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WOMAN'S HARD LOT.
Need for Reform Uiu^ed.
• Thtfce is no getting avray from the
tact that the mothers of several sons, ou
n bich the Very existence ot the State d>
peiiclB, work exceedmglj- hard-under bud
leconomie conditions, but their labor^dceives
nojnore recogiiiiition than did wait
of idle .<&l&veS"m Vusinia on the forties."
So yrote Br. Wray in the "Westminster.
Gazette." • .
It'/t; quate true, and as several sons
are now hkeiy to be considered more deeisattle/than
ever, thd condition is one
which we must remedy as- quickly as
possible, ' especially as ilr. WtaLy's discovery
is 3>eginiMig to dawn u^nm the
mothers theaneJlves <-wiites Ernestine
iCOls ln the same sournal).
- It -aias only been revealed to tlie com
mnnity since the war began that women's
tiin^ may be of value, and that the
nation will be poorer- if the .energy of
onr.jreamwi continues to be squandiered
« unproductive and unnecessary T\ork
In that^hbotgainised and exhausted combination
of trades—that of the working
wlfei-juad- mother. •
- Ottty since tiie National Insurance Act
ca&te into operation have we leaiisti
Ut^jB^idting .amount of [preventable ill
sess among our working elaee mothers.
SVfe ID&W know that the sickness rati
^mong.poor married women for exceeds:
cur ^attnarial esHmate. These women
«Te iMSnltely proved to libve been badly
j iMSrifaea. badly fed. and overworked.
Thru*-or four of us are less fit to serve
v-ur country tiian we ought ro luive been.
It is not the window-cleaning g-rl, with
a ladder on her shoulder, who goes singing
to work, who suffers m health. Does
she realise, we often wonder, what
it
means to women that her dress, so sen
s.:ble
and
well adapted to her
work,
which would have
caused
her to lie
mobbed
and subjected to
gross
ibsuii
l;ad she appeared iu it before the war,
now does not even provoke a jeer from
the smallest errand boyThe
ouin-lius
conductresses,
about
whose health
so
much anxiety was shown
(by the
met
they replaced) have thriven so vrcfll on
their outdoor life that it is sa T d all theii 1
uniforms need enlarging: after the- firsi
few months of work.
Tit?- smart youiij;
woman who clips your ticket at the railway
station gets a good salary, and looks
more blooming: every day, nor are tlif
hefty land gi'rls fading under the slra'ii
of agricultural work, nor the
hundreds
of wom'in who drive motor ears, o? look
down on us from the box seats of hfeh
bakers* carts.
These
women
are an
working hard, hut not
for
unlimited
hours, and th'Jy are all .well fed.
But come with us to a streit in North
Kensington—there are dozens like it in
almost every district.
It is a dreary
sti««t, depivtssingly ugly and monoton-j
ous, out outwardly respectable.
Every
house is let out in floors or rooms to at
least live or six
fa.um.es.
Originally
built for one family, and in days when
sanitation was more primitive than now
(there is no water -supply and no lavatory
accommodation on any except
the
ground
floor,
.Many ot these houses are
infested with vermin, wh eh no amount
of cleaning wtll destroy, the fault lying
ia the construction or the rotting jwatus
ccts, which harbor colonies which are the
grottUi of years.
Ooine up to a typical
third-floor front, and speak to this pale
woman, recently risen
from
childbed,
who has just toiled up and down thr.i'
flights
of stairs for water for her baby's
bath.
The room serves for sleeping and
living, the baby's washing lies in a heap
on the floor, waiting for more, water to
bii fetched. T>wo little boys come noisily
in, clamoring for their dinner, their boots
making dark tracks upon the floor, which
the mother has apparently been making
a feeble attempt to scrub.
The
baby,
who has btien awake most of the ntght,
hot and restless in that stuffy room, now
raises her lusty voice.
Observe that it
is a bonny babe, and has still
a lusrty
voice.
A few months will pass, and the
note will chaiige to a sickly, fretful wail,
and t'hiJ mother wdH carry it wearily to
the nearest
"School for. Mothers"
and
ask for medicine for her wasting
babe.
And earnest philanthropic ladies and an
overworked doctor wi ll recommsfaa fresh
air and milk lor both o c
thesn.
And
neither of them will ever get enough of
eitbei.
What
the 6(4w world going to do
for these women.?
Are the
returned
heroes and the nefw voters
to
accept
tl*3se conditions?
Women
all
want
homes, most of them want
babies—why
can't we make things clean and healthy
for them?
. Women do "not, »
i. mle,
fear
risks
and- responsibilities,
healthy
wont: to do not think
of the
pains of
childbirth.
But they are
beginning—
the most intelligent among them
began
long ago—to consider what chance of survival
and healthy development there is
going to be for the babies that even tbt 1 i
weakest and
weaiidst of
them
cherish
with the strongest instinct of the/mother
woman.
They are at last beginning to
rebel against'the terrlbli? and
nnneces
sary -waste of health and of everything
that makes Btfd worth
living
through
primitive and unprogreeerve methods of
hoosrag and housekeeping.
.
.
When this war is finished; let ne begin
a new one—at home.
Let us turn
to
demolishing twr plum^, to repoptflating
onr ooiintryside.
to
reorganising
bom?
indnstries and domestic work.
A <Aeet
Cut Testaurant should-be as common a^
n pnb>e bouse. A commtmal
teimaiy
as
necessary as road cleaning." Homch must
be -made -places rot rest and happiness for
both men and women
they
mnet
no
longer be 1dteh*its where woking, -wash
ilia- and other influFtrieg are carried on
badlr by ovorworked mothers.
Women
must leaicn to W?t cotlpftivpSy and to nso
their pnormonet and anseifiBh energies not
onlv for the benefit of their mm faml
iMs but for the large family, thf
"f"
Tntlrfty.
We shall be-too poor to Jet the
t>M -conditions con tin ne. both in*o
and
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