THE FREEMAN PAMPHLETS 
 
 THE ENDOWMENT OF 
 MOTHERHOOD 
 
 With an introduction by the Editor 
 
 Katharine Anthony 
 
 NEW YORK 
 B. W, HUEBSCH. Inc. 
 
 MCMXX 
 
 50c. 
 
Butt ^allege of JVgttculttice 
 At Clocnell 3iIntuerBitg 
 
THE 
 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013933563 
 
THE 
 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 WITH A PREFACE 
 BY THE EDITOR 
 
 KATHARINE ANTHONY 
 
 NEW YORK, MCMXX 
 
 B. W. HUEBSCH, INC. 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY 
 B. W. HUEBSCH, Inc. 
 
The following are responsible for the preparation 
 of this book: 
 
 K. D. COURTNEY. 
 H. N. BRAILSFORD. 
 ELEANOR F. RATHBONE, 
 A. MAUDE ROYDEN. 
 MARY STOCKS. 
 ELINOR BURNS. 
 EMILE BURNS. 
 
 Note: — The members of the Family Endowment 
 Committee are technicians and experts. Eleanor F. Rath- 
 bone is Secretary of the Liverpool Women's Industrial 
 ijCouncil and author of studies on " Conditions among the 
 ' Dock Laborers," " The Problem of Women's Wages," 
 and " Widows under the Poor Law." Maude Royden is 
 assistant preacher in the City Temple of London, an ex- 
 Tecutive in suffrage organizations, and the author of 
 " Women and the Sovereign State." H. N. Brailsford is 
 ithe author of economic and political works, " The War of 
 Steel and Gold," " The League of Nations," " The Cove- 
 nant of Peace," etc. Emile Burns is joint author of 
 ;"The Idea of Public Right." Elinor Bums is a joint 
 author of "The Making of Women: Oxford Essays in 
 Feminism." Mary Stocks is a well-known economist and 
 writer, chiefly on consumers' problems, for the British 
 Economic Journal and other periodicals. The Chairman 
 of the Committee, Miss Kathleen D. Courtney, was for- 
 merly the Secretary of the British National Union of 
 Women's Suffrage Societies. Recently she has filled ex- 
 ecutive positions in connection with feminist reforms 
 growing out of the adoption of the suffrage measure. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 When Elizabeth Barrett Browning's baby was 
 born, she received a maternity endowment of a 
 hundred pounds a year. It was the gift of a well- 
 disposed cousin, an elderly bachelor. Though 
 the Brownings were far from poor, the settle- 
 ment was welcomed, no doubt, as meeting a rea- 
 sonable need. Certainly it seems only fitting that 
 a well-to-do bachelor should play the part of an 
 economic " uncle " to the next generation. The 
 generosity of childless people toward the children 
 of near relatives and favorite friends strikes one 
 as mere justice and propriety, after all, and such 
 voluntary acts of evening-up between one genera- 
 tion and the next are not at all uncommon among 
 the families and classes who can afford to be kind. 
 It is a commonplace among the rich that chil- 
 dren increase expenses. But families who sub- 
 sist on wages and salaries have no margin, or 
 practically none, on which to draw in this emer- 
 gency. For, though the birth of children is one 
 of the most familiar facts in nature, it still figures 
 as an emergency in family life and as a shock to 
 the family budget. The children of wage-earners 
 regularly subtract from the standard of comfort 
 in the home. They derive their sole income from 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 the self-denial of the parents. This has been 
 proved over and over by statistical experts and 
 government investigators of the cost of living. 
 Under the existing wage-system, which makes no 
 distinction between the married man and the 
 bachelor, the needs of children are met by the 
 sacrifices of the parents. The familiar argument 
 that men are paid more than women because men 
 have families to support is considerably weak- 
 ened by the fact that unmarried men are paid the 
 same as married men and the father of one child, 
 the same as the father of ten. 
 
 Every intelligent person knows the facts; yet 
 the knowledge is counteracted by an emotional 
 prejudice, amounting almost to a superstition, 
 which tends to block all social reforms that would 
 lighten the individual parent's burden. Parent- 
 age should be, as it is, a supremely chastening 
 experience. Any effort to mitigate the punish- 
 ment is " spoiling." Once I heard a parish priest 
 denounce a neighboring day-nursery, which took 
 care of some laundry workers' children, as a de- 
 vice for " coddling " the mothers. If we went 
 far enough back in history, we should find the 
 prototype of this stern man, in all probability, 
 opposing the public school as a device for " cod- 
 dling " parents and an incentive to over-breeding. 
 But nowadays no one thinks of questioning the 
 " funds to parents " which are dispensed in the 
 form of a public school budget. At some time 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 in the future, it will seem amazing to ordinary- 
 people that children under six were not consid- 
 ered by the community as having any claim on the 
 taxes. At present, the case for child welfare 
 rests in this stage : Let the individual parent take 
 all the consequences of his parentage until the 
 public school steps in at a comparatively advanced 
 stage of the child's development. If the individ- 
 ual infant can survive the ordeal of dependancy 
 on a low-paid father, the public school will then 
 educate him and even take a certain amount of 
 interest in his health. Unfortunately, the aver- 
 age infant, at least up until his second summer, 
 is not ambitious for the intellectual benefits of a 
 public school. He craves material things like sun- 
 shine, fresh air, and milk, and emotional things, 
 like an individual mother's attention; and, if he 
 does not get these things, he is prone to give up 
 the struggle altogether. The behavior of such 
 unsatisfied infants is strikingly recorded in the 
 vital statistics of every country. 
 
 Many economists and sociologists would like 
 to encourage these non-resistant babies to take a 
 stronger hold on life by increasing the father's 
 wages. For we know that infant mortality goes 
 up as the father's wages go down. Yet it is not 
 solely a question of sufficient income, but also of 
 incidence of income. Some of those who are 
 most zealous for the betterment of the family 
 income are perfectly content that the father shall 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 control it absolutely. They feel that the unity 
 of the family is inseparably bound up with mascu- 
 line hegemony. They maintain, — and with some 
 truth, — that the wife can usually trust her hus- 
 band to hand over to her a due proportion of his 
 earnings for herself and the children. A married 
 man is the most suggestible of animals ; he usually 
 does what society expects of him. When one 
 considers the awful load which he bears as the 
 sole support of a numerous family and recalls the 
 curious fact that he would be worth just as much 
 if he were wifeless and childless, one can only 
 wonder that so few, rather than so many, married 
 men desert. 
 
 On the other hand, a man is bound to feel that 
 the money he has earned is his own. And, what 
 is more to the point, his wife is bound to feel the 
 same. The mother and her children are depend- 
 ent, not only on the amount of the man's wages, 
 but also on his indulgence, his fairness, or his 
 selfishness. Such a relationship generates a sense 
 of inferiority which is just as painful to a woman 
 as to a man and which she will make just as great 
 sacrifices to avoid. Society tells her that she will 
 have to put up with it, because motherhood is a 
 " handicap." But slowly, very slowly, women 
 have learned to question this dictum. Whence 
 comes this social opinion, they ask, which calls the 
 most normal function of a woman's life and an 
 essential service to Society a " handicap " ? It 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 comes, of course, from beings for whom child- 
 bearing is not a normal function and who are in- 
 capacitated by nature for the performance of this 
 service to Society. Men once instituted the 
 " couvade " in an attempt to imitate the child- 
 bearer; but when they found that they still re- 
 mained sterile, they decided to invent the " handi- 
 cap of motherhood." 
 
 This might not be so bad if it had not been 
 accompanied by the stern reality of economic de- 
 pendence. England has recently had a practical 
 demonstration of the poor results of the latter. 
 The separation allowances paid to the soldiers' 
 wives improved the standard of living. The 
 women made excellent custodians of the family 
 income. English homes and English children 
 actually showed improvement on an allowance 
 which was usually about five dollars a week for 
 the family. It was a grave commentary on the 
 former state of affairs. There is little doubt 
 that, if money intended for the maintenance of 
 young children were given directly to the mother 
 instead of being sifted first through the father's 
 hands, more of it would reach its proper destina- 
 tion. As it is now, the upkeep of the children 
 comes out of the mother chiefly. One does not 
 need to be a feminist to believe this. The United 
 States Commissioner of Labor Statistics says, " It 
 is extremely interesting to study the changes in 
 the percentage distribution of expenditures with 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 changes in the size of the family. They show 
 the influence of the babies upon expenditures. A 
 wife, when she first marries, according to the 
 tabulations worked out, spends about as much for 
 clothes as the husband, in the workingraan's fam- 
 ily. Some of you may be surprised to hear that 
 the woman spends almost as much as the man. 
 The accepted notion is quite to the contrary. But 
 just as soon as the first baby comes, her expendi- 
 ture for clothes drops. When the next baby 
 comes, it drops again; so eventually the wife be- 
 comes absolutely — I do not like to say it but I 
 do not know of any other terms in which to ex- 
 press it — a domestic slave." 
 
 The general fall in the birthrate is a matter 
 of deep concern throughout the civilized world. 
 Statesmen are beginning to declare that the eco- 
 nomic difficulties will have to be abated. The 
 old-fashioned husband, who once carried on his 
 solitary back an unrestricted family of children, 
 can no longer accomplish the feat. Long ago, 
 the European governments found it necessary to 
 offer a helping hand to the extent of a small 
 maternity insurance grant to working class 
 mothers. But this is no longer adequate, and 
 further economic measures tending toward the 
 endowment of motherhood are now being pro- 
 posed by important groups of reformers, like the 
 authors of the following pamphlet. 
 
PREFACE xi 
 
 They conclude that the State will have to deal 
 increasingly with the mother directly and less 
 through the agency of the father as a middle- 
 man. They advance the proposition that the 
 services of the mother in the home are worth a 
 remuneration from the State ; it should not be paid 
 as a pension or bounty. And they argue, further- 
 more, that the economic independence of mothers 
 is a thing to be striven for throughout all income- 
 classes. For this reason, their views should be 
 equally interesting to the wives of professors, of 
 Plumb Planners, and Pittsburg day laborers. 
 When we come to the cost of the scheme and the 
 budget proposed, American readers will Inevitably 
 be disappointed in the small stipends named. 
 The sum of five shillings a week would scarcely 
 pay the milk bill of a New York child. Of course 
 these sums are inadequate even under English 
 standards. But if mothers are going to get on 
 the pay roll of Society at all, they will have to be 
 willing to begin at the bottom. It is a great 
 advance to have the principle established that 
 motherhood should be entitled to any pay at all. 
 Incidentally the English government has already 
 found it necessary to increase the military pen- 
 sions, from which the budgets in the following 
 pamphlet were originally derived. Such readjust- 
 ments are now more common than once. 
 
 At the present. time, a bill for civilian widows' 
 pensions lies before the British Parliament, — a 
 
xli PREFACE 
 
 challenge from the new women voters of the coun- 
 try. Since the English franchise law gave the 
 vote to the married women and withheld it from 
 the unmarried women under thirty, the govern- 
 ment is now confronted by the logical conse- 
 quences of this action. Among the feminist re- 
 forms demanded, those which affect wives and 
 mothers will now naturally take the priority. If 
 the arbitrary limitation of the franchise results 
 in giving the mothers a chance to assert their 
 claims effectively, no modern feminist will have 
 any cause to complain. It is high time that the 
 endowment of motherhood should be classed 
 among the realizable ideals of practical politics. 
 
 Katharine Anthony. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction, i 
 
 Report of the Family Endowment Committee, 8 
 I. General Aims of the Scheme of Endowment, 9 
 II. Consideration of Possible Objections, 21 
 
 III. Principles of a Concrete Scheme, 33 
 
 IV. The Scheme Proposed, 39 
 V. The Cost, 42 
 
 VI. Administration, 47 
 
 The Treatment of the Unmarried Mother and 
 Her Children, 53 
 
 Endowment and the Family Income: A Flat- 
 Rate of Endowment or a Scale Graded in Ac- 
 cordance with Income? 63 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The women 'bus conductors of London who 
 struck for " equal pay " made a brilliant and suc- 
 cessful fight, but they have also raised a far-reach- 
 ing problem. In the immediate foreground of 
 industrial politics it would be hard to exaggerate 
 the importance of their bold stroke for simple 
 justice. What is conceded to 'bus conductors 
 cannot In the long run be denied to railway 
 workers, and what is granted in the transport 
 trades will presently be demanded in every branch 
 of industry. Principles are a dangerous form 
 of social dynamite, and this particular explosive 
 will shatter many things before its force is ex- 
 hausted. 
 
 For " equal pay for equal work " is only one 
 half of women's demand. The other half is to 
 win admission (wherever the work is suitable) to 
 an equal place, when their skill merits it, among 
 the craftsmen of the better organized unions. 
 To tell a woman that she shall have equal pay, 
 whenever she is allowed to do a man's work, is 
 a mockery if at the same time the doors of all 
 the upper rooms In the house of Industry are 
 closed against her. Her battle is only beginning, 
 
2 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 so long as all the more exclusive crafts, from 
 barristers ^ to compositors, refuse to admit her 
 to their privileges. 
 
