New-York tribune., 1908-01-15
THE LAW AND THE CHILD
Relation of Parents and Offspring
That of Masters and SERVANTS.

That of Masters and Servants.
1T long since application made
for extradition papers from England to America
for woman the charge of abducting her
child said Mrs. Cornelia X. Hood, in an address
on Laws Relating TO Children" before the law
department of the Brooklyn Institute yesterday
afternoon.
1T was the result she continued deliberately. "of
the mad infatuaticn OF a rich American girl for
title her subsequent inability 10 endure the
insult and abuse incident to her requirement of it
1t was found that the offence not extradt-
able
The English common law gave the father abso-
lute power over the child This arbitrary
that I'm one well known case the court sustained
the fathers action in taking ali his children away
from a blameless mother and placing them IN
charge of A disreputable woman. This extreme
case however, hastened the changing of the law.
From 1890 they working TO modify this law
In New York State. In case on record in the
New York courts woman married a man in the
last stages Of disease for the purpose Of caring
for him in his days. Before his death ne made
a will willing away their unborn child, and the will
stood. The only child in whom the mother had
any legal rights whatever was the nlegtnnate one
Not till 1860 did New York State pass law
making fathers and mothers equal guardians OF
their children. This law found scant favor in the
courts and in the case of Clark VS. Brooks the
court held that the meaning Of the law was that
when the father and mother lived together they
enjoyed joint guardianship, but that when they
separated all rights the children again reverted
TO the husband Two years after the law was
passed in 1862, it repealed.
For more than thirty years women agitated to
recover that law, but not till 1893 was il again
passed. To-day the tendency Of the courts OF
New York in case of separation of parents is to
consider the fitness OF parents and the best in
terests of the child. But still the courtrooms have
| witnessed many sorrowful scenes when young
children were torn from their mothers arms
1T will doubtless surprise and interest most
| mothers TO that under the statutes OF the
| State of New York they have no legal power 10
| correct their own children. excepting as lher nus
| bands representatives Only after his death 90
| they acquire full legal power TO correct theT
| children
SEEK INJURY BY CARS
..uotoroen in this CITY" declared Mrs. Hood,
''sav openly that in certain sections they are
obliged to use special care 20 avoid running oo""
children, and they assert that parents deIoerateS
instruct children seek injury by streelcIs' io
the sake of damages. Certain it is that among ce
tain classes in New York to-day, child is not re-
gardeG as a responsibility or a charge, but as an
asset. The law recognizes the relation OF master
| and servant between father and child 1t allows
the father to collect the chd's wages unless the
fa,ba- has driven him out or refused to feed and
clotia him. and it takes the childs earning power
or his possible earning power IN the future INTO
consideration in awarding damages. Damages are
not awarded for grief agony of mind, but for
!
against a certain ice company the father was
awarded $500 for the death Of glrl lour
wears and six months old because she might Ia
The future be of pecuniary value TO him Even in
q case where A father for the seduction of a
daughter the award is made on the same oasis'
that of the relation ot master and servant, not
father and daughter
"A mother has no legal right 20 collect her child
wages or take them from him. But If the father
knows she has done this. she is held to have cons
il a. his representative. and the action becomes
valid. In a case i'll 1899 minor had paid por-
ton OF his earnings some lots which STOOD IN
his mothers name In a suit brought by his faith
er's creditors these payments were held 10 oe
legal because known TO the father.
1T is only during the last seven years that we
have begun to have any laws for the protection OF
children working in stores or factories In the
nie+ric. of Columbia and twenty-five states and
territories there is still no educational requirements
for = child going to work. that is. the state does
not require that he shall know how TO read and
write the English language before entering the IN
5ustral world In eleven states OF this union there
Is stiT no compulsory educational law. This places
rs among the lowest OF civilized countries in the
protection of our children. Only one country of
Europe permits children TO work all night las we
DO and that is Russia.
DECEPTION AS TO AGE,
The child labor laws of the different states are
fun of curious differences and exemptions This is
because they adjust themselves to leading indus
tries o. those states which secure exemptions.
Thus Pennsylvania forbids al night work ~ chill
dren bat it excepts the glass factories which want
bows 10 work all nigh. Otler states will eEceDt
canning factories and so on. Nothing can
sfraighten out this tangled web excepting a federal
child labor law forbidding all child labor up 10 a
certain age and with educational tests. Such bill
the National Child Labor Committee hrs in charge
row ard every woman wao mas heart in her
badv for the childhood of this country should write
10 the Representative of her district in Congress TO
ask his vote for this bill.
When the child lapor law first passed in
New York employers tried 10 escape by proving
i.,at the child deceived to his age.
In l:,J Judge Gaynor, Of Brooklyn, held that TO
euaDlCyer could escape through the contrbutOry
,ep,igerce Of the child The question of the negii-