RECONSTRUCTIVE PROBLEMS OF PEACE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 254, 22 July 1919, Page 3

RECONSTRUCTIVE PROBLEMS OF PEACE

PENSIONS FOU MOTHERS,

(By Laura Bunting.)

With tho end of tlw war, even with the signing of the Armistice, there were peopw who wero rather inclined to thins tha<; what has been so lagueiy and so euphemistically described as the iNew lira!" would begin almost at once. l/itiills the war there was much talk oi an altogether different .world that would reshape ifcel-i' from tho ruins of ihe old, of a new spirit that would regenerate humanity, and because they see so much of the old unregeneriite Adam still siu'viving, still scrambling around both in the individual and in tne nation, for his own particular gain, people eye apt to feel bitterly disappointed, ft is well to remember, however, that ill tho stress and storm that wo havo yet to face, a violenco of thought awl action that are bill: little less alarming limn .Ihe war itself —a simple law of nature is being fulfilled. That law was recently defined by a writer iu a magazine as follows:— "When, you have nations keyed to ■ the utmost pitch of endeavour and emotion during war, its pent-up energies cannot be suddenly .shut off because cf a sudden cessation of hostilities. The impetuses stui there, and being there it must 6tul carry onward the people in whom it has been ; generated just as when a aau has been 'exerting himself against an obstacle, and that obstacle is removed he rushes onward impelled by the unexpended residuum of his effort. And because we finished the war wi.h this residuum of unexpended force it has had to find obstacles upon which to expend itself, ana industrial conditions, to say nothing of social conditions, not being what they niisht be we are confronted with the spectacle of upheavals of all Kinds. Obviously, what we have to do is to see that this huge and valuable force w put, into constructive channels, although a certain amount surely must be expended upon destructive w-oi'k where inherently vicious systems havo been allowed to override the welfare of the people as a whole." . We have been told Eery often that the problems of reconstruction that are confronting us will fa* tho utmost powers of the nation, and we have to remember that the nation includes every man and woman belonging to it. So fur one is inclin'ed to think thnt one tears more of fox-trots than of anything else so far as quite a number of women ore concerned, and yet with women lies a great deal of power for the readjustment of conditions, and the bui'lding up of better ones. Even if women narrowed down their energies in reconstructive ivork to matters that bear upon the \yelfaro of women and children in general they vould still find very wide fields for their activities because in these days the v.alls of the home havo widenod ar.d it is realised that all phases of public life react upon the home. What affects one section of the community ultimately affects the whole, and in short wo are in a very real sense our brother's keeper. If children are to get the. right conditions for their development, if women's-infui cats ore to receive the consideration to which they urn entitled, then ivomon must be represented in every phase of our national and civic life because every pnaso reads upon them. Child welfare is going to occupy a very important place in our scheme of national life, and one has only to think of it for a- few moments to. realise howinterlaced it is wi'h various aspects of the community life. And yet that is only one thing-that is essentially women's work. There are others that ore equally interlaced •with our national well-being. Of late somo women have been actively interesting themselves in housing, in cli Wren's playgrounds, in women sanitary inspectors, in ivonien health patrols, in social hygiene, in the matter of supplying domestic help for mothers who had begun to think it.iis fabled as Aladdin's wonderful Lamp. In other quarters different voices are urging pensions for mothers, one of the most far-reaching schemes for lightening the lot of -women ■ that has yet seen the light of day, and j one which would seem to be the key to j various other reforms for women. One has only to look arouud to see how mothers of families are penalised, j and yet without them the Slate would cease to exist. At Ihe risk of her life i the motelir gives units lo the Slate; ?he toils for thorn, she stints for them, does ■ her best to have thnn ,i»ven a good education] Unless her husband is in a good salaried position there is always the\ spectre of poverty, of sickness, of want facing her, and if her husband should bi taken from' her 'that spectre takes a very definite and menacing form. Is there no duty that the State owes to that motliw for giving it one or more units of productive power, a rield for further taxes, for future revenue? Economic security is a-s.liecessw.y, for the woman in the home as it is for the woman in industry. Should her husband drink, should he'gamble, be out of work, be ivl, or abscond, as h<s sometimes does, what happens to the poor mother? It is inconceivable to think/that the State does not owe a duty to heir, and lo recognise her services is but. a measure of much retarded justice. With on assured income, the mother would be placed in a better position to givo timo t.nd attention to her children, to have them better educated, better cared for. In theory, the principle is conceded by civilised nations of the right to live irrespective of services rendered. In the American Declaration of Independence the Eight to Live and the Eight of Liberty were 6pokcn of as two iniilioiittblo rights of man. In actual' practice thoy are sometimes obscured. In regard to the former, a pension for mothers would do to secure that right both for herself and her children, and, moreover, the right to a pension should bo urged upon the Government by every woman _ and every iuan throughout the Dominion, riiat money is there is evident from the scheme for ' Territorial training for lads of eighteen proposed by the Minister for Defence, and with the closing of a colossal and most devastating war, fought, so wo were told, to end war, it is but right that women should now be thought of, especially the mothers of the nation. It tho Governments of the world are not heartsick and "weary ot militarism, the I peoplo are, especially the women.