 To pretend that the reluctance of these highly- 
 skilled, well-organized crafts is due to mere sex- 
 selfishness is to miss the central issue of the prob- , 
 lem. It is true that women have had to battle, 
 and must still battle, at every stage of their long, 
 struggle for education, political rights, and eco- 
 nomic opportunity, against the crude egoism of 
 men who opposed their every striving to emerge 
 from the position of the unpaid, untaught do- 
 mestic drudge. They have owed their escape 
 from this position more often to their own ef- 
 forts and to the commercial egoism of men who 
 brought them into industry to exploit them than 
 to the chivalry of men who smoothed the way 
 for them as comrades. None the less, there is 
 a reason — in its way a natural reason — for 
 the opposition of men to the entry of women into 
 industry. That reason is expressed in the fa- 
 miliar phrase that " men have families to keep." 
 The present organization of society throws the 
 main cost of rearing the next generation upon 
 the shoulders of men, and public opinion's rough 
 sense of justice will not admit that a single woman 
 ought to have as much money as a family of 
 
 1 since this was written, a bill has been passed by the British 
 Parliament which opens to women all branches of the legal 
 and other professions. — Ed. 
 
INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 three, five, or (it may be) six or seven mouths. 
 
 And yet the. 'bus men of London gave unstint- 
 ing help to the women in their fight for " equal 
 pay." Organized labor has declared emphat- 
 ically its intention to enforce the application of 
 that principle throughout the country. 
 
 Although the fear of women's competition at 
 lower rates is an important motive in the men's 
 policy, this motive does not explain the general 
 sympathy of the public which so largely con- 
 tributed to the women's success. The Press sup- 
 ported the women's demand almost as unani- 
 mously as it supported the demands of the Lon- 
 don police a week later. Public opinion's rough 
 sense of justice admits that women should not 
 be paid less than men for the same work. 
 
 The possession of the vote strengthens the 
 women's insistence on their industrial rights, and 
 gives force to a movement that will not stop be- 
 fore it has swept away the barriers of the past 
 and won for women their right place in the social 
 as well as in the industrial organization of so- 
 ciety. 
 
 Foremost among the barriers to equality is the 
 system which ignores the mother's service to So- 
 ciety in making a home and rearing children. 
 The mother is still the unchartered servant of 
 the future, who receives from her husband, at 
 his discretion, a share in his wages. The system 
 
4 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 may work, on the average, fairly well. But even 
 if, as is probable, the husband behaves well and 
 " brings home " the bulk of his earnings, these 
 earnings do not vary with his family needs, and 
 are subject to the arbitrary chances of unemploy- 
 ment and ill-health. Such are the causes, apart 
 from the instances of selfish and thriftless conduct 
 on the husband's part, which tend to drive the 
 wife herself into the labor market, to the detri- 
 ment of the home and the children. She will 
 work in such cases for less than a subsistence 
 wage, and she thereby lowers the standard of 
 women's wages. At its best the system leaves 
 the woman with less self-respect and independ- 
 ence than she ought to have. At its worst it re- 
 sults in neglected homes and ill-nourished chil- 
 dren. It provides less than a decent standard of 
 life for the unskilled laborer's family, and forces 
 the older children into the labor market at an 
 unripe age. Erected into a custom and a con- 
 vention, this system tends to keep women's wages 
 low, even when they are wholly or partially sup- 
 porting a family. It works with peculiar cruelty 
 towards a wife who, after bearing children, finds 
 herself wronged, ill-used, or neglected. 
 
 Even in the most fortunate cases, the system 
 recognizes neither the personality of the woman 
 nor her contribution to society. There can be 
 no real independence, whether for man or woman, 
 
INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 without economic independence. Few of us 
 realize how constantly and subtly this half-con- 
 scious, but ever-present sense of the economic 
 dependence of the woman upon the man corrodes 
 her personality, checks her development, and 
 stunts her mind, even while she is still a girl, with 
 marriage only as yet in prospect. Social injustice 
 is a continuous poison, administered without our 
 knowledge in daily doses, but it makes spiritual 
 dwarfs of those who might be giants. 
 
 The industrial program of " equal pay for 
 equal work " is no remedy for these difficulties. 
 It raises in an acute form the problems connected 
 with the rearing of the next generation. Relying 
 on that formula alone, women may win an empty 
 victory, and rivet more firmly the fetters which 
 bound them in the past to the low-paid, unskilled 
 trades. Relying on that formula alone, women 
 may check the course of their own social emanci- 
 pation. That course is not to be measured solely 
 in industrial and political terms. The " separa- 
 tion allowance " to the soldier's wife has made 
 her for the first time the mistress of a personal 
 income, with the result that multitudes of homes 
 have been better furnished and multitudes of 
 children better nourished than they were in peace. 
 The allowance to the mother recognizes her per- 
 sonality and the importance of her work; the 
 additional grant for every child does accurately 
 
6 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 what' the conventional " family " wage, paid to 
 the man, does at best approximately. The 
 amount of the family income varies with the need, 
 as wages do not. A new and just system of pro- 
 viding for the rearing of the next generation has 
 been unwittingly demonstrated by the British 
 Government. 
 
 The continuation and extension of this system 
 would be a national recognition of the mother's 
 work; and at the same time it would safeguard 
 the coming generation from the aggravated in- 
 justice which threatens it as the result of the rise 
 in prices and the disorganization of industry. It 
 would also solve the otherwise insoluble contra- 
 diction between the claims of the family and the 
 principle of " equal pay for equal work." For 
 years pioneer women have advocated the endow- 
 ment of motherhood, as much for the sake of the 
 mother's self-respect as for the child's welfare. 
 To-day the logic of experience has reenforced the 
 arguments of the past, and the united labor de- 
 mand for " equal pay " has made the endowment 
 of motherhood the most urgent question of the 
 hour. 
 
 In the following pages the subject is carefully 
 examined in its many bearings on the industrial, 
 social and economic life of the country. It is 
 an issue that cannot be burked in the period of 
 reconstruction, and the definite proposals here 
 
INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 made form the first practical scheme for the na- 
 tional endowment of motherhood. 
 
 The scheme promises a measure of economic 
 independence to the mother, and recognizes by a 
 direct payment her services to society. It recog- 
 nizes the varying needs of the family with an 
 exactness impossible to wages. It recognizes the 
 readjustment of the organization of society which 
 the irresistible demand of " equal pay for equal 
 work " will involve. In its full application, the 
 scheme will make it easy to decrease juvenile em- 
 ployment, and to raise the school age, since the 
 child's wage will no longer be a necessary supple- 
 ment to the father's. It means, in short, an ap- 
 proach to the humane maxim, " To each accord- 
 ing to his need " ; the abolition of hunger for 
 the child; the economic and social emancipation 
 of women; the safeguarding of men from the 
 perils of low-paid competition; and such a level- 
 ing up of opportunities as our race has never 
 known in all its history. It makes a ringing call 
 to the ambition and vision of both men and 
 women voters. 
 
REPORT OF THE FAMILY ENDOWMENT 
 COMMITTEE 
 
 At the suggestion of Miss E. F. Rathbone a 
 small Committee was formed in October, 19 17, 
 to discuss the establishment of a national scheme 
 of family endowment on the lines of separation 
 allowances, which have greatly benefited the coun- 
 try during the war by distributing the means of 
 subsistence according to the number of persons 
 in the family concerned. 
 
 The Committee has had under consideration 
 a number of questions to which the war gave 
 special prominence, and which will be increasingly 
 important in the long period of reconstruction. 
 Many of these questions are directly connected 
 with the development of national life through 
 the adequate maintenance and care of children; 
 others, although not directly connected with this, 
 are yet so closely related that they cannot be 
 treated separately. 
 
 The Committee has come to the conclusion 
 that a national scheme of family endowment is 
 the only practicable method of meeting the prob- 
 lems ^hich it has considered. This should take 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 9 
 
 the form of a weekly allowance, sufficient in 
 amount to cover the primary cost of physical 
 subsistence, paid direct to the mother for herself 
 and for each of her children, throughout the 
 period when the care of the children necessarily 
 occupies her whole attention. The details have 
 not yet been fully developed, but the Committee 
 has thought it desirable to draw up a statement 
 of the general lines of the proposed scheme, with 
 the reasons which have prompted its conclusions. 
 It is convenient to divide this report into six 
 parts : 
 
 1. The general aims of the scheme. 
 
 2. Consideration of possible objections to the 
 
 scheme. 
 
 3. The principles of a concrete scheme. 
 
 4. The scheme proposed. 
 
 5. The cost. 
 
 6. Administration. 
 
 I. — The General Aims of the Scheme 
 
 (a) The Provision made by Society for its own 
 Continuation. 
 An Important aspect of the present wages sys- 
 tem is that the nation provides for its own con- 
 tinuation — for the rearing of future citizens — 
 through the wages of Individual adults. It Is 
 obvious that children until they reach an age when 
 
lo ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 they can become producers; mothers during the 
 time when their work in bearing and rearing chil- 
 dren removes them from the ranks of ordinary 
 producers; as well as old or disabled men or 
 women — must be a charge on the products of 
 the country's industry. The system that left the 
 burden of non-producers to be borne by individ- 
 uals has been formally broken down in England 
 by free Education, Old A'ge Pensions and the 
 Insurance Acts; but no attempt has been made 
 to shift the main burden of children's non-pro- 
 ductive Hfe from the individual to the commu- 
 nity. 
 
 It is a commonplace that the system of provid- 
 ing for the next gen.eration through wages is 
 wasteful and inadequate. Wages cannot be ad- 
 justed to meet family needs ; the unmarried earner 
 receives the same wages as the father of one 
 child or of ten children. The amount of food 
 and other necessaries which each child can be 
 given depends on (a) the wages of the father, 
 (b) the number of other children in the family 
 — two totally irrelevant factors. No Food Con- 
 troller would dream of distributing an equal ra- 
 tion of bread to each household, without taking 
 into account the number of mouths that had to 
 be fed. Yet this is, in effect, the plan adopted, 
 so long as the family with children receives the 
 same income as the single man. It is essential 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ii 
 
 that a new system should be introduced which 
 would give to the family with children an amount 
 
 — over and above the wages earned by the father 
 
 — based on the actual number of children in that 
 family. 
 
 (b) The Remuneration of Women's Services. 
 
 This conclusion is also supported by considera- 
 tions bearing on the employment of women. The 
 large increase in the number of women in industry 
 during the war, and the increasing need for the 
 full utilization of the country's labor resources 
 will tend to raise in a much more acute form the 
 difficulties which the employment of women in 
 competition with men has raised in the past. 
 These difficulties are closely connected with the 
 present system of providing for the next genera- 
 tion. The fact that the majority of male wage- 
 earners either have to maintain a family or are 
 young men who expect to do so shortly, while 
 the majority of women wage-earners work for 
 their own subsistence or are only partly respon- 
 sible for the maintenance of others, has led to a 
 general acceptance of lower standards of pay for 
 women than men, even when they do the same 
 work. The result is that men, with some justice, 
 look on women workers as blacklegs, and resist 
 their admission into the higher paid and more 
 skilled branches of industry. In the past this re- 
 
12 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 sistance, combined with other causes connected 
 with the traditional attitude to women, has been 
 largely successful in confining women to a group 
 of trades, concerned with the domestic arts and so 
 recognized as their own, and to the least skilled 
 branches of men's trades. 
 
 The discovery during the war of the potentiali- 
 ties of women in industry has to a great extent 
 broken down this barrier, and it is clear that in 
 the future the industrial competition between the 
 sexes is likely to be much keener than before and, 
 unless some means of adjustment can be found, 
 may constitute a most serious menace to the men's 
 standards of life. On the other hand, any at- 
 tempt to prevent women from exercising their 
 newly-found powers and to force them back be- 
 hind the traditional boundaries is certain to be 
 resisted both by employers and by women them- 
 selves, as involving a great waste of human ca- 
 pacity. 
 
 This is becoming widely recognized by the 
 workers themselves. The better organized 
 groups of women are everywhere raising the cry 
 of " equal wages for equal work," and at the 
 British Labour Party Conference, on July 28th, 
 1918, a resolution was passed "That the prin- 
 ciple of ' equal pay for similar duties ' should be 
 everywhere adopted." It will, however, be ex- 
 ceedingly difficult to secure the universal adoption 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 13 
 
 of this obviously just principle so long as the 
 equally just objection can be raised that men need 
 higher pay, not because their need of beer and 
 cigarettes is greater, but because they have to 
 support their wives and children. 
 
