Omaha daily bee., 1920-02-01
Mothers Strike" Feared
In England; No Children
If Living Cost Continues
Man With II Children Says He Cannot Afford Ex-
pense-Wonder That Asylums Are Not Full OF
Children of the Poor-Speakers Advocating
Large Families Would Be Mobbed.

we should be lett in debt. 1t means
worry and pinching and scraping.
! We feel at times that there can be
no question of such things as holi.
days and recreation-nothing but
nerve-weakening anxieties in the
face of the seeming impossibility OF
making adequate provision for our
selves and our children. We remem-
Der, then, that there are others with
even greater anxieties than we have
and less money to meet them with.
Cheap, Sentimental Twaddle."
Itall goes to make one develop a
big spirit of resentment against
those public men who preach that
the population Of the country must
be increased to make good the short
ages brought about by the war, and
who, at the same time, express moth
ing but cheap, sentimental twaddle,
when they would be better occupied
in providing material satisfaction for
those already responsible for rear
ing children by securing for them
sopething like adequate means to
bring up family properly.
These people definitely preach
that we must have increases in our
population and they promote min
istry( of health, which means to be
like the placing of very expensive
oil painting bearing the growing
ideal of an artist, around which are
gathered children insuficiently fed
iilsufhciently clothed and who are
left there by the authorities with abb
solute lack of proper provision and
without any real effort to deal with
the problem of the children. 1t is
CALLING.
Women Would Mob Them.
If these people were to 60 around
holding public meetings advocating
their views before the mothers of
the country they would be mobbed.
The many women who have to do
ther best to keep life in their chill
dren by buying them penny cubes
OF some meat extract and by some
special favor obtain bones from the
butcher for. soup are in no mood to
add indefinitely to their present
crushing anxieties. ~
Many of these mothers and ia
theirs have TO sacrifice their own
means to provide food for their
children.
There is growing over the country
today woman's movement which
may be called a mother strike. And
who can blame these women? 1t is
really condition of things more
serious than any epidemic could
ever be.
The women of England have
come definitely to decline to ac-
cept the responsibility of bearing
children unless and until the state
or society at large gives definite as
surances that the mother will be ex-
alted and lifted to the higher PIN
nacle which she deserves to oc-
cupy.
Fathers and mothers of families
are not only harassed by the enor-
mously increased cost of living, but
they are hunted from the houses
they occupy and are refused ad-
mittance into others because their
children are nuisance!
Mothers Hold Winning Cards.
The mother strike" will continue
until mothers are afforded more pro-
lection than they now receive from
those. in authority and in a position
to provide such protection.
In my view, mothers should re-
ceive guarantee of minimum
pension of 10 shilling a week for
each child under the age of H.
There should be local boards un-
der the health ministry, with powers
to increase the grant up to one
pound a week, or more in special
cases.
Until that time arrives it will not
be advisable for public men to face
the women of England and urge in
creased population.