adopre ve e ade Salt & does suggestion is, however, that the sum required should raised from industry. Employers, who would find the wages-bill considerably diminished when the standa wage was based upon the needs of a couple rather th upon those of a family, could afford to pay either percentage upon wages, or a tax per head of th employees, which would provide the necessary pool the family allowances. The plan which has actually be worked upon the continent is the provision of a pool employers, who themselves pay the children's allowand which are, however, upon a modest scale. Both th schemes throw the burden upon industry, and not up the community as a whole. The Labour organisati object very strongly to the payment of allowances the employers, and demand that they should be p by the State, a method which would have the adv tage of uniformity. On the other hand, it would m the addition to the initial cost of a sum, probably e siderable, for collection and distribution. Again, i at least possible that the beneficiaries might tend press for an increase in the scale of the allowances, w the employers demanded a diminution of the tax. would be very difficult to avoid the tendency to spr the burden over the whole community. Whenever times came, as they must come, there would be a tem tion for industry to shift the burden of maintaining race on to the general body of taxpayers, to say the weight was more than it could bear. Children have allowances whether their parents are employed not, and a gap might easily arise between the payme made to parents in respect of the numbers of t children, and the payments made by employers in res of the numbers of their employees. Anstr allo ders der the em o the of t Cont On the other hand, quite apart from the str Labour objections to the payment of family all from a pool controlled and administered employers, there are very obvious difficulties al that method. In the first place, a piece-meal atte might have perplexing results. Suppose, for exam the plan was tried by some industries, and not others, or, as is often suggested, by public bodies not by private employers. We might have not the ordinary difficulties as to transfers, and the like, o possibly a high marriage and birth rate among such the employees to whose standard of comfort the owances corresponded, and an inclination among single childless men with a high standard of comfort to k employment outside the industries worked upon new methods, where they could still get a wage ed upon the needs not of a couple but of a family. large number of children in the allowance-paying ustries, and a small number in the others, might lead very upsetting results, while one existing difficulty, over-payment of the man with but a few dependents, with none, would still remain in those industries ich had not adopted the new methods. In any event process of introduction, whether in all industries or in would involve extremely complicated wage negotians, in each trade, a process which in view of recent nts it is difficult to contemplate with equanimity. What light does the experience of other countries ow upon the problem? A modest experiment has m tried in Australia, where after much discussion of ger schemes allowances of five shillings weekly are d in respect of the children of federal employees. In ince the plan has been in existence for some years, l the scope has very much increased. In 1916 a firm iron founders in Grenoble began to pay children's wances to its workers. Three years later the scheme adopted by other firms in the same area, and the l Ironfounders' Association established a special fund of which the children's allowances were paid, and to ich each member of the Association contributed in portion to the amount of his wages bill. Upon this del most of the later schemes have been based. In ember 1922, the insertion in tenders of a clause reing the contractors for public works to pay family wances was made permissible, and eighteen months r the insertion of such a clause was made compulsory orms of contract for Government works. Meanwhile, ily allowance schemes had been adopted by numbers mportant industries, and by 1924 there were said to ome 900,000 workers in receipt of family allowances. character of the compensation pools varies slightly. e are based upon locality, some upon the industry. loyers pay sometimes in respect of their wage-bill, sometimes in respect of the number of their employee The scale of allowances also varies, but is in any ca rather in the nature of a bonus to large families than sum sufficient to maintain the children. The commone scale is said to be* 15 francs a month for one child, 35 two, 60 for three, and 30 a month for each succeedi child. TO Belgium, so near a neighbour, even if she had desired to try the experiment, would have been for to do so in self-defence, and it is said that about 18 cent. of the workers employed in private industry Belgium are included under family allowance schemine The system has been adopted by the whole of the coh mining industry, and the plate-glass industry, as well by large numbers of the firms in other industr Holland also has schemes, as has Austria, Germany, Czecho-Slovakia. Other continental countries are eit be initiating or contemplating the introduction of so in sort of family allowance plans. A study of the continental schemes seems to makemis clear that their underlying motive is neither to equat the the earnings of men and women, nor to diminish burden upon industry, but rather