 Mr. Seebohm Rowntree feels this difficulty so 
 strongly that, in " The Human Needs of Labor," 
 he actually proposes a differentiation of 19s. 
 ($4-75) per week in the suggested minimum 
 wage for men and for women. Unjust as this 
 differentiation would be felt to be by women, and 
 disastrous as it must be in its effects on men's 
 wages and employment, it must be recognized that 
 the grounds advanced by Mr. Rowntree for this 
 proposed differentiation will be accepted by the 
 general public, so long as the burden of providing 
 for the next generation falls almost entirely upon 
 the wages of individual men. Although in 
 strongly organized trades the efforts of women 
 workers and the support of men workers may win 
 here and there a victory for the principle of 
 " equal pay," it must be recognized that as long 
 as the argument that " men have families to 
 keep " can be brought against them, they are 
 swimming against a strong tide of public opinion, 
 and that this opinion Is shared not only by the 
 employing class but by employed men and their 
 wives as well. 
 
 When the national endowment of mothers and 
 
14 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 children becomes an accomplished fact, this excuse 
 for the underpayment of women will no longer 
 hold good and women will be free to claim — and 
 men to concede to them — whatever position in 
 industry their faculties fit them for, at a wage 
 based on the work they do, and not on their sup- 
 posed necessities. Until that time comes, the em- 
 ployment of women will remain one of the most 
 serious problems in the country's industrial de- 
 velopment, and in the development of that com- 
 munity of interests between men and women to 
 which the country looks forward with increasing 
 hope. 
 
 (c) The Health of Children. 
 
 It is now generally realized that Great Britain 
 suffers every year a serious loss, which to a great 
 extent is preventable, in the death of rather more 
 than ten per cent, of the children under one year 
 old. It is also realized that numbers even of 
 the children who survive grow up with physical 
 and mental disabilities which prevent their taking 
 any very active part in the industrial system. 
 It is realized that the main cause of the infant 
 mortality and the crippling of a large proportion 
 of the survivors is the lack of proper nourish- 
 ment, which accentuates the evils of bad housing, 
 inadequate care, and disease. In his Report for 
 19 1 6, Sir Geoi'ge Newman says (p. 139) : 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 15 
 
 " Speaking generally, the findings of medical 
 inspection have demonstrated that something 
 like ten per cent, of the total number of chil- 
 dren in attendance at Public Elementary 
 Schools are suffering from a recognizable de- 
 gree of malnutrition (say 600,000 children). 
 ... It is not only a question of a hungry child, 
 but of a child physically below par, and thus 
 unable to derive full benefit from its school- 
 ing." 
 
 This process of under-nourishment frequently be- 
 gins before birth, and its effects, visible to school 
 medical inspectors, reach their climax in the indus- 
 trial and social fate of the many grades of the 
 inefficient. The provision of milk and school 
 meals can be only palliatives. They will affect 
 only a small part of the total number of children, 
 and they will leave untouched the health of the 
 mother and the general standard of living in the 
 home. 
 
 In the actual working of the separation allow- 
 ances which have been paid during the war we 
 find a possible solution. Apart from isolated 
 cases, the health and standard of living of chil- 
 dren in the homes which have benefited by sepa- 
 ration allowances have been greatly improved. 
 The mothers who have drawn these allowances 
 during the war have shown themselves to be 
 
1 6 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 capable of doing their work — the rearing of 
 children — efficiently, if adequate means are 
 placed at their disposal. In the report referred 
 to above, Sir George Newman says (p. 142) : — 
 
 " The evidence from school doctors and the 
 Board's medical inspectors in all parts of the 
 country is to the effect that in 19 16 the children 
 were, on the whole, better fed and better 
 clothed than at any time since medical inspec- 
 tion was introduced." 
 
 {d) The Removal of Economic Restrictions on 
 Parenthood. 
 The conditions referred to above suggest that, 
 as long as the maintenance of families is provided 
 for through the wages of individuals, the more 
 industrious and ambitious classes of workers will 
 tend, as their standard of living is raised, to 
 restrict their families, as well as to defer mar- 
 riage in order to make sure of adequate incomes. 
 The war has intensified the decline in the birth 
 rate; and there can be no doubt that the present 
 economic situation will increase the tendency to 
 restriction. This tendency will be specially 
 strong among those ambitious workers whose 
 high standards of living would ensure the survival 
 and the proper care of their children; but it will 
 affect much wider classes than it has affected in 
 the past, since knowledge of the means of restrict- 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 17 
 
 ing families is now almost universal. As long as 
 wages fix the limits of the family standard of liv- 
 ing, each additional child must lower the stand- 
 ard in that family; and the system must be al- 
 tered if we wish to counteract the economic tend- 
 ency to restriction among just those types of 
 citizens whose increase is of most importance to 
 the national life. Unless the system is altered 
 the nation will continue to be recruited, in an 
 ever growing proportion, from the ranks of those 
 who are physically and mentally the least fit. 
 (See also II. (d), page 29.) 
 
 (e) Improvement in the Status of Women. 
 
 The alternatives open to women in the past 
 have been either dependence as a mother or inde- 
 pendence as an industrial worker. During the 
 war, the payment of separation allowances made 
 it possible for a great many mothers to give 
 proper time and attention to the care of their 
 children, and at the same time to enjoy economic 
 independence. In the present period of readjust- 
 ment when much depends on the care given to the 
 rearing of children, the mother's work must be 
 recognized as an important service to the country, 
 and those who render it should not be placed in a 
 condition economically inferior to that of the in- 
 dependent wage-earning woman. 
 
 In the present scheme of society, not only does 
 
1 8 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 the mother's continuous and exhausting work fail 
 to bring her economic independence; circum- 
 stances over which she has no control often de- 
 prive her of the- means which she requires to 
 enable her to do her work properly. If the coun- 
 try wishes to give some practical proof of its 
 respect for motherhood, it must secure to the 
 mother, in the first place, a measure of economic 
 independence for herself; and, secondly, an addi- 
 tional allowance, based on the number of her chil- 
 dren, which will make it possible for her, without 
 continuous privation on her part, to feed, clothe, 
 and care for them adequately. If the mother 
 leaves her home, and goes out as nurse, cook, 
 general servant or housekeeper to some other 
 family, she is paid for that work, a decent stand- 
 ard of living is assured to her, and she is given 
 the materials she needs in the course of her duties ; 
 but if she stays at home and looks after her own 
 children she receives no payment, and her stand- 
 ard of living and the materials she needs for 
 her work are both dependent on her husband's 
 earnings — not on the value of her own work, 
 or on the number of children for whom she has 
 to provide. Hence it is that motherhood — 
 which has often been called the noblest of all 
 professions — too often means a life of overwork 
 rewarded by continuous privation and anxiety 
 about making both ends meet The first step 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 19 
 
 towards raising the status of women must be the 
 raising of the status of motherhood, and the 
 blotting out in " the noblest of all professions " 
 of those conditions which could not bear com- 
 parison with the worst conditions of sweated in- 
 dustrial employment. 
 
 (/) The Redistribution of Wealth. 
 
 It is generally admitted that constant efforts 
 must be made to aboHsh some of the most glar- 
 ing evils in the present distribution of wealth. 
 In the summer of 19 16, Mr. Asquith said that 
 the Government was anxiously considering means 
 to secure " a fairer distribution." The evil is 
 generally thought of in terms of individual wage- 
 earners; and a remedy is sought in trade-boards 
 and wages legislation. But it is clear from the 
 foregoing that a most serious evil, which con- 
 stantly retards national development, is the un- 
 fairness of the distribution among families. This 
 point is not dependent on any " Socialist " views 
 of class justice; within any one class, the exist- 
 ing distribution is unjust as between families — 
 unju'st in the special sense that it penalizes those 
 individuals whose services to the State should be 
 recognized and encouraged. It has been a com- 
 monplace among sociological writers that the unit 
 of the State is the family; the unit in the distri- 
 bution of wealth is, however, not the family, but 
 
20 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 the individual wage-earner. Hence any attempt 
 at redistribution through wages, however far- 
 reaching, will not produce that redistribution 
 which is most important to the national life. In 
 State payments according to family needs we find 
 the only means' — a means which can be directly 
 effected by legislation — of securing " a fairer 
 distribution " on which all classes would be in 
 agreement. 
 
 (g) A Higher Standard of Living. 
 
 There can be no doubt of the existence of an 
 irresistible demand for a general improvement in 
 the standard of living. If this demand is con- 
 ceded solely through wages, the rise in prices 
 would probably outstrip the rise in wages among 
 the weaker and less organized sections of workers. 
 If, on the other hand, the demand for a higher 
 standard of living were met also by direct State 
 payments according to family needs, a higher 
 standard of living would at a stroke be made 
 possible for mothers and children in all classes 
 of workers without distinction, and this in its 
 turn would stimulate production. 
 
 In periods of slack trade and unemployment, 
 again, the slackness in demand is accentuated, 
 and a permanent mark left on the nation's vi- 
 tality, by the fact that the family consumption 
 is reduced when the wage-earner is unemployed. 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 21 
 
 A constant volume of demand based on the fam- 
 ily income received from the State would reduce 
 fluctuations in the general demand and so tend 
 to reduce unemployment. 
 
 II. — Consideration of Possible Objections 
 TO THE Scheme 
 
 (a) The Danger to Wages. 
 
 The effect which family endowment would have 
 on wages is a matter of fundamental importance. 
 It may be argued that wages must inevitably fall 
 if part of the. costs of subsistence are met by 
 direct State payments. But whatever the gen- 
 eral merits of this argument may be, we do not 
 believe that the adoption of the particular scheme 
 of family endowment which we suggest would 
 have any such inevitable adverse effect on wages. 
 In the first place, endowment on the lines pro- 
 posed below would only benefit families with chil- 
 dren under five years old; so that the class draw- 
 ing benefits at any one time would be relatively 
 small. The number of families in the United 
 Kingdom with one or more children under five 
 is estimated at 2,655,000; the number of occu- 
 pied males in 19 II was about 11,500,000. Thus 
 the two-and-a-half million workers whose homes 
 are benefiting by endowment will be scattered 
 through all industries, and trade union solidarity 
 
2 2 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 will prevent them from acting as blackleg labor; 
 while the remaining three-quarters of the men in 
 each industry will be getting no benefit from the 
 scheme of endowment, and their attitude on wages 
 questions will only be strengthened by the general 
 raising of the standard of living which endow- 
 ment will produce. Nor can the fact be ignored 
 that the scheme of endowment will mean that, 
 whether the fathers are employed or not, the fam- 
 ilies in which there are young children will be 
 certain of at least physical subsistence. That is 
 to say, in the event of wages disputes the workers 
 will know that a large number of their dependants 
 are secure, and that the call on strike funds will 
 be less. In well-organized trades, ther-efore, 
 there is little danger that endowment would 
 weaken the workers' attitude on wages questions; 
 while it is certain that it would considerably 
 strengthen their power of resistance in industrial 
 conflicts. 
 
 It cannot of course be doubted that the em- 
 ployer's natural reluctance to grant increases in 
 wages will be stiffened by the introduction of the 
 endowment scheme. He will not only feel that 
 there is less justification on humanitarian grounds 
 for increases in wages; his active resistance will 
 also be strengthened by the increased burden of 
 taxation which the scheme involves. 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 23 
 
 But, whatever, in these circumstances, the rela- 
 tive bargaining powers of the workers and em- 
 ployers may be, no one will doubt that it will be 
 an immense improvement in the social system if 
 families with young children are secured from the 
 worst effects of industrial conflicts, and it is prob- 
 able that this certain result of endowment will 
 be as welcome to the average employer as to the 
 workers themselves. 
 
 This result will follow in weakly organized as 
 well as in highly organized trades. But where 
 there is not a strong trade union organization the 
 increased reluctance of the employer to grant in- 
 creases in wages may be too strong for the 
 workers; and in such trades there may even be, 
 at first, a tendency for the workers whose families 
 are drawing endowment to accept lower wages. 
 Although, for the reasons advanced in the follow- 
 ing paragraphs, we believe that this tendency 
 would soon be checked, there is no doubt that the 
 establishment of a national minimum wage at the 
 same time as the introduction of the Family En- 
 dowment scheme would greatly safeguard the po- 
 sition of the workers. 
 
 The costs of subsistence are undoubtedly an 
 important factor in influencing the workers' atti- 
 tude on wages questions, especially where wages 
 are but little above subsistence level. But other 
 
24 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 and probably more important factors which ac- 
 tually determine rates of wages are : 
 
 (a) The aggregate amount of national pro- 
 duction. 
 
 (b) The number and bargaining power of 
 the workers among whom labor's share has to 
 be divided, as compared with the amount of 
 available capital and the bargaining power of 
 its owners. 
 
