The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-12
WIDOWED MOTHERS
The Unequal Fight that Struggling Mothers Are Making With Poverty Leads to the Establishment of the Widowed Mothers Fund.- in New Work
Belle Lindner Israels

Belle Lindner Israels
 Exclusive service the Survey Press BureauL)
 You live in three rooms in Essex street. It being summer, you spent
 the night on the fire escape, but not to
 , avoid the heat There is a boarder Who helps out with the rent You
 enly have one bed. The boarder must
 have it. The three older children slept on mattress on the floor after you brought them in from the street at eleven o'clock. The baby who is only
 fire escape, and you stayed half awake all night for fear you might lose hold
 on him and he might fall. Widowhood IS a matter of some months with you
 and you lie awake early in the morn
 1ngS endeavor1ng to solve the problems
 of shelter, food and clothing on uncer-
 tain earnings of four dollars a week.
 It is no great task to arise from such
 a rest and take up the days work.
 During your scant and hasty toilet, all
 Of the children, including Freddie, the
 baby, clamor for their morning meal
 If such it can be called You must be
 at your work at half past seven and
 three of the children must be washed
 and dressed and at the day nursery
 two blocks away There isn't anybody
 to help you with the work except Nell
 lie, when she can be persuaded to do
 so without continuous quarreling with
 the others Nellie is not as tractabIe
 as she used to be when you were work
 Ing at home and knew just where she
 was and with whom she played. She runs about the streets all day now and
 It worries you to think of what may
 become Of her, not only because of ac- cldents, but because, too, of the stories one reads of the things that happen to some little girls. But you must work.
 Rent must be paid and the Charities has no money to help you; there are so many other poor people. Willie has
 a running nose and they tell you at the day nursery that if it is not better today YOU will have to keep him home until he is well. That means that Nell lie will have to stay away from school and take care of him. You are only thIrty-six years old, but you look forty-nine and you feel so tired and your arm hurts so where the dispen- sary doctor said it was rheumatism and you are never without that dull ache in your head. Working all day at the hardest kind of a job-taking your place in the machinery of your employers economy, has it's ,compen- sat1onS when the homecoming means the greeting of a sympathetic husband. But you come home early to the emp tiness of missing him-he is dead. Perhaps it is worse yet and he has simply left you to do for yourself and the children because he has found someone younger and less worn in the struggle with life and the little ones. Your prospect is restless night on the floor or the fire escape, with the children tumbling about and a boarder to make life more miserable, more} crowded. more unhappy. What is the end? What sort of children will the little ones be without their mother s care however unwise or untaught?
 This is a real story of a widowed mother. She has thousands of con- panions in similar plights. The stories are different only in detail. The prin- ciple is always the same; the terrible strug gle to maintain a home. for the little ones and to keep them near their natural protector. Rousseau in his Emile, values the zeal of 8 parent above the talent of a paid instructor. | skilled type. They are just mothers and their children are as a rule typical of the faults and virtues of normal l children enjoying home privileges l whatever they be.
 These mothers are no more desirous of sending their children among stran- gers to be counted as units among | hundreds of other children in the asy- lums, than are mothers of the better | class. They are just as sure that they alone understand the individualities of | their children as are other mothers; and in the long run they would make | as great a success in training the chill dren. In certain cases of full orphan age, the principle has been recognized that the home gives something that | the institution lacks. and placing -out has been resorted to and is vigorously carried on with most gratifying re- suits. The theory under which a wid- owed mother is obliged to leave her nome daily or to take such an amount of work into it as will use ninety per cent of her time, does not allow for the normal development of the child It is forcing the children who are ne- without the proper amount of supervision, into correctional and orphanages, where the public expense is far greater than pri- vate support at home. In the month of July in the Juvenile court, there were 2l Jewish boys whose mothers were WIDOWS. Many of these were arrested at the subway station between the hours of one and three in the morning waiting for daylight to start paper selling. All were the children of work ing mothers. Four girls who came to the attention of the court in the same month were committed because the mothers, widows, were working and could not look after the girls One of them were complained of for staying away from home at night and another nad become i'll from lack of care and food while the. mother worked late at night in a factory to keep the roof 1ver their heads.
 Finding a large percentage of moth CTS undergoing such struggles and this new field of work lying neglected or nearly so, the Widowed Mothers Fund 1as been organized to study and devel- i ,p a new method of dealing with such cases. Careful survey of the field be- ore them shows many complications The families where illness has seized several members of the household, others where there is a grandmother Q support, too, or a sick son in a san- ltorium, or even an insane husband who thus is out of the breadwinning class, all offer peculiar problems. The Widowed Mothers Fund proposes to a standard of living in ac- ,ordance with which per capita pro- Tision can be made until the children ] Ire of such ages as to be contributors. At present the fund is attempting to work with the United Hebrew Chari- ies of New York in much the same manner as the committee on ttbercu- osis works with the Charity Organi- ation Society.
 A joint committee of both societies eviews all cases of widowed or desert d mothers coming to the attention of either society. In June and July of his year, there have been three hun fred and fifty applicants, whose fam lies average four children apiece. The :