publicity agents of the conference—mother endowment Jand baby pensions went to the pack, ud it is not too much to say' that feapital and mothers generally breathed a sigh of relief. The Labour Conference is not yet over, but it safe to say that it breathes "sweet reasonableness", yet one fears that leven as Lambro it must be regard-as the mildest-mannered pirate, who. ever scuttled ship or cut a throat".
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.