 We must therefore consider not merely the effect 
 of family endowment upon the workers' subsis- 
 tence costs, but also its effect upon (a) the effi- 
 ciency of labor; (b) the bargaining power of 
 labor; (c) the number of wage-earners compet- 
 ing in the labor market. An exhaustive treat- 
 ment of these obscure questions is of course out- 
 side the scope of the present memorandum; but 
 the following general considerations may be ad- 
 vanced. 
 
 As regards the efficiency of labor, it may be 
 urged that the mere physical health which en- 
 dowment would bring to the workers in their 
 earlier years would create a more vigorous and 
 self-reliant body of citizens, whose increased pro- 
 ductivity would be of such benefit to the country's 
 industry that it would be well able to bear any 
 increased wages which they might demand. 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 25 
 
 With regard to the bargaining power of labor, 
 reference has been made above to the additional 
 strength which the workers will gain from the 
 knowledge that many of their dependants are se- 
 cure from the danger of starvation in the event 
 of a strike. But in addition to this, the feeling 
 of security which endowment will give to every 
 home will greatly strengthen the general confi- 
 dence of the workers. 
 
 It is well known that the principle " to him 
 that hath shall be given " holds good in the 
 sphere of wages. Men who have been earning 
 wages which enable them to keep their families 
 and themselves above the bare level of physio- 
 logical subsistence are the very men who are more 
 keenly aware of the uses of higher wages; they 
 are able to appreciate the advantages of higher 
 standards of living; they are better able to or- 
 ganize; and their position in their conflicts with 
 employers is stronger than that of the men in 
 lower-paid trades. The men In lower-paid 
 trades, In general, find It more difficult to win any 
 advances In wage-rates, even though their prima 
 facie need of higher wages is greater. 
 
 It Is from this point of view that family en- 
 dowment would be of immense advantage In the 
 struggle for higher wages, especially In the lower- 
 paid trades. A regular and more adequate 
 family income would create a better background 
 
26 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 for the men now in those trades; their organiza- 
 tion would grow stronger, their efforts would be 
 more sustained; and their view of life would 
 change from, passive acquiescence in a state of 
 things which kept themselves and their families 
 below the level of even physiological subsistence, 
 to active determination to better their conditions 
 in ways they had not dreamt of before. 
 
 With regard to the number of persons compet- 
 ing in the labor market, it is of course dangerous 
 to forecast coming conditions. But as far as 
 male wage earners are concerned, there is no rea- 
 son to suppose that the system of family en- 
 dowment would result in any material alteration 
 of numbers. With regard to women wage- 
 earners, the withdrawal of large numbers of mar- 
 ried women from the labor market, to which ad- 
 vocates of family endowment look forward, may 
 well be compensated as regards output by the in- 
 creased physical and moral efficiency of labor as 
 a whole. M-eanwhile, as far as the bargaining 
 power of labor is concerned, nothing but an 
 access of strength could result from a slackening 
 of that competition which has hitherto exercised 
 a depressing effect upon the wages of both sexes. 
 We have already, in considering the effect of en- 
 dowment upon the wages of women (pp. 1 1-14), 
 given our reasons for thinking that it would do 
 away with the present involuntary blacklegging 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 27 
 
 of men by women, by depriving employers of 
 their one really plausible if not actually valid ex- 
 cuse for paying women less than the standard 
 rates, and so putting competition between the 
 sexes for the first time on a basis which is at 
 once free and fair. 
 
 We have advanced these considerations to meet 
 the views of those who, believing that the present 
 wages system will be retained for some time to 
 come, fear that the scheme might result in a re- 
 duction of wages. To those who are looking to 
 the socialization of industry in one form or an- 
 other, we would point out that a scheme such as 
 the one advocated here will be found essential. 
 Every social system, and more especially the 
 highly organized social system, must make pro- 
 vision for those who are unable to be producers. 
 In this category the most important classes are 
 the children, and the mothers who by virtue of 
 the very service they render cannot rank as pro- 
 ducers in the ordinary sense of the word. 
 
 (b) The Effect on the Worker's Energy. 
 
 It may be held that family endowment will 
 weaken the motives which at present drive men 
 to work hard in order to keep their families aUve 
 and in tolerably decent conditions. But the pe- 
 riod suggested for full endowment while there 
 are children in the family under five — has both 
 
28 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 a beginning and an end; and the beginning is 
 marked by greater family requirements which 
 make it most improbable that the father would 
 feel that hard work was no longer necessary. 
 Fear of starvation is not the only incentive to 
 work ; the other incentives — pride, and ambi- 
 tion to reach higher standards of living — become 
 much more powerful after the physiological mini- 
 mum has been secured. The desire to avoid star- 
 vation for himself and his family may make the 
 worker do a certain quantity of work, but it will 
 never be a motive to the full exertion of his 
 powers. In fact, fear of starvation and constant 
 living on the verge of economic disaster pro- 
 duces a state of mind which often leads the 
 worker to do the absolute minimum of work both 
 in time and effort. We believe therefore that 
 even if endowment produced a certain proportion 
 of cases in which men slackened their efforts, the 
 number of these cases would be relatively small, 
 and would be far outbalanced by those where the 
 increased stability and comfort of home life 
 would develop the workers' capacity for effort and 
 stimulate their ambition. 
 
 (c) The Effect on Matrimonial Relations. 
 
 An objection that may be raised to the endow- 
 ment scheme is that it might weaken the marriage 
 ties by making the wife less dependent on her 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 29 
 
 husband's earnings. Against this objection we 
 would urge that a direct payment to the mother 
 for her services to the community in rearing chil- 
 dren will make it possible for marriage to be a real 
 partnership, in which the family income is derived 
 from the joint earnings of husband and wife. 
 We believe that a partnership, in which both par- 
 ties contribute, is a finer conception of marriage 
 relations than one which is based on the financial 
 dependence of the wife. 
 
 Many of the cases of disagreement between 
 married people may be traced directly to friction 
 about money matters. Apart even from direct 
 friction of this kind, the fact cannot be ignored 
 that in present conditions the poverty and discom- 
 fort of the home too often drive the husband to 
 seek refuge elsewhere. By giving mothers the 
 opportunity to improve the standard of comfort 
 in their homes, family endowment would do a 
 great deal to improve matrimonial relations, 
 which cannot but be affected by the increasing 
 poverty and discomfort which, under the present 
 system, is brought by every additional child. 
 
 {d) The EfJect on the Birth-rate. 
 
 It may be objected that endowment will cause a 
 rapid increase in the birth-rate, more especially 
 among those classes of the community to whom 
 the allowances will represent the greatest increase 
 
30 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 in material wealth. Indeed, if there were good 
 reasons to anticipate such a result, we should have 
 here a very weighty objection to the whole 
 scheme; for though public opinion is divided as 
 to the desirability of an increase in the birth-rate 
 as a whole, few people would favor an increase 
 among those classes which are at present living 
 at bare physical subsistence level. We believe, 
 however, that there will be counteracting tend- 
 encies which will reduce the danger of any such 
 result. It is a generally accepted fact that the 
 lowest birth-rate coincides with the highest stand- 
 ard of living, and that the highest birth-rate co- 
 incides with the lowest standard of living. The 
 variation according to standard of living is illus- 
 trated by the following table compiled by the 
 National Birth-rate Commission from ♦:he figures 
 of the British Registrar-iGeneral. 
 
 Births per locxj 
 Social Class. married males aged 
 
 under 55 years. 
 
 Upper and Middle Class 119 
 
 Intermediate 132 
 
 Skilled Workmen 153 
 
 Intermediate Class 158 
 
 Unskilled Workmen 213 
 
 In connection with their general conclusion that 
 " the birth-rate falls as the income rises " the 
 British Commissioners collected evidence which 
 seems to establish the propositions that : 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 31 
 
 (a) families with high incomes were limited, 
 
 if at all, on what may be called " per- 
 sonal " grounds. 
 
 (b) there was an increasing tendency for fami- 
 
 lies with intermediate incomes to be 
 limited on economic grounds. 
 
 (c) famihes with the lowest incomes were not 
 
 limited at all — " the very hopelessness 
 of a proper discharge of parental obli- 
 gations breeds a recklessness in incurring 
 them." 
 
 It seems, therefore, that endowment, by light- 
 ening the economic burdens of parenthood, would 
 tend to operate as a stimulus to the birth-rate in 
 class (b) which is now restricted, and unless the 
 system is altered will probably be further re- 
 stricted, on economic grounds. On the other 
 hand, in the case of the unskilled workers, of 
 whom class (c) is mainly composed, the evidence 
 referred to above suggests that endowment would 
 have a different effect. The " hopelessness of a 
 proper discharge of parental obligations " would 
 be practically abolished; it would be possible for 
 all parents, even those with the lowest incomes, 
 to bring up their children decently; and class 
 (c) would be merged in class (b) — the class in 
 which " recklessness in incurring parental obliga- 
 tions " disappears. 
 
32 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 In addition there is a certain non-economic 
 effect to be considered. The woman tends to re- 
 gard child-bearing less in terms of economic ex- 
 pense, more in terms of physical stress and per- 
 sonal labor, than the man. Any change which 
 conduces to the personal dignity and social pres- 
 tige of the woman in the home, will tend to give 
 increased weight to those non-economic considera- 
 tions by strengthening the hand of the person 
 with whom they weigh most heavily. This 
 should be an important factor in those classes of 
 society where the woman, by reason of complete 
 economic dependence and a life of unbroken 
 drudgery, is at present powerless and inarticulate. 
 
 There is reason to hope, therefore, that fam- 
 ily endowment, by acting directly upon the stand- 
 ard of living and indirectly upon the position 
 of women, will actually tend to reduce the birth- 
 rate among those classes of the community where 
 there is at present no check but the physical 
 capacity of the parents. On the other hand, en- 
 dowment will certainly tend to increase the birth- 
 rate among the artisan and lower-paid profes- 
 sional classes; and this readjustment will mean 
 that the nation will no longer be recruited in a 
 constantly increasing proportion from the ranks 
 of those whose children have the least chance 
 of survival and fitness. 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 33 
 
 III. — The Principles of a Concrete Scheme 
 
 The reasons which have been advanced in favor 
 of the State endowment of families make it clear 
 that the scheme is not suggested in the spirit of 
 poor relief. Although the adoption of the 
 scheme would mitigate some of the worst evils 
 of poverty, other and equally important results 
 are aimed at in the sphere of the country's eco- 
 nomic and social development, especially in rela- 
 tion to the position and status of women. 
 
 It may be said that it is useless for the State 
 to assist families whose incomes are above a cer- 
 tain level. This might be a vital consideration if 
 the exclusion of certain classes would materially 
 lessen the cost of the scheme. But only about 
 six per cent, of the families in the United King- 
 dom enjoy incomes of over £300 ($1500) a year, 
 and the saving effected through the exclusion of 
 these families from endowment would only 
 amount to some £9,000,000 ($45,000,000) on a 
 total cost of nearly £150,000,000 ($750,000,- 
 000). On the other hand, it would be exceed- 
 ingly difficult to adjust allowances immediately 
 below any maximum income that was suggested 
 in such a way as to prevent them from depressing 
 wages and salaries at that level; for example, 
 if families with incomes of £290 ($1450) re- 
 
34 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 celved endowment amounting to £54 ($270) a 
 year, while those with £300 ($1500) received 
 nothings the usual scale of salaries about £300 
 would undoubtedly be depressed. This would be 
 an even more serious objection if the proposed 
 maximum income for endowment were fixed at 
 £160 or £130 ($800 or $650). Apart from this, 
 the moral effect of treating all classes alike would 
 be of great advantage to society; and there would 
 be less danger of oppressive administration if 
 the scheme were universal than if it were limited 
 to the class with low incomes. 
 
 It is in fact essential that there should be no 
 " poverty " qualification for family endowment, 
 nor must it be given only to widows or any other 
 class. It must be given in respect of all children 
 and in respect of all mothers who are occupied 
 in, or who have to make provision for, the care 
 of young children. 
 
 Again, the payment must be made to the 
 mother ; ^ partly in recognition of the work which 
 the rearing of children involves, but partly also 
 because she will thus be made responsible to the 
 State for applying the endowment in the proper 
 way. If the mother is dead, or if for other rea- 
 sons such a course is desirable, payment should 
 
 1 This is intended to prevent a repetition of a feature of the 
 first Maternity Benefit law by which the benefit was made 
 payable to the father. Later the law was amended, making the 
 benefit payable to the mother. — Ed. 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 35 
 
 be made to another person who would assume 
 the responsibility for the care of the children. 
 
 The period during which endowment is to be 
 paid, should, in theory, be determined by the pe- 
 riod of total dependency; that is, for the children, 
 until school-leaving age ; for the mothers, the time 
 during which they are unable to do " productive " 
 work — the period during which the rearing of 
 children is, or should be, a full-time occupation. 
 For mothers, therefore, the endowment should 
 begin during pregnancy — say eight weeks before 
 confinement — and continue until the child reaches 
 school age, i.e., for five years. 
 
