Shy Baldwin

There are some perfectly harmless words which an English gentleman cannot come right plump out with. Reporters covering the Conservative Party keynote speech, delivered last week by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in Drury Lane Theatre, noticed that he paused perceptibly and shifted his shoulders the merest trifle in the middle of the following sentence: "I come now to the subject of [pause] maternity."

This was the crux of the whole speech. The Prime Minister had been droning for an hour about the Conservative Party's record. He now came to a vote-getting, unexpected, radical electioneering premise which party strategists had calculated would appeal to the 5,000,000 women between 21 and 30 who have just been enfranchised for the first time by the so-called "Votes for Flappers Bill" (TIME, Aug. 13, et ante).

Clearing his throat, Squire Baldwin spoke bravely on about childbearing, pleasing his Tory audience immensely by his obviously genuine modesty:

"There is nothing in this country that makes for its happiness, for the health of the rising generation, or for the health of woman in her later years, comparable to seeing that proper care is taken of her in her confinement. A great physician told me, recently, that if this were done in every case in this country he would close half of the women's hospitals in Great Britain. We have come to the conclusion that the maternity benefit provided by the National Health Insurance Act is not at present being administered to the best possible advantage. The present rate of maternity mortality and the amount of sickness among mothers point to the re-organization of these provisions. Proposals therefore are under consideration for making available, for insured women and the uninsured wives of insured husbands, proper medical and midwifery services during pregnancy and childbirth, and to have more cash payments on confinement."

In scholarly conclusion Mr. Baldwin prophesied that the Conservative Party would be returned to power after the election "by the same majority which Disraeli received in 1874." Although the exact number was not mentioned by shy Stanley Baldwin, lesser Tories were soon whispering around the theatre: "46."