The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1907-10-31
TOO MANY HOMES
AFTER CHILDREN
SHARP COMPETITION sMAcKs OF
coMMERclALlsM.
JUDGE w1LLcocKsoN OBJECTS.
Family Ties, He Says, Should Be Main.
tanned Whenever Possible-A
Pitlful Case May Yet
Be Rlghted.

At the hearing of case brought be-
fore the juvenile court Friday evening
in which an order was prayed for,
committing the seven children of Mrs.
Carrie Mccartney to the orphans
home in Ottumwa, Judge Willcockson
took occasion to speak frankly in re-
gard to the disgusting competition and
strife existing between the various
home finding associations. In the
court room were Rev. A. j. Good, rep
resenting the American Home Finding
Association of Ottumwa; Mrs. Eva
Shaw and Superintendent Swingleton,
of the Iowa Children's Home Society
of Des Moines, and numerous repre-
sentatives of the U. s. Orphans Home
Finding Association and Rescue Mis-
sion OF this city. He stated that he
had always believed, and does yet be-
lieve, that the several orphans homes
are philanthropic institutions and that
they are doing a great deal Of good in
their place, but when there appears to
be competition between them and open
strife as to which place the children
shall be assigned, he could not but
believe that there must be q little
money in the transaction for some one.
The Judge stated that 1t was the
courts duty to do only what was the
best for the children, and he did not
believe that IL these home finding in
stitutions are merely money-making
enterprise that they could be very
beneficial.
The story of the Mccartney children
is a pitiful one. All are under the age
of fourteen, and their mother was ar
rested and ordered out of town short
time ago on vagrancy charge. The
children were at that time sent to the
home of their grandparents in the
country near What Cheer. Their
father, Jake Mccartney, carpenter
of this city, contrary to his promises,
did not send them any money, and they
we're brought back to this city by their
mother, Monday, poorly clad and poor
ly fed, to receive support from the
county. r. A. Kent, county overseer
of the poor, placed them in the Prime
home for the present, and later Rev.
Good induced the lady to consign her
children to the orphans home in OF
tumwa. She claims several promises
were made to her which could not be
fulfilled and she asked the court to
permit her children to remain here UNI
til word could be received from her
husband, who went to Des Moines
Sunday when he heard that his wife
was about to return to this city. The
case was therefore continued until
next Friday, in hopes that the hus-
band may return and furnish some evil
dence of his intentions of furnishing
his children with support.
Here indeed is pitiful case, where
the charitable people of this city could
find a chance for a little philanthropic
work and the lending of a helping
hand. Mrs. Mccartney knows that
she has done wrong, but she loves her
children and would give anything to
see them well cared for, without com
mittment to an orphans home, where
the family ties are forever broken.
Mr.. Willcockson well said that, AS
long as the family relations, on which
this country and republic of ours is
based, can be maintained, they should
not be destroyed. Even though these
relations are not the very best, only
as last resort should separation be
made"