 In order to secure the full social and economic 
 effects of the scheme, the endowment for each 
 child should continue normally until fourteen, and 
 be extended if the child remains at school beyond 
 that age. The first five years of life are however 
 the most important period so far as the child's 
 health is concerned; and in view of the assistance 
 given or likely to be given in the near future, to 
 parents of older children in connection with educa- 
 tion schemes (free education, school meals, pos- 
 sible maintenance allowances, etc.), we should 
 suggest as a first measure that family endowment 
 allowances should be paid for children only until 
 they reach the age of five years. Payment of 
 endowment to the mother and children during 
 these periods would remove from the wages of 
 
36 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 the individual father the main extra charges of 
 parenthood; while it would give the mothers a 
 real chance of feeding, clothing and looking after 
 their children during the most critical five years 
 of their lives. 
 
 A majority of the Committee is of opinion 
 that the benefits of endowment should be ex- 
 tended, with certain reservations, to unmarried 
 mothers and their children, on the ground that the 
 effect of this would be to decrease the number 
 of illegitimate children, by removing the condi- 
 tions which tend to increase and perpetuate Ille- 
 gitimacy. A minority of the Committee, while 
 not denying that some provision for the unmar- 
 ried mother and her children is desirable, believes 
 that equal treatment for married and unmarried 
 under an endowment scheme would weaken the 
 deterrent motives and would tend to increase Ille- 
 gitimacy. As the Committee Is not unanimous, 
 the arguments for and against the Inclusion of 
 this class In the scheme of endowment are given 
 in a separate chapter, " The treatment of the 
 unmarried mother and her children," which fol- 
 lows the report. 
 
 The duration of the endowment raises several 
 questions in connection with the employment of 
 women which cannot be settled within the limits 
 of a scheme of family endowment, although It 
 is not possible to Ignore them altogether. In the 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 37 
 
 first place, family endowment would not do away 
 with the necessity for the State provision of mid- 
 wives and medical attendance. Again, even 
 though the State assumed full responsibility for 
 the mother during the period suggested, it is 
 clear that the break in her industrial career which 
 having children involves is still a serious problem ; 
 and a large number of mothers would be unable, 
 after several years' absence from industry, to 
 resume normal employment. There can be no 
 doubt that family endowment, by reducing the 
 strain and semi-starvation which are now involved 
 in rearing children, would tend to reduce the 
 number of mothers whose work exhausts their 
 energies. The State should, however, make pro- 
 vision, by means of disablement pensions, for 
 mothers who are unable to undertake ordinary 
 employment five years after the birth of their 
 youngest child. But these pensions should be 
 part of a general scheme of pensions for old age 
 and disablement, and should not be included in 
 the scheme of family endowment. Another point 
 to be noted is that day boarding schools would 
 considerably lighten the tasks of the mothers 
 whose children had reached school age, and 
 would leave her more free to undertake employ- 
 ment, if she wished to do so, when her endow- 
 ment ceased. 
 
 In drafting a scheme of endowment it must be 
 
38 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 remembered that heavy additional taxation will 
 be necessary to provide the funds required. The 
 exact method of taxation to be employed for 
 this purpose is not a question that can be settled 
 within the limits of an endowment scheme; but, 
 if the method adopted is the income tax, it will 
 be necessary to ensure that families with moderate 
 incomes are not penalized, i.e., that they do not 
 have to pay more in additional taxation than 
 they receive in endowment. This could be ar- 
 ranged by increasing the existing abatements from 
 income tax in respect of wife and children; or 
 by basing the assessment on the number of persons 
 in the family ; or by grading the endowment allow- 
 ances in such a way that families with moderately 
 high incomes receive higher weekly allowances to 
 balance the extra taxation which they are required 
 to pay.^ Apart from the question of taxation, 
 it must be borne in mind that the endowment 
 which would make a great difference to the family 
 with an income of 30s. or 40s. ($7.50 or $10.00) 
 a week would mean very little to a family with 
 an income of £500 or £600 ($2500 or $3000) 
 a year. It might be possible to meet this diffi- 
 culty by a contributory insurance scheme, worked 
 in connection with the endowment scheme. Men 
 and women might have the option of contributing 
 
 1 See the full explanation and discussion of this method in a 
 separate chapter following the Report; p. 63. 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 39 
 
 a certain proportion of their income to a special 
 fund; the sum of the contributions of husband 
 and wife might then be taken as the "additional 
 endowment value " of the wife when endowment 
 became payable; and on the basis of this endow- 
 ment value the State might give weekly pay- 
 ments, additional to the regular rate of endow- 
 ment, the cost being met out of the accumulated 
 contributions and interest, with perhaps a pro- 
 portionate State contribution. Such a scheme 
 would be a great incentive to saving in all classes, 
 and it would be specially helpful to the classes 
 with incomes ranging from say £200 to £700 
 ($1000 to $3500) a year. 
 
 IV. — The Scheme Proposed 
 
 The amounts paid to mothers and children will 
 not have to be large enough to maintain them 
 separately. The ideal amount would be the dif- 
 ference between (a) the cost of maintaining a 
 family — husband, wife and children — which 
 will vary with the number of children; and (b) 
 the cost of living to a man who had no children. 
 The difference would represent the really extra 
 expenditure involved in having children. It 
 seems probable that the lowest amount which 
 would represent this difference in a home whose 
 standard of living did not fall below the subsis- 
 tence level is 12s. 6d. ($3.12) a week for the 
 
40 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 mother and 5s. ($1.25) for the first child, with 
 3s. 6d. (87c) for the second and subsequent 
 children. 
 
 The Committee is unanimous in urging that 
 all families with children under five years of age, 
 whatever the family income may be, should be 
 entitled to endowment.^ 
 
 The majority of the Committee holds that the 
 rates of endowment should be equal for all fami- 
 lies, on the grounds that 
 
 ( I ) the mother's responsibility is the same in 
 all families, whatever the income may 
 be; 
 
 (2)' the needs, and the potential value to the 
 country, of the children are the same 
 in all families, whatever the income 
 may be; 
 
 (3) the State should not give preferential 
 treatment to certain classes, especially 
 where these classes are defined by in- 
 come. 
 
 The scale of payments suggested is therefore a 
 flat rate for all classes as under : — 
 
 , 1 Some members of the Committee feel that the number of chil- 
 dren entitled to endowment in any one family should be limited 
 to (say) four, on the ground that children in unduly large 
 families can rarely receive the attention they need from the 
 overworked mother, or be given a fair start in life. Although 
 the Committee decided not to make any definite recommendation 
 on this point, the view is placed on record as one that deserves 
 consideration. 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 41 
 
 Mothers — Eight weeks before confinement, 
 and as long as they have one or more chil- 
 dren under five years old — 1 2s. 6d. ($3.12) 
 per week. 
 Children — Until they reach the age of five 
 (as a first measure only — to be extended 
 later until school leaving age) — 5s. ($1.25) 
 a week for the first child under five, with 
 3s. 6d. (87c) a week for each child under 
 five beyond the first. 
 That is to say, the total weekly allowance drawn 
 by a mother with one child under five would 
 be 17s. 6d. ($4.37), a mother with two chil- 
 dren under five would be 21s. ($5.25), a 
 mother with three children under five would 
 be 24s. 6d. ($6.12), and so on. 
 
 The other members of the Committee hold 
 that a flat rate of endowment for all classes, al- 
 though on the surface giving equal treatment to 
 all, would in practice penalize the families with 
 intermediate incomes, ranging say from £130 to 
 £700 ($650 to $3500) a year, especially if the 
 funds necessary for the purpose of endowment 
 were raised partly or wholly by means of the in- 
 come tax. A large part (if not all) of the en- 
 dowment received by each family at these inter- 
 mediate levels of income would be swallowed up 
 by the additional taxation which would be re- 
 
42 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 quired; and the most equitable way of meeting 
 this difficulty would be a graded scale of endow- 
 ment, rising in accordance with income i.e., with 
 the amount of tax paid. Apart even from the 
 incidence of taxation on the families with inter- 
 mediate incomes, the minority of the Committee 
 urges that, unless the rate of endowment is raised 
 as income rises, endowment will have little efEect 
 on the birth rate, and on the status and employ- 
 ment of women, within the classes indicated. 
 
 The Committee is however unanimous in recog- 
 nizing that the effect of endowment on families 
 at different levels of income is an important ques- 
 tion, and a full discussion of the subject is given 
 in a separate chapter that follows the report 
 (p. 63, Endowment and the Family Income: a 
 flat rate of endowment or a scale graded in ac- 
 cordance with income?). 
 
 v.— The Cost 
 
 The factors determining the cost are : — 
 
 ( 1 ) The number of mothers with one or more 
 
 children under five. 
 
 (2) The number of children under five; with 
 
 their distribution among separate fam- 
 ilies. 
 
 (3) The number of mothers entitled to preg- 
 
 nancy allowances each year. 
 
 (4) The cost of administration. 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 43 
 
 (i) No statistics are available showing the 
 exact number of mothers in the United Kingdom 
 with children under five. Volume VIII. of the 
 191 1 census gives the number of famihes with 
 children under 10, for the County of London 
 only, as 437)767. The population of the County 
 of London was, in 191 1, about 4,300,000, or 
 9>4 per cent, of the population of the United 
 Kingdom. Although there is no evidence that 
 the London figures are applicable to the whole 
 country it is probably accurate enough to take 
 the total number of mothe'rs with children under 
 10 as 437,767 X 1000/95, i.e., 4,600,000. 
 
 The total number of births was, in 191 1, 
 1,104,746. The following calculation takes no 
 account of the decline in the birth rate; but in 
 leaving this factor out of account it errs on the 
 right side — it gives an over-estimate of the cost 
 of the scheme. 
 
 The difference between the mothers with chil- 
 dren under lO 4,600,000 
 
 and those with children under i 1,100,000 
 
 is 3,500,000 
 
 That is to say, in the course of nine years 
 3,500,000 new mothers appear, or an average of 
 388,888 new mothers each year. 
 
44 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 The number of 
 mothers with chil- 
 dren under 5 is 
 
 therefore about .. 1,100,000 (with children under i) 
 Plus 388,88 X 4 • 1.555.000 (with children 2-5) 
 
 2,655,000 
 
 (2) The total number of children under 5 is 
 now about 4,670,000. These would be distrib- 
 uted among 2,655,000 families; this is the number 
 of children who would draw endowment at the 
 rate for " first " children. The balance of the 
 total number would draw at the rate for " other " 
 children. 
 
 The total number of endowed persons and the 
 approximate annual cost is therefore: — 
 
 Mothers .... 2,655,000 at 12/6 [$3.12] p. wk. £86,287,000 [$431,435,000] 
 First children 2,655,000 at s/- t$t-25] P- wk. 34.5i5iOoo [$172,575,000] 
 Other children 2,015,000 at 3/6 [$ .87] p. wk. 18,236,000 [$ 81,180,000] 
 
 Annual Cost £139,000,000 [$695,000,000] 
 
 (3) The number of mothers entitled to eight 
 weeks' allowance before confinement would be the 
 annual number of " new " mothers, i.e., those not 
 already drawing allowances in respect of other 
 children. This number, as we saw, is about 
 389,000; making an allowance in respect of still- 
 births, the total annual cost under this head would 
 be about £2,000,000 ($10,000,000). 
 
 (4) The cost of administration will of course 
 depend on the system adopted; but we believe 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 45 
 
 that it will be possible to utilize much existing 
 machinery, and that the cost of administration 
 need not exceed £3,000,000 ($15,000,000). 
 
 The total annual cost of the scheme would 
 therefore be approximately £144,000,000 ($720,- 
 000,000). 
 
 Note I. The additional cost of extending the 
 children's allowances beyond the age of five years 
 is rather less than £10^00,000 ($50,000,000) 
 for each year's extension; i.e., if children's allow- 
 ances were paid up to six years of age, the total 
 annual cost would be £154,000,000 ($770,000,- 
 000) ; up to 15 the cost would be about £240,- 
 000,000 ($1,200,000,000). 
 
 Note 2. The additional cost of a scheme of 
 graded benefits such as was suggested above 
 would be approximately £10,000,000 ($50,000,- 
 000) a year (on the basis of children's allow- 
 ances up to five years only). 
 
