Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-09-20
Misestlaasuus gsadins.
PENSIONS FOR WIDOWS.
New York About to Adopt Grand Idea
of Mrs. Cosarove.

New York About to Adopt Grand Idea
| of Mrs. cossrove.
Within the last few days a number
Of conferences have been held in this
city and state concerning. the estab-
lishment of the mothers pension sys-
tenn, and the legislature at Albany
next winter will be asked to put the
plan in operation, says the New York
Tribune.
1t costs New York taxpayers $11.91
a month and upward for the main
tenance of every child taken from its
home and put in an institution. Un-
der the mothers pension plan, which
the Illinois legislature by unanimous
vote has established in that state, 1t
costs only $5.75 a month a child to
keep these children in their own
homes.
1t cost $1,OS9,669 last year to main
tain the S,S48 city charges, including
orphans. Under the mothers pension
| plan this sum, 1t is claimed, could al
| most be cut in half and homes could
be kept together, the children, instead
of being farmed into the country or
sent to orphan asylums and similar in
stitutions, remaining under their par
ents charge, and the domestic condi-
tions Of the poor mothers Of the city
and their children very greatly i'm
proved.
The probabilities at the present time
seem to be favorable to the passage of
the mothers pension bill by the next
legislature and If this takes place the
credit will largely be due to hustling
little woman out in Joplin, Mo-, Mrs.
Henrietta C. Cosgrove, who originated
the scheme for pensions for the ma
tion's widowed mothers a few years
ago and who by persistent effort has
elaborated the plan into a great ma
| tional movement.
1T Is better to provide for pensions
for mothers who have been left with
out support than it is to build homes
in which to put the children that the
mothers are not able to support" says
Mrs. Cosgrove, and upon this theory
she has been constantly working.
When Mrs. Cosgrove originated this
thought it met with scant response.
But she believes in working out Of the
rut and in her opinion because a thing
has always been is no reason for its
continuance but rather a cause for Its
improvement or alteration to suit the
advancement Of the times.
Consequently opposition was the
only spur she needed to begin work to
prove the usefulness Of her mothers
pensions idea. That she has succeed
ed is today indicated by the fact that
| within the short space Of two years
her plan has been presented to the
legislature of several states, has be-
come a law in Illinois, measurably in
Missouri and is being favorably con-
sidered in several others, including
New York.
Governor Foss of Massachusetts, has
recently signed a bill creating a COM
mission to investigate the desirability
of a widowed mothers pension meas
ure. Mrs. Cosgrove believes 1t prob
able that within five years every state
in the Union will have acted favorably
on mothers pensions and that new
world of hope and usefulness will have
been revealed to thousands Of poor
mothers of the nation whose outlook
would otherwise have been dark and
hopeless.
In return all Mrs. Cosgrove asks Is
that there be placed upon her tomb,
stone beneath her name the inscrip-
ton: First Advocate Of Pensions for
INDECENT Widowed Mothers"
Mrs. Cosgrove's distinguishing char
acteristic, so all those who know her
say, is the ability to combine the prac-
| tical with the ideal. She Is a suffra-
gist and a business woman Of wide
| experience, yet she does not go In for
woman's clubs and cares little for So
ciety, but she has an absorbing love
for the mothers of the nation.
She lives in the far famed lead and
zinc district of southeast Missouri and
is large owner Of mines and interest
ed in mining.
| II am rather inclined to socialism
in my political views" she says.
For several years she has been
member of the southern conference OF
Woman Child Labor, and holds the
office of state vice president for Mis-
souri,. Meetings of this conference are
held annually in one or the other Of
the large cities Of the south.
| It was in connection with her work
in the conference that Mrs. Cosgrove
first conceived the idea Of living PEN
sion from the state to be paid direct
to the mothers Of child workers.
| In reference to this Mrs. Cosgrove
remarked:
| I'm my opinion the chief fault In
present child labor legislation Is that
1t Is not broad enough in the consid-
Grafton of conditions obtaining among
the class most affected by its stringent
requirements.
1.-The modification of one evil con-
dition therefore often results In the
creation of another and a greater one.
Families suffering together are
better than scattered and suffering
apart. No public institution can take
the place of the home. 1t does not
seem to be necessary to accept either
horn of this dilemma.
"a better and less expensive solu-
ton both aesthetically and financially
considered, can be found in a system
of pensions to INDECENT widowed moth
ers.
There are many families whose
only refuge from starvation Is the as
sistance rendered by the labor Of chill
dren often under the ages prescribed
by the law. These children are always
underpaid and overworked, but the
pittance they bring in helps to keep
the wolf just outside the shack.
1.-THE widowed mother in these days
cannot by her labor alone maintain a
family of children, and when they are
20 fhaU panarallV