Since the law of 1834 a woman has been legally liable to maintain her
natural child until it reaches the age of sixteen. She is allowed to
establish paternity, and, if she can do this, to obtain a maintenance
order against the father, the maximum amount now allowed being 10/- a
week, which sum is to be paid until the child reaches the age of
sixteen. But the mother is not compelled to take this course, indeed,
she is hindered from doing so in every possible way, both by the many
absurd difficulties of the law and the expense of the summons. And this
is the cause of clear injustice to the child, whose right to a father
and to support from him ought not to be dependent on the caprice of the
mother, whose desire is often to protect the man rather than to do
justice to the child. For this reason the establishment of paternity
should be compulsory on the mother or her relations as it now is in
Norway. Every child has a right to a father as well as to a mother.
The ante-natal conditions of these babies are obviously of the very
worst. All those months when a woman most requires special rest, special
quiet, and, in particular, special mental repose, will be spent in
anxiety and fear. In too many cases the girl has to keep herself, and it
is mighty difficult to get a job without a character. And, here, let me
point out to those who believe vaguely that a "love-child" is a finer
type than other children, that this is true only in so far as the
atmosphere in which the mother spends her pregnancy is one of love and
undisturbed calm. Do let us face the facts of the situation.
Often the baby is born wherever the driven mother can find shelter, the
baby's interests in the matter being certainly of no account then or
later. In the eyes of the law the child is without rights and belongs to
no one. In the eyes of our Christian society he is a "branded outcast,"
in the eyes of his mother too often he is but a mark of her shame:
conditions of injustice to the child that must too often result in the
growing up of a poor type of child.
It has been found that illegitimates at birth are quite as hardy as
legitimate children; they would even seem to be born stronger, since
they die, unlike the legitimate, more frequently in the _second_ month
than the _first_; and more frequently in the _third_ than in the
_second_ month. The deferred and insufficient regulation of the child's
diet, the frequent failure on the part of the father to provide the
means of support, the not uncommon indifference on the part of the
mother towards her child's welfare, and the necessity of placing the
child in cheap care, are the chief causes of the high mortality rates
among illegitimate children.
Even in the few fortunate cases where the maximum alimony is claimed and
granted to the mother, there is no certainty that the weekly payments
will be continued and regularly paid throughout the child's growing
years, and though there is improvement in this direction since the
Affiliation Orders Act, 1914, and the appointment of a Collecting
Officer, there is still far too easy opportunity for the escape of a
shirking father. The law takes no cognizance of the fact that in the
majority of cases it is an absolute impossibility for the mothers, even
with the best will in the world, unassisted, to place their children in
proper conditions for their up-bringing. At present, with no authorized
person to supervise the mother and check her absolute control, to see
how she spends the alimony, where she places the child, what education
it has, what prospects of growing into an effective adult; too often the
child never reaches maturity and its case is often worse if it does
survive; its home changed from one place to another, sometimes with the
mother, sometimes boarded out with irresponsible people, or adopted with
a premium, it is liable to gross neglect and the most far-reaching and
incurable perversions of character.
We have reached this truth then. _The urgent duty that rests with the
law and with us all is the duty of taking action to prevent as far as it
is possible, and in every way that we can, the penalty of its
illegitimate birth being paid by the child._