 As we have said above, the method of taxa- 
 tion by which this sum should be raised is bound 
 up with the general question of State finance, 
 and cannot be discussed here. But we wish to 
 point out, especially to those who are staggered 
 by the suggestion that £144,000,000 ($720,000,- 
 000) a year should be raised .for the purpose of 
 family endowment, that according to the latest 
 estimates the annual national income is consid- 
 erably over £3,000,000,000 ($15,000,000,000) ; 
 
46 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 more than half of which sum is drawn by the 
 classes now liable to income tax. TTiat is to say, 
 the scheme could be financed entirely by a tax 
 averaging 5 per cent., or is. in the £, on all in- 
 comes (wages, salaries, profits, etc.) ; or, as alter- 
 native which would not involve any alteration 
 in the present level of exemption from income 
 tax, by an addition to the present income tax 
 averaging 10 per cent., or 2s. in the £. We are 
 far however from regarding a further tax on in- 
 comes as the only method of raising the sum 
 required; apart from the income tax, increases in 
 the estate and succession duties, or a land tax, 
 might contribute a large part of the necessary 
 funds; while again a reduction in the present ex- 
 penditure on armaments might release a consid- 
 erable sum for the purpose of endowment. 
 Moreover, as the direct result of the establish- 
 ment of family endowment, considerable savings 
 would be effected — amounting probably to over 
 £20,000,000 ($100,000,000) a year when the 
 scheme had been in operation for some time — in 
 the expenditure on poor relief, insurance, hospi- 
 tals, and, we beheve, prisons and police. The 
 adoption, in many States of the United States, 
 of even such a limited scheme as " Mothers' 
 Pensions " has already done much to relieve work 
 of children's courts and reformatories. 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 47 
 
 VI. — Administration 
 
 In the United States mothers' pensions are 
 usually paid by ordinary checks ^ sent through the 
 post. It would probably be most convenient to 
 the mothers if the weekly payments of family 
 endowment were made in this way, or in cash, 
 direct to their homes; but there is no objection 
 to payment at post offices (as separation allow- 
 ances are now paid) except the loss of time to the 
 mother. 
 
 The mother's claim to endowment in the first 
 instance would be established by the production 
 of birth certificates and any other evidence that 
 was necessary, including a visit to the home, which 
 might possibly be repeated during the period of 
 endowment, provided that the visits were not 
 unreasonably frequent or inquisitorial. The pay- 
 ments before confinement might be made on the 
 certificate of a qualified doctor or midwife; the 
 difficulty of securing payment during exactly eight 
 weeks before confinement is not serious, as slight 
 errors could easily be adjusted at the other end 
 of the mother's peribd of endowment, in such a 
 way that she only drew endowment, in respect of 
 one child, for five years and eight weeks in all. 
 
 1 More often by cash dispensed by county officials. Unfor- 
 tunately, some of our Mothers' Pensions laws remain mere 
 "scraps of paper," as the necessary funds have never been 
 appropriated. — Ed. 
 
48 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 The weekly payments would then be made reg- 
 ularly, subject to the mother being able to produce 
 evidence from time to time that the condition of 
 the children remained satisfactory. Until we 
 know which of the various proposals in connec- 
 tion with a Ministry of Health, and child wel- 
 fare in general, are likely to be adopted, it is 
 difficult to suggest the easiest method of carrying 
 out this part of the scheme. The nation will 
 naturally require some assurance that the money 
 paid to mothers for the maintenance and care of 
 their children is used- for this purpose. On the 
 other hand, the administration of the scheme must 
 involve the least possible amount of supervision 
 and investigation, and the mother who is taking 
 proper care of her children should not be sub- 
 jected to any burdensome regulations. But as 
 there must be some test to show that the mother 
 is using the endowment for the purposes for 
 which it is given to her, it seems right that this 
 test should be the health and general well-being 
 of the children, and that there should be no in- 
 quiry into the details of home arrangements or 
 expenditure unless the condition of the children 
 showed that the endowment was not being prop- 
 erly applied. 
 
 It is clearly most desirable that the adminis- 
 tration of the family endowment scheme should 
 work in with other schemes for child welfare; 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 49 
 
 in the first place this would effect considerable 
 economics; secondly, the connection between 
 health schemes and endowment would make both 
 more successful; thirdly, the mothers would be 
 less opposed to the necessary supervision if this 
 were part of a general health scheme. 
 
 If infant welfare centers are considerably ex- 
 tended and developed, in accordance with the pro- 
 posals of the Local Government Board, periodical 
 visits to such centers would probably give the 
 mothers the easiest opportunity of showing that 
 their children continued to be well looked after. 
 Similarly, if nursery schools are established, there 
 will presumably be in attendance qualified nurses 
 or doctors who could report at the required in- 
 tervals that the children were well looked after. 
 The same procedure might be adopted for chil- 
 dren attending any recognized infant school, 
 clinic, or welfare center. There should be the 
 greatest possible elasticity in the administration 
 of the family endowment scheme ; mothers should 
 be allowed to choose, among different ways of 
 securing their endowment, the way that was most 
 convenient to themselves ; in country districts espe- 
 cially, mothers might prefer a periodical visit 
 from a qualified nurse rather than any other 
 method. 
 
 In general, therefore, we think that payment 
 of endowment should be made, without further 
 
50 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 investigation of any kind, on condition that the 
 mother obtained at regular intervals, from any 
 registered infant welfare center, nursery school, 
 or qualified visiting officer, a certificate that the 
 general condition of her children was satisfactory 
 and that no valid evidence to the contrary was 
 received from any other source. The intervals 
 at which such certificates would be required should 
 be short in the case of infants — perhaps once a 
 month until the child was six or twelve months 
 old — and longer — '■ perhaps once a quarter — 
 in the case of older children. 
 
 If however the mother did not or could not ob- 
 tain a satisfactory certificate at the required in- 
 terval, the first step should be a ^dsit to her home 
 by a qualified visitor, who would make such in- 
 quiries and give such suggestions as seemed neces- 
 sary. This visit would be followed up by further 
 visits at short intervals; and we believe that by 
 suggestions and advice the mother who was 
 merely ignorant or careless could be led to reform 
 her methods. If investigation showed that the 
 father appropriated the endowment, proceedings 
 should be taken against him. In no case should 
 the endowment be stopped altogether, as this 
 would have the worst possible effect on the chil- 
 dren; but if, after the mother had been given 
 every chance, and the fullest inquiries had been 
 made, it seemed no longer possible to trust her 
 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE 51 
 
 to use the endowment properly, she should be 
 regarded as unfit to look after her children, and 
 these, together with the whole endowment, should 
 be transferred to another specially appointed 
 guardian, who would assume full responsibility. 
 If the mother were dead, or for other reasons 
 unable to look after her children, the normal 
 guardian would of course be the father, who 
 would receive the endowment and be responsible 
 for making the necessary arrangements. 
 
 It is clear that even if most of the necessary 
 certificates are issued through health and educa- 
 tional institutions, there must be a central body 
 and also a large number of local organs which 
 would control the general working of the scheme, 
 require the necessary prehminary evidence, au- 
 thorize the actual payments, arrange for inquiries 
 in special cases, appoint guardians and otherwise 
 coordinate the health side of the scheme with the 
 actual machinery of payment. It is impossible 
 at this stage to suggest which would be the most 
 suitable department to undertake this work. If 
 the Ministry of Health ever materializes, this 
 and its local organs might find their main function 
 in the administration of the family endowment 
 scheme; but in its absence the Ministry of Pen- 
 sions, working in conjunction with local health 
 authorities or special committees of local authori- 
 ties, might be the best alternative. 
 
52 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 In present circumstances suggestions for the ad- 
 ministration of the family endowment scheme 
 must necessarily be indefinite. We think, how- 
 ever, that what has been said will show the ad- 
 ministration of this scheme will work in with pro- 
 jected health and other schemes to a great extent, 
 and that no vast new, costly and oppressive ma- 
 chinery will be necessary. The real work which 
 is the aim of this great reform will be done, not 
 by an army of officials in state institutions but 
 by the mothers in their homes. 
 
 K. D. CouRT.NEY, Chairman. 
 
 H. N. Brailsford. 
 
 Eleanor F. Rathbone. 
 
 A Maude Royden. 
 
 Mary Stocks. 
 
 Elinor Burns. 1 , • , c 
 T-, T. IJotnt decs. 
 
 Emile Burns j 
 
THE TREATMENT OF THE UNMAR- 
 RIED MOTHER AND HER CHILDREN 
 
 In most of the countries where an approach has 
 been made to the endowment of motherhood, 
 the State has found it advisable to grant allow- 
 ances to unmarried mothers and their children. 
 Thus the separation allowances paid during the 
 war to the dependants of men in the fighting 
 forces were given both to the married and the 
 unmarried mothers; the exact position in Eng- 
 land was that separation allowances were paid 
 to de-facto wives on the same scale as to the 
 legally married, whenever a permanent connec- 
 tion and full economic dependence could be 
 proved. Where the connection with the soldier 
 had been a casual one the mother might receive 
 an allowance for the child, but not for herself. 
 In the State of Michigan,^ where " Mothers' 
 Pensions " are established, there is no distinction 
 between the married and the unmarried mothers, 
 the latter being included in the records in the 
 class of " deserted mothers." The maternity 
 benefit under the British Insurance Act is paid to 
 
 1 U. S. Department of Labor's Children's Bureau. Laws Re- 
 lating to Mothers' Pensions, p. 117. 
 
 S3 
 
54 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 the unmarried mother if she is an insured person. 
 The tendency of legislation in all countries is to 
 make provision for the illegitimate child on the 
 same terms as that made for the legitimate child; 
 this policy is governed by considerations of the 
 general well-being of the State, and not merely 
 by sympathy for the position of the unmarried 
 mothers and illegitimate children. The number 
 of illegitimate children under five in the United 
 Kingdom is over 150,000; and it cannot be a 
 gain to the State that this large number of chil- 
 dren should be excluded from the scheme of en- 
 dowment, with the inevitable results on their 
 lives, their health, and their morality which pov- 
 erty and inadequate care involve. Nor can the 
 fact be ignored that the economic position of 
 the unmarried mother often drives her on to the 
 streets, while the possibility of keeping her child 
 with her and of giving it proper care is the 
 strongest incentive to her to make a new start 
 in life. It seems therefore to the majority of 
 the Committee to be both desirable and in ac- 
 cordance with recent legislation that unmarried 
 mothers and their children should be included in 
 the scheme of endowment. 
 
 The objection to their inclusion in the scheme 
 rests on the belief that the number of illegitimate 
 children is at present held in check by the women's 
 fear of economic distress; and that the endow- 
 
UNMARRIED MOTHER 55 
 
 ment of the unmarried mother and her child, by 
 weakening this fear, would result in a large in- 
 crease in the number of illegitimate children: 
 some women might even prefer to remain un- 
 married if endowment made it possible for them 
 to maintain children apart from dependence on 
 the father. Even if economic motives were a 
 very important factor in illegitimacy, it may be 
 pointed out that endowment of the unmarried 
 mother on the same terms as the married would 
 not alter their relative economic positions; the 
 endowment, equal for both married and unmar- 
 ried, would not compensate the unmarried mother 
 for the home and other standing charges which 
 a husband's income would provide. The un- 
 married mother would still lack even the ma- 
 terial advantages of an orthodox union, and her 
 position would be relatively undesirable, as it 
 is at present. But in any case it is doubtful 
 whether economic motives have much influence 
 in determining the amount of illegitimacy. In- 
 quiries into the subject show that the number of 
 illegitimate children in any community is mainly 
 determined by the number of unmarried women ; 
 while bad home and working conditions are also 
 of great importance.^ By making marriage pos- 
 sible without the fear of the financial difficulties 
 
 1 See especially P. G. Kammerer's " The Unmarried Mother," 
 Boston, Little Brown, 1918. 
 
S6 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 which having children involves, endowment will 
 tend to increase the number of marriages, espe- 
 cially in the younger age groups, and thus, by 
 decreasing the number of unmarried women, to 
 reduce illegitimacy. The improved standard of 
 living which endowment will bring about will 
 mean a general improvement in home conditions ; 
 and the expected improvement in women's wages 
 will also contribute to the removal of the condi- 
 tions which encourage illegitimacy. Apart from 
 these factors, the majority of the Committee does 
 not believe that the payment of endowment by 
 the State will weaken the general social attitude 
 to the unmarried mother, which will still remain 
 as a deterrent; and this is probably a far more 
 important deterrent than the fear of economic 
 distress. On these grounds therefore the ma- 
 jority of the Committee believes that there is no 
 foundation for the fear that the extension of en- 
 dowment to the unmarried mother would lead 
 to an increase in the number of illegitimate chil- 
 dren. 
 
 As a safeguard, however, it would be desirable 
 to limit the endowment in the case of unmarried 
 mothers to the first child only. This would en- 
 able the mother to discharge adequately her duty 
 to maintain and rear her child, while it would 
 not encourage undesirables to have a succession 
 of children for the sake of the endowment. The 
 
UNMARRIED MOTHER 57 
 
 first child would therefore — for its own sake, 
 for the mother's and for the State's — be left 
 with the mother, who would be responsible for 
 its care on the regular terms of endowment ; while 
 if a mother had more than one illegitimate child, 
 she would be regarded as an unsuitable guardian, 
 and her children would be taken from her and 
 provided for under the care of specially appointed 
 guardians. An exception should however be 
 made in cases where the children were the off- 
 spring of such permanent though non-legal unions 
 as are now recognized by the State in connection 
 with the payment of separation allowances. 
 
