. . . WE WOULD not make the lot of the unwedded mother too easy. She has sinned and it is good for her, as well as for society, that she should suffer. But there is no need to add to her burdens. They are heavy enough. We should wish only to lay an equitable share of them on the partner of her sin. . . There has been formed a “National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child”, consisting mainly of persons representing public authorities and religious, “philanthropic”, or political associations. The Chairman of the Council, Mr Fisher, has written to the Times, calling attention to its objects and its work. First among these is the establishment of hostels, with day-nurseries attached, in which mothers may live, knowing that their children are in good hands while they are away at work. We hope that provision will be made for nursing mothers, that such work may for a time be unnecessary. Both then and afterwards, their motherhood may in such a hostel be a decent and even an honourable estate. But the Council will not be concerned only with this palliative. It looks forward to the reform of those legal abuses which we have described. Here is fine scope for the women who have now received the parliamentary franchise. But many women are foremost in laying hard burdens on the shoulders of their erring sisters. They have first to be brought to a just view of these things. The National Council has its work cut out. We wish it all success.
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