The Great Stork Derby and The $1000 Baby Bonus

I watched "The Stork Derby " Saturday evening and needless to say I found myself absolutely writhing with disgust at Charles Vance Millar. He was a wealthy lawyer and financier in Toronto with a sick and twisted sense of humor. In fact i won't even call it humor - it is evil mischief. He would drop dollar bills on sidewalk and while hiding would watch people scamble to pick them up. How dark a person's soul must be to take delight in another's desperation.

Upon his death, Charles' will cause quite a phenomenon with the infamous "Clause 9"
[ All the rest and residue of my property wheresoever situate, I give, devise and bequeath unto my Executors and Trustees named below in Trust to convert into money as they deem advisable and invest all the money until the expiration of nine years from my death and then call in and convert it all into money and at the expiration of ten years from my death to give it and its accumulations to the mother who has since my death given birth in Toronto to the greatest number of children as shown by the Registrations under the Vital Statistics Act. If one or more mothers have equal highest number of registrations under the said Act to divide the said moneys and accumulations equally between them]

You have to understand that in the mid 1920's one of the controversial issues was birth control. Some believed that given Millar's tendancies for practical and ironic jokes, he devised this clause to make a stab at unplanned pregnancies and the prohibition of birth control. The clause quickly penned " The Great Stork Derby" caused quite a stir in Toronto, similar to the scrambling of people picking up money, women scrambled to produce babies during the ten year peroid following Millar's death. First of all, this is an example of complete objectification of women, the feminist in me was furious, how many women died giving birth to these children? How many women mourned the death of stillborn and premature children whilst chasing an unattainable dream? How many women were forced into bearing children by their greed driven husbands?What kind of burden was felt by the poor and marginalized familes left with an over abundance of children, how many of them starved and went to bed hungry? Charles Vance Millar was a sadistic man.

Which brings me to my next point...Politically, I am a conservative and I pretty much hold a high approval for Danny Williams. However, in light of this movie I watched I couldn't help but draw some parallels with the thousand dollar baby bonus given for every child born in this province. I understand it is aimed at increasing the birth rate in NL but I forsee some problems that may arise.

1. $1000 is not a lot of money and is not even enough to deck out a nursery even with the most basic supples.

2. It increases the occurance of pre-marital sex.

3. Most people eligible for the bonus are already being financially assisted. An increase of children in the system equals more burden to be undertaken by taxpayers.

4. It objectifies children. The baby doesn't just grow up and move out once the $1000 is gone. What happens to the children who were brought into the world just for a cheque?

If the provincial government wants to increase the birth rate , they ought to establish a similar childcare program to Quebec's. The working class cannnot afford to have more than two children these days - even with both parents working. They are fueling the fire and adding to the problem of unwed young mothers in unstable relationships on social assistance. It's absurd.