 In Norway official guardians of illegitimate 
 children are appointed, one of whose functions is 
 to attempt to establish paternity and to secure 
 from the father a contribution to the support of 
 his child. In view of the fact that the allowances 
 under the scheme of national endowment would 
 not be enough for the unmarried mother and her 
 child living by themselves, it seems desirable that 
 a similar system of guardians should be estab- 
 lished in Great Britain in connection with the 
 scheme of family endowment. These guardians, 
 in addition to ensuring the general welfare of 
 the unmarried mother and her child, would at- 
 tempt to establish paternity and obtain for the 
 mother an additional contribution from the 
 father, which would be based on the father's in- 
 
58 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 come and would represent the contribution which 
 he would have made to his household if the union 
 had been legal. The system has worked well in 
 Norway, and, by bringing home to the father the 
 sense of his responsibility, it is expected to result 
 in a reduction in the number of illegitimate chil- 
 dren. 
 
 The foregoing explains, in outline, the attitude 
 of the majority of the Committee on the question 
 of the treatment of the unmarried mother in con- 
 nection with the scheme of family endowment. 
 
 A minority of the Committee, however, at- 
 taches greater weight to the effect on public opin- 
 ion which would result from the extension of the 
 endowment scheme to the unmarried mother; and 
 the following is a statement of the minority 
 view : — 
 
 In considering this question a distinction should 
 be drawn between more or less permanent though 
 unlegalized unions and those which are merely 
 casual, the result of a passing sexual impulse. 
 Most of the former are really the result of unsat- 
 isfactory laws, which leave the deserted husband 
 who needs a mate and housewife, and the deserted 
 wife who needs a breadwinner for her children, 
 no choice but to go without or to form an irregu- 
 lar union. The inclusion of this class in the 
 scheme would be comparatively innocuous — 
 
UNMARRIED MOTHER 59 
 
 though the need would be better met by a reform 
 in the laws of marriage and divorce. 
 
 The case of the ordinary " chance child " is 
 very different. Undoubtedly if we had merely 
 to consider the interests of already existing chil- 
 dren and their mothers, it would be better to 
 include them. But in framing a permanent na- 
 tional scheme, what we have to consider is how 
 to secure the best sort of " child supply," since 
 it is upon the quality of its citizens — their 
 physical, mental and moral quality, — that the 
 well-being of the community must in the long run 
 mainly depend. 
 
 Now obviously the well-being of a child cannot 
 be ensured merely by giving it a State allowance 
 to cover the minimum cost of physical subsistence. 
 The constitution — physical, mental and moral — 
 that it has inherited from its parents is also a 
 factor in its well-being ; so are the influences which 
 surround it; the kind of family life in which it 
 is brought up. One of the root ideas from which 
 the whole of the present scheme has sprung is 
 the need to foster family life by removing the 
 impediments which now hinder the development 
 of its best possibilities, such as the lack of adjust- 
 ment between the economic resources of the fam- 
 ily and its size. Most people will agree that 
 family life presupposes a husband and a father, 
 
6o ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 or at best the memory and tradition of one. But 
 the illegitimate child is practically fatherless or 
 worse, since the subject of its father is one that it 
 will inevitably be taught to avoid. Nor are its 
 chances of a good inheritance at all equal to those 
 of the legitimate child, since its very existence 
 in most cases testifies to a want either of self- 
 control or of moral principle on the part of both 
 parents. 
 
 Seeing then that the assumption on which the 
 whole scheme is based is that the mother is ren- 
 dering a service of importance to the State and 
 that the State should secure to her the minimum 
 of material well-being necessary to the proper 
 performance of her task, is it not fundamentally 
 inconsistent with this assumption to admit to the 
 benefits of this scheme those mothers who refuse 
 to perform their part in the implied contract by 
 securing to their children the other minimum con- 
 ditions of well-being represented by a stable home 
 and an acknowledged father? Into no other 
 branch of service, whether to the community or 
 to the individual, is the servant allowed to thrust 
 himself without complying with the stipulated 
 conditions of enrollment, and then to claim the 
 same recompense as the properly enrolled. 
 
 Apart from its incongruity the inclusion of the 
 unmarried mother in the scheme seems gravely 
 inexpedient, because of the encouragement it 
 
UNMARRIED MOTHER 6i 
 
 would give to illegitimacy. The majority of the 
 Committee deny this, on the ground that the 
 " general social attitude to the unmarried mother 
 will still remain as a deterrent " and that " her 
 position relatively (to the married) would be 
 undesirable as it is at present." But would this 
 be so? The social attitude towards the unmar- 
 ried mother is the complicated product of a num- 
 ber of considerations, religious, traditionary, 
 economic, and fashionable, and the relative im- 
 portance of these varies with different minds. 
 But upon the whole the British people are law 
 abiding and conventional. The question of what 
 the State forbids or sanctions carries great weight 
 with them; and if it adopts the policy of grant- 
 ing endowment to the first child, though not to 
 subsequent children, public opinion will soon ad- 
 just itself accordingly. 
 
 Possibly the majority have also underrated the 
 strength of the economic motive. An income of 
 17s. 6d. ($4.37) a week for five years may come 
 to be regarded as substantial out of work benefit 
 by girls who dislike industrial employment, or 
 are mentally or physically incompetent, and those 
 who are of lowest caliber and least fit for mother- 
 hood will be the most tempted to qualify for it. 
 The paternity of illegitimate children will be 
 harder than ever to establish, since direct proof is 
 seldom forthcoming and the motive which now 
 
62 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 induces many seducers to own up — pity for their 
 victim's plight — will no longer operate. 
 
 Let us admit, of course, that the present posi- 
 tion of the unmarried mother and her child is 
 intolerable, and let us seek by legislation ^ and 
 organized effort to remedy it — but not as part 
 of a scheme which is essentially constructive, not 
 remedial. That would be like introducing an 
 apothecary's drugs into the menu of a family din- 
 ner. 
 
 1 Compare " Illegitimacy Laws of the United States " com- 
 piled by Ernst Freund, and published by the Children's Bureau 
 of the U. S. Department of Labor, with " Norwegian Laws 
 Concerning Illegitimate Children," published also by U. S. 
 Children's Bureau. — Ed, 
 
ENDOWMENT AND THE FAMILY 
 INCOME 
 
 A flat-rate of endowment or a scale graded in 
 accordance with income? 
 
 It is desirable to explain in some detail a possible 
 method of grading the rates of endowment in 
 order to compensate taxation, and to discuss the 
 general question of whether the rate of endow- 
 ment should be a flat-rate for all classes, or should 
 be graded upwards in accordance with the family 
 income. The primary purpose of graded rates 
 would be to ensure to families with moderately 
 high but not excessive incomes the full benefits 
 of the scheme, in the event of the necessary funds 
 for endowment being raised by a special tax on 
 incomes of all kinds — wages, salaries, profits, 
 etc. If the rates of endowment paid to all fam- 
 ilies were equal — bringing in to the average 
 family receiving endowment, at the rates sug- 
 gested in Part IV. of the report, a total of £55 
 a year — the net yearly gain to each family dur- 
 ing the period of endowment would be this 
 amount, £55, less the amount of the special tax 
 paid on the income. The amount paid in respect 
 
 63 
 
64 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 of this tax would, of course, be higher as the 
 income increased; so that the net benefit from en- 
 dowment would decrease as the income rose. 
 Hence the families with £200 or £500 a year 
 would get less from the scheme than the family 
 whose income was only 20s. or 30s. a week. 
 From many points of view this would appear to 
 be a most undesirable result ; families in the 
 artisan and professional classes with moderate 
 incomes would not receive the full benefits of the 
 scheme, and the social and economic effects of 
 endowment would hardly be felt in those classes. 
 The only standard of living assured to the fam- 
 ily — as opposed to the single man — would be 
 the standard of bare physical subsistence ; at each 
 higher standard of living the position of the 
 family would approximate more closely to that of 
 the single man, and therefore, within the classes 
 with these higher standards of living, the effect 
 of endowment on the birth-rate would be less, 
 there would be less alteration in the social and 
 economic position of women; and, moreover, the 
 presence of children would always drag down the 
 family below the standard of living which was 
 possible for the single man at the same level of 
 income. 
 
 It is, of course, impossible to lay down any 
 definite criteria to determine the relative merits 
 of standards of living, but while it is true that 
 
THE FAMILY INCOME 65 
 
 much of the family expenditure in the wealthy 
 classes is artificial and unnecessary, it cannot rea- 
 sonably be disputed that, broadly speaking, and 
 up to a certain limit, the standards of living are 
 higher — that is, more desirable from the point 
 of view of the rearing of children — in propor- 
 tion to the family income. The point at which 
 this ceases to be true — the income beyond which 
 additional family expenditure is really artificial 
 and undesirable — is difficult to determine; but 
 there will probably be a general agreement that 
 it does not lie below incomes of £700 a year. 
 
 It seems therefore to be desirable that all fam- 
 ilies whose incomes do not exceed £700 a year 
 should receive the full benefit of the endowment 
 scheme; if the average family with 30s. a week 
 receives a net gain from endowment of £50 or 
 £52 a year, the average family with £250, £500 
 or £700 a year should be given an equal net 
 gain of £50 or £52 a year — no more but also 
 no less than the net gain of the family with 30s. 
 a week. 
 
 The method of graded benefits is designed to 
 secure this equality in the incidence of the scheme, 
 by adjusting the endowment paid to the family 
 in accordance with the special taxation paid by 
 the family, in such a way that the net gain (en- 
 dowment received less tax paid) is the same for 
 all families whose incomes do not exceed £700 
 
66 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 a year. It is not suggested that this equality 
 should apply in the case of families with incomes 
 of over £700 a year ; that is to say, families with 
 incomes of £1,000 or £10,000 a year would re- 
 ceive endowment only at the rates fixed for fam- 
 ilies with £700 a year, though they paid far more 
 in taxation. 
 
 In order to illustrate the exact nature and 
 working of a graded scheme of endowment such 
 as has been suggested several tables are given 
 below. The total number of persons to be en- 
 dowed (according to an estimate explained in 
 Part V. of the Report) is approximately: — 
 
 2,655,000 mothers each year. 
 2,655,000 " first " children each year. 
 2,015,000 " other " children each year. 
 
 The following table I shows the estimated dis- 
 tribution of these into classes according to family 
 income : — 
 
 Table I 
 
 Index letter 
 
 Annual of class — 
 
 Number 
 
 of endowed persons 
 
 family used in 
 
 in each class yearly. 
 
 income. later tables. 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 ist children. Other. 
 
 Under £130 A 
 
 2,166,480 
 
 2,166,48b 1,644,240 
 
 €130 — £160 B 
 
 146,025 
 
 146,025 110,825 
 
 £160 — £200 C 
 
 114,165 
 
 114,165 86,645 
 
 £200 — ■ £300 D 
 
 69,030 
 
 69,030 52,390 
 
 £300 — £400 E 
 
 39.825 
 
 39,825 30,225 
 
 £400 — £500 F 
 
 23,895 
 
 23.895 18,135 
 
 £500 — £600 G 
 
 15.930 
 
 15,930 12,090 
 
 £600 — £700 H 
 
 7,965 
 
 7,965 6,045 
 
 £700 and over I 
 
 71.685 
 
 71,685 54.405 
 
THE FAMILY INCOME 67 
 
 The following table II shows how these fig- 
 ures are arrived at; the number of income-tax 
 payers in each class is based on the 19 16 Report 
 of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue as far 
 as possible, though in some cases an arbitrary 
 subdivision is necessary; and the number of tax- 
 payers in Class I is based on a calculation adopted 
 by Chiozza Money in " Riches and Poverty." 
 
 The first column shows the class of income — 
 the index letter refers to Table I. The second 
 column shows the number of income-tax payers in 
 each class. This number multiplied by five (to 
 allow for dependants) gives the total number of 
 persons in that class. The total number of per- 
 sons in each class is then taken (in the last 
 column) as a proportion of the population; and it 
 is assumed that the mothers and children are 
 distributed in that proportion. 
 
 
 Table II 
 
 Proportion 
 
 Index letter 
 
 Number of Income Total number 
 
 to total 
 
 of class. 
 
 Taxpayers. in class. 
 
 population. 
 
