Transcriber's Note Bold text is indicated by ~swung dashes~, and italics by _underscores_. MATERNITY LETTERS FROM WORKING-WOMEN ~ROUND ABOUT A POUND A WEEK.~ By Mrs. PEMBER REEVES. 2s. 6d. net. “The best piece of social study published in England for many years.”--_Manchester Guardian._ “If you would know why men become anarchists, why agitators foam at the mouth, and demagogues break out into seditious language--here is a little book that will tell you as soberly, as quietly, and as convincingly as any book that has yet come from the press.”--Mr. HAROLD BEGBIE in the _Daily Chronicle_. ~THE FEEDING OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.~ By M. E. BULKLEY, of the London School of Economics. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. “The first comprehensive description of one of the most momentous social experiments of modern times.”--_Economic Review._ “An admirable statement of the history and present position of the problem.”--_New Statesman._ LONDON: G. BELL AND SONS, LTD., YORK HOUSE, PORTUGAL STREET, KINGSWAY, W.C. NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO. BOMBAY: A. H. WHEELER AND CO. [Illustration: AN ANNUAL CONGRESS OF THE WOMEN’S CO-OPERATIVE GUILD.] MATERNITY LETTERS FROM WORKING-WOMEN COLLECTED BY THE WOMEN’S CO-OPERATIVE GUILD WITH A PREFACE BY THE RIGHT HON. HERBERT SAMUEL, M.P. HIS MAJESTY’S POSTMASTER-GENERAL LATE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD [Illustration] LONDON G. BELL AND SONS, LTD. 1915 PREFACE BY THE RIGHT HON. HERBERT SAMUEL, M.P. These letters give an intimate picture of the difficulties, the troubles, often the miseries, sometimes the agonies, that afflict many millions of our people, as a consequence of normal functions of their lives. An unwise reticence has prevented the public mind from realising that maternity, among the poorer classes, presents a whole series of urgent social problems. These letters give the facts. It is the first time, I believe, that the facts have been stated, not by medical men or social students, but by the sufferers themselves, in their own words. The Women’s Co-operative Guild, unresting in their efforts for the improvement of the conditions of working women, have rendered a most useful service in eliciting these letters and in making them public. It is necessary to take action to solve the problems that here stand revealed, first for the elementary reason that a nation ought not to tolerate widespread suffering among its members, if there are measures by which that suffering can be obviated without indirectly causing worse. “Woman,” says Kant, “is an end in herself, and not merely a means to an end.” Apart from all question of social advantage, her claim for help for her own sake, when she needs help to meet the difficulties special to herself, is as valid as any other claim--as the claim of the sick man, for his own sake, to be cured, as the claim of the child, for his own sake, to be protected and to be taught.