October 18, 1911, To the Editor of The Westminster Gazette

“Mothers and Sanatoria”

Sir, –The long and interesting letter by Mr. C.V. Pearson on the value of sanatoriums in the

National Insurance Bill as a health-producing asset to the nation emboldens me to point out

a defect in the Bill which it is to be hoped will be remedied while there is yet time. Through

the sanatoria the Bill wisely aims at rooting out that greatest of national scourges,

consumption. But what is the good of opening these splendid institutions to the working-

man unless they are to be freely opened to his wife? For after all the infection is spread far

more seriously and dangerously by the mother than the father. It is the position of the non-

wage-earning mother for which I especially wish to plead, for it is she who is in the closest

touch with the children, and who, of course, if consumptive, infects them. In the interests of

the rising generation the non-wage-earning mother must be brought into this National

Insurance scheme equally with the earning father. Of what avail to cure the father, when

the mother is left as a free dispenser of bacilli? Mr. Lloyd George indicated in his

Whitefield’s speech that if the mother has been a wage-earner before marriage, after

marriage, even is she no longer earns, she may, on payment of a small sum, get free medical

help. May I be allowed to suggest that it should be rendered obligatory that this small sum

should in the case of all non-wage-earning wives be paid by the husband? How are the

women to pay it, seeing that as things are they have no money of their won, not even the

right to any savings that they may be able to make out of the housekeeping. Such an

amendment would do far more for the national health than any other part of the Bill.—

Yours, &c.,

EMILY WILDING DAVISON

31, Great Coram-street