 I 
 
 250,000 1,250,000 
 
 .027 
 
 H 
 
 31,500 157.500 
 
 .003 
 
 G 
 
 49,500 247,500 
 
 .006 
 
 F 
 
 80,000 400,000 
 
 .009 
 
 E 
 
 140,000 700,000 
 
 .015 
 
 D 
 
 240,000 1,200,000 
 
 .026 
 
 C 
 
 400,000 2,000,000 
 
 .043 
 
 B 
 
 500,000 2,500,000 
 
 .055 
 
 A 
 
 (balance) 37,545,000 
 
 .816 
 
68 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 If the special income tax for endowment pur- 
 poses were at the rate of 7J4 per cent, all around 
 — which would provide the necessary total, as 
 shown in Table V — the graded rates of endow- 
 ment required to compensate for taxation up to 
 incomes of £700 a year would be as in Table III 
 for the average family of mother and two children 
 receiving endowment. 
 
 
 Table III 
 
 
 
 iClass of 
 
 Annual family 
 
 Weekly 
 
 rate of endowment. 
 
 income. 
 
 income of 
 
 Mother. 
 
 ist child. 
 
 Others 
 
 A 
 
 under £130 
 
 12/6 
 
 5/- 
 
 3/6 
 
 B 
 
 £130 — ^£160 
 
 13/6 
 
 6/- 
 
 4/- 
 
 C 
 
 £160 — £200 
 
 14/- 
 
 6/6 
 
 4/- 
 
 D 
 
 £200 — £300 
 
 15/- 
 
 7/- 
 
 4/6 
 
 E 
 
 £300 — £400 
 
 16/- 
 
 V- 
 
 5/6 
 
 F 
 
 £400 — £500 
 
 17/- 
 
 9/- 
 
 6/3 
 
 G 
 
 £500 — £600 
 
 18/- 
 
 10/- 
 
 7/- 
 
 H 
 
 £600 — £700 
 
 19/- 
 
 11/- 
 
 8/- 
 
 I 
 
 £700 and over 
 
 20/- 
 
 11/6 
 
 8/- 
 
 Table IV shows that these rates exactly com- 
 pensate the average family for the extra taxation 
 paid (the calculation is based on the mean in- 
 come in each of the higher classes), so that en- 
 dowment received less taxation paid gives to each 
 family an equal net gain of £50 a year. 
 
THE FAMILY INCOME 69 
 
 
 Table IV 
 
 
 
 
 Pays in tax 
 
 Receives 
 
 
 Class of 
 
 Family with at 7% 
 
 in ] 
 
 ^et annual 
 
 income. 
 
 income of per cent. 
 
 endowment 
 
 . gains. 
 
 
 £ £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 A 
 
 78 5 
 
 55 
 
 50 
 
 B 
 
 14s II 
 
 61 
 
 50 
 
 C 
 
 180 13 
 
 63 
 
 50 
 
 D 
 
 250 19 
 
 69 
 
 50 
 
 E 
 
 350 26 
 
 76 
 
 50 
 
 F 
 
 450 34 
 
 84 
 
 50 
 
 G 
 
 550 41 
 
 91 
 
 50 
 
 H 
 
 650 49 
 
 99 
 
 50 
 
 I 
 
 700 52 
 
 102 
 
 50 
 
 
 1,000 75 
 
 102 
 
 27 
 
 
 1,400 105 
 
 102 , 
 
 loss 3 
 
 Table V shows the effect of this scheme on 
 each class — the amount raised from the class in 
 taxation, and the amount drawn by the class in 
 endowment. The total incomes of the classes B 
 to I (the classes now paying income tax) are 
 based on the Inland Revenue Commissioners' 
 Report for 1916— 17; the total national income 
 of £2,135,000,000 is an under-estimate for pres- 
 ent conditions — the latest estimate being £3,000,- 
 000,000 — but it is at any rate a safe estimate 
 for the national income after the war, and it is 
 even possible that lower rates of taxation might 
 produce the required amount. 
 
70 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 Table V 
 
 
 Total annual 
 
 Amount raised 
 
 Class of 
 
 income of each 
 
 by 7% per 
 
 income. 
 
 class. 
 
 cent. tax. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 A 
 
 1,024,000,000 
 
 76,800,000 
 
 B 
 
 72,000,000 
 
 5,400,000 
 
 C 
 
 75,000,000 
 
 5,625,000 
 
 D 
 
 63,000,000 
 
 4,725,000 
 
 E 
 
 52,000,000 
 
 3,900,000 
 
 F 
 
 41,000,000 
 
 3,075,000 
 
 G 
 
 31,000,000 
 
 2,325,000 
 
 H 
 
 23,000,000 
 
 1,725,000 
 
 I 
 
 754,000,000 
 
 56,550,000 
 
 Amount drawn 
 by each class 
 in endowment 
 £ 
 
 113,356,000 
 8,600,000 
 7,012,100 
 4,605,000 
 3,047,000 
 1,950,000 
 1,414,000 
 777,000 
 7,201,000 
 
 2,135,000,000 160,000,000 148,000,000 
 
 The schedule of graded rates in Table III 
 (and therefore Tables IV and V) is based on 
 the assumption of a special tax at the flat rate 
 of 7J4 per cent, on all incomes. It seems de- 
 sirable to add an alternative schedule of graded 
 rates of endowment based on an alternative 
 scheme of taxation with a moderately graduated 
 rate, e.g., 
 
 5 per cent, tax on incomes below £130 (class A). 
 6j4 per cent, tax on incomes from £i30-£i6o 
 
 (class B). 
 7^ per cent, tax on incomes from £i6o-£700 
 
 (classes C-H). 
 
 1 Costs of administration and allowances during pregnancy 
 not included. 
 
THE FAMILY INCOME 71 
 
 10 per cent, tax on incomes of over £700 (class I) . 
 The compensating rates of endowment for 
 these rates of tax are 
 
 
 Table VT 
 
 
 {cf. Table III.) 
 
 CTass of 
 
 Weekly rate of endowment. 
 
 income. 
 
 Mother. ist child. Others. 
 
 A 
 
 12/6 5/- 3/6 
 
 B 
 
 13/6 6/- 4/- 
 
 C 
 
 14/- 6/6 4/6 
 
 D 
 
 15/- 7/- 5/- 
 
 E 
 
 16/- 8/- 5/6 
 
 F 
 
 17/- 9/3 6/3 
 
 G 
 
 18/- 10/3 7/6 
 
 H 
 
 19/- I 1/3 8/9 
 
 I 
 
 21/- 14/- 12/- 
 
 Table VII shows the net result, for the av- 
 erage family, of these rates of tax and endow- 
 ment — Table VIII shows the result for each 
 class. 
 
 Table VII 
 
 {cf. Table IV.) 
 Family with Pays in tax. Receive en- Net 
 
 Class of 
 
 income of Rate 
 
 Amount. 
 
 dowment. gain 
 
 income. 
 
 £ per cent 
 
 £ 
 
 £ £ 
 
 A 
 
 78 5 
 
 3 
 
 55 52 
 
 B 
 
 145 6y4 
 
 9 
 
 61 52 
 
 C 
 
 180 7y2 
 
 13 
 
 65 52 
 
 D 
 
 250 7y2 
 
 19 
 
 71 52 
 
 E 
 
 350 7y2 
 
 26 
 
 78 52 
 
 F 
 
 450 7y2 
 
 34 
 
 86 52 
 
 G 
 
 550 7y2 
 
 41 
 
 93 52 
 
 H 
 
 650 7y2 
 
 49 
 
 loi 52 
 
 I 
 
 700 10 
 
 70 
 
 122 52 
 
 
 1,000 10 
 
 100 
 
 122 22 
 
 
 1,250 10 
 
 125 
 
 122 loss 3 
 
72 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 
 
 Table VIII 
 
 
 
 
 {cf. Table V.) 
 
 
 
 Total income 
 
 Raised by tax. Amount drawn by 
 
 
 of class. 
 
 Rate 
 
 Amount, class in endowment. 
 
 Class. 
 
 £ 
 
 per cent 
 
 :. £ 
 
 £, 
 
 A 
 
 1,024,000,000 
 
 5 
 
 51,200,000 
 
 113,536,000 
 
 B 
 
 72,000,000 
 
 6I/4 
 
 4,500,000 
 
 8,601,000 
 
 C 
 
 75,000,000 
 
 71/2 
 
 5,625,000 
 
 7,123,000 
 
 D 
 
 63,000,000 
 
 1V2 
 
 4,725,000 
 
 4,673,000 
 
 E 
 
 52,000,000 
 
 71/2 
 
 3,900,000 
 
 3,099.000 
 
 F 
 
 41,000,000 
 
 7y2 
 
 3,075,000 
 
 1,965,000 
 
 G 
 
 31,000,000 
 
 71/2 
 
 2,325,000 
 
 1,439,000 
 
 H 
 
 23,000,000 
 
 7y2 
 
 1,725,000 
 
 794,000 
 
 I 
 
 754,000,000 
 
 10 
 
 75,400,000 
 
 8,221,000 
 
 
 2,135,000,000 
 
 152,000,000 
 
 149,000,000 
 
 The working of graded rates has been ex- 
 plained at some length in order to bring out the 
 importance of giving full consideration to the 
 effect which a scheme of endowment would have 
 on families at different levels of income. If the 
 funds which are necessary for endowment are 
 raised by a special tax on incomes of all kinds, 
 it seems essential, from one point of view, that 
 families with moderately high incomes, ranging 
 say from £130 to £700 a year, should secure net 
 benefits equal to those secured by families with 
 incomes of 30s. a week — and graded rates of 
 endowment seem to be the most effective means 
 of securing equal treatment for all families within 
 the classes of income selected. 
 
 On the other hand, however, it may be held that 
 
THE FAMILY INCOME 73 
 
 a special tax on incomes is not essential to the 
 scheme of endowment, and on this ground it would 
 appear that graded rates of endowment are not 
 a necessary part of the scheme. In part V. of 
 the Report it is suggested that the question of 
 raising the funds cannot be considered apart from 
 the general question of State finance, and possible 
 sources of revenue, other than a special income 
 tax, are indicated. If these other ways of rais- 
 ing the funds were adopted, the question of 
 graded rates would not arise in an acute form. 
 
 There are, however, other points to be consid- 
 ered in this connection. The scheme of family 
 endowment, as a whole, aims at relieving the in- 
 dividual parents of the main extra charges which 
 having a family involves. The flat rates of en- 
 dowment proposed in Part IV. of this Report 
 are 12s. 6d. a week for the mother, with 5s. and 
 3s. 6d. for the first and subsequent children — 
 a total, for mother and two children, of £55 a 
 year. These rates probably represent, though 
 not too generously, the main extra charges of a 
 family at bare physical subsistence level. But 
 they cannot be taken to cover the main extra 
 charges which having a family involves at stand- 
 ards of living which are above the level of 
 physical subsistence. Yet, if the assistance which 
 endowment brings to families at moderately high 
 levels of income — from £130 to £700 — does 
 
74 ENDOWMENT OF MOTHERHOOD 
 
 not cover these main extra charges, the full social 
 and economic effects of the scheme will not be 
 felt in the artisan and less highly paid professional 
 classes. 
 
 It is perhaps necessary to explain, in order to 
 avoid misunderstanding, that the important point 
 is that, within each class of income, the man with 
 a family should not be in a worse position finan- 
 cially, because he has a family, than the single 
 man in that class. A scheme of graded rates 
 (say as in Table VI) would give the family with 
 30s. a week £55 more than the single man with 
 that wage; it would give the family with £250 
 a year £71 a year more than the single man at 
 that level of income; and at the level of £650 
 income, the family would have £101 more than 
 the single man. This increasing differentiation 
 between the single man and the family at each 
 higher standard of living is obviously of great 
 importance both for the effect in encouraging fam- 
 ilies and in making it possible for women to claim 
 the same rates of pay as men in those classes of 
 income. At the same time, it would secure to the 
 mother a more equitable proportion of the fam- 
 ily income. 
 
 On the other hand, from another point of view, 
 which is strongly held by the majority of the 
 ■Committee, the fundamental equality of the work 
 of the mother, and in the needs and potential 
 
THE FAMILY INCOME 75 
 
 value to the State of the children, makes any- 
 thing but a flat rate of endowment essentially 
 unjust; special provision for families at certain 
 levels of income would involve a recognition by 
 the State of existing class differences that are 
 based on income, and such recognition would be 
 not only wrong in principle, but also impossible 
 to carry through as a measure of practical poli- 
 tics. From this point of view, it would be better 
 to weaken the social and economic effects of en- 
 dowment at the levels of income suggested, rather 
 than to secure the full effects of endowment at 
 these levels at the cost of crystallizing and per- 
 petuating existing class differences. 
 
NOTE 
 
 [from the BRITISH EDITION] 
 
 The authors of this volume will welcome cor- 
 respondence from those who are in sympathy with 
 the proposal for the National Endowment of 
 Motherhood. The Committee, which was 
 formed with the primary purpose of investigat- 
 ing the subject, now desires to extend its activi- 
 ties, and to get into touch with organizations or 
 individuals who are prepared to support the 
 scheme. Communications should be addressed 
 to Mrs. Bums, 34, Downshire Hill, London, 
 N.W.3. 
 
 76 
 
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