Allowances for Families The announcement by Mr. L. J. Cadbury,
managing director of Cadbury Bros., that that well-known firm had decided to inaugurate a scheme of children's allowances, comes at a time when interest is focussed on the subject from many angles. Public concern with nutrition, particularly of children, has been greatly increased as the realisation has grown that a part at least of the nation's bill of £3oopoopoo for ill-health would be saved if all parents - could afford to provide their children with adequate and suitable food. Under the Cadbury scheme, in addition to ordinary wages every employee with more than two children will receive a uniform allowance of five shillings a week for each additional child under' eighteen who has not yet left school. This will alleviate the strain on the worker's income at a time when many families find difficulty in making both ends meet. Compulsory social insurance and various voluntary schemes already lighten the burdens of sickness, unemployment and old age. The community has a right to demand that those who undertake to bring up children at a time when we are faced with a falling birth-rate should receive every encourage- ment. The problem is one which will clearly have to be tackled on a national scale, and reliance, cannot be placed on a mere addition to wages by a benevolent employer. Any practical scheme must avoid creating a situation in which it is to the employers' interest to prefer unmarried men
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