the desire ofere employer to ensure an adequate and stable labour suppat and of the State to encourage the growth of populathe n The scales usually increase in amount for each succession child, whereas every mother knows that the first cible is the most expensive. We do not (at present) in tower country suffer from an insufficient supply of labour: ht difficulties are rather those of finding employment for workers, or arriving at any wages agreement which bir satisfy the standard of life of the workers on the hand, and bear any sensible relation to the cost of thi labour, measured in terms of the price obtainable for products of their labour, on the other. The details the various plans suggest many difficulties. The labete organisations dislike the prevalent method of the Pre ment of allowances by employers, while the employ resist a State scheme on the ground (among others) te it would enormously increase the costs of administratie Nor is it easy to estimate the results. It is claimed th * Ministry of Labour Gazette, January 1924. are med allowances have resulted in a fall of the infant ath-rate; but we in England have enormously reduced r infant mortality rate without any system of allowces. It is difficult to estimate the effect of the allowces upon the rate of wages. They have been paid, her as a cost-of-living bonus in addition to the linary wage, than as a means of introducing a new tem of wages which bears close relation to the exases of maintaining the worker and the race. It is, wever, possible to argue that if it had not been for allowances there might have been a greater increase the rate of wages, and that the existence of the owances means that the amount which would in any se have been added to the wages bill has been disbuted in a manner more calculated to increase the ciency of the worker and the health of the children an if it had been paid upon the ordinary basis to wage earners irrespective of the number of their pendents. To the economist and the sociologist the experiments actually of the greatest possible interest. To the actical politician in this country, however, it seems ficult to argue very much, so far, from the experience the continent. France is obsessed by her falling th-rate, by the need for an increased population. The onomic conditions in Central Europe are such as to ke it impossible to reason from them to ourselves. We can, however, speculate upon general principles. is clear that any such development needs careful inking out. What effect would family allowances ve upon the birth-rate? Would they lead to a change the number, or in the distribution of births, or in th? And what results do we wish? Are we anxious see an increased, a stable, or a smaller population an we have at present? Do we wish to check or to ninish the rate of increase? Whatever our views upon antity, we are probably agreed in wishing to improve quality. We desire not only to make the best of the ople who are now in existence, but, if it be possible, improve the quality of those who are to be born, and ensure for them the possession of the best parents. e are warned that our present stage of social developnt has led to a real danger, that we tend to recruit our population largely from the least desirable stocki whether from the point of view of mind or of characte and that we discourage the parenthood of the best stockin As things are now, those with most ability tend to ri in the social scale, those with less to fall. Those We rise tend to have few or no children, so that the popul tion as a whole is steadily, though perhaps not rapid undergoing a process of deterioration. The more co plete is the carrière ouverte aux talents, the worse for t race, unless those who rise in the social scale marry ar have many children, as in point of fact they do n The very desire to improve their position tends to let to late marriages and small families. t e of E& Ter people der C econo comie ber. eng ahim tha What effect would family endowment have upon tendency? Clearly much would depend upon the sc of the allowances. Probably, however, their exister. would produce little or no effect upon the lowest secti of the community, those who tend to marry and produce children without regard to economic conditio The high birth-rate which already exists among the classes would probably remain unaffected. The questi would be the influence of the allowances upon the heal of the children. It is possible that an improveme might result, although the argument from the u doubtedly good effect of the war separation allowan upon the health of children even in the poorest famili is not wholly applicable. During the war the fathe were usually, except for brief intervals of leave, safe disposed of. How far they, and some of the mothe would tend to use the allowances for their own en must be a somewhat doubtful problem. But it is pl bable that while family allowances would produce increase of the birth-rate among the least provident pa of the population, they might help to improve the heal of the children. проп ly re at of Averag the e race prob at el dac MA What effect can we predict with regard to the oth sections of the community? If the allowances are up something like the scale of the war separation allowanc they would hardly affect those who have a high standa of comfort, whose postponement of marriage and limit tion of families depend, not so much upon the actu cost of feeding and clothing children, but upon the desire to educate them up to a high standard, to provi |