What protection should be thrown around the prospective mother is a question that is only beginning to be raised among professional and salaried classes. Up to the present nearly all women in these groups have resigned their positions, if not at marriage then at childbirth. No general policy of dealing with them seems to have been adopted either by public or private employers. With women in the wage-earning class the case is different. In at least twenty countries or parts of countries in Europe legal protection is thrown around the working woman who bears a child. In Berne, Switzerland, all women “employed for purposes of gain” are prohibited from working for from four to eight weeks after confinement. In Ticino, Italy, no woman can work for six months after confinement. The conception underlying this legislation is not that mothers are not efficient workers, but that earning a livelihood must be made easier for those who want also to fulfill the other functions of womanhood. In England the period of prohibition is four weeks after, and in Germany six weeks. In Servia no woman can work for six weeks before nor six weeks after. In several of these places the position must be kept open for the woman while she is bearing her child. Examples of such protection nearer at home are not lacking. Both Massachusetts and New York have laws declaring that specified periods of absence shall be allowed to women in industrial establishments at time of confinement. A notable exception to the rule that no such policy has been adopted toward salaried or professional women is to be had in France. There boards of education are not permitted to refuse leave of absence to teachers who want to bear children. Three years ago the government made imperative the granting of at least two months’ vacation, together with full treatment, to teachers expecting confinement. And in the following year this protection was extended to the female staff of the department of posts, telegraphs and telephones. INDUSTRY NATION WIDE MOVEMENT FOR INDUSTRIAL SAFETY FERDINAND C. SCHWEDTMAN CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON ACCIDENT PREVENTION AND WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS There was a time when most employers and employes thought that they were the only factors to be considered in the adjustment of industrial conditions. Enlightened employers and employes long ago learned that in the final analysis the public is the arbiter as to whether conditions are just or unjust, right or wrong.