The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-09
KEEP CH|LDREN|N
 THEIR OWN HOMES Chicago Man Talks of Pen-
 sion Plan in Illinois NEED MOTHERS CARE Harry Neil Says Country Has Gone Insurance Mad"-Would Have
 State Pay to Help Support
 Poor Children at Home
NEED MOTHERS CARE
By c. E. STEW ART

WaSn1ngton. August S.-toptciab--flea | y Neil, secretary of the National Probation league, and who halls from Chicago, has been in Washington and is actively trying to interest members of both branches of Congress into enacting federal law sim liar to the mothers pension act now in force in the state of Illinois.
 MT. Neil, whose law embodes the pay ment of a stated pension to mothers de- serted by their husbands, married to n- valids or goodfor-n r-nothings, or who for other reasons are forced to support their own households, declares himself highly gratified by the encouragement he has met at the hands of representatives and senators here.
 Be it ever so humble there is no place like home, is the motto he uses, and so urgently has he shown the need of main- adopted at the last session of the legisla- ture in his state without dissenting vote
 MT. Neil holds that the most important things in child.s life is it's happiness, something he contends that it cannot have when taken from it's mother and placed in some institution, no matter what its home may have been.
 In the second place, he holds that only mother can know the anguish which follows the loss of her child, kidnapped off, ficially, because she is not able to bear the double burden of supporting it and caring for it.
 Lastly he declares that if there is no other reason why a child should not be taken away from it's mother because of poverty, the saving of public money in caring for it in it's own home is suf- fcient.
 He states that previous to the passage of the Illinois mothers pension law the public paid for the care of girls placed in state institutions $15 per month and for boys slo per month. In Indiana the cost is 35 cents per day for every child. Now. in Chicago, children are being cared for in their own homes at an average of S5.75 per month.
 At the present time there. are TOO chl- dren in Chicago on this pay roll, and they remain in the care of 222 mothers.
 The juvenile judge, according to the provisions of the Illinois law, is empow- cred 10 issue an order on the treasurer to pay a fixed sum to the mother of the child for the board of her offspring The child is under the supervision of the of- ficers of the juvenile court, and the mother is required to make affidavit that all the money received in this manner is used for the child. She must send he, children to school and comply with all the requirements of the court, but she is not deprived of her own flesh and blood and the child continues under the care of it's mother
 MT. Neil says that he has been in com munication with all the governors in the United States relative to the passage of a law similar to that effective in Illinois, and he has assurances from most of them that such law, or one similar. will be presented to their respective legislatures at it's next meeting.
 He has visited hundreds of institutions where children are reared in lots of thousands and says that he is yet to find a child, no matter what may have been it's surroundings a home or the luxuries afforded at the institution, who does not long for home and mother He deplores the system whereby children are taken away from their parents, never more to be seen by them, and farmed out to foster parents, losing the identity of their pa- rentage and the happiness of the com pauionship of mother.
 Tn order to test out the interest In the child by others than the parent said Mir. Neil, "l placed an advertisement in paper stating that a good healthy boy, aged F, wanted home. received 3Oa answers principally from farmers in the west. l answered some of these, and at least 30 called at my office.
 The boy suffered from epilepsy, and when I explained that he might need more than ordinary care, and that while he could probably do the milking and chores to help pay his way, 1t would not do to put him to a mans wok not sin gle man had sufficient parental love for the boy to want him.
 Carloads of boys. and girls are shipped west every year and adopted by the ranchers and farmers as money making transaction, pure and simple. Labor is high and hard to obtain, and this is one way of getting reliable labor and at a ridiculously low price.
 l insist that this Is a blow at the cardinal principles which make future good men and women. The country dur ing the past 10 or l2 years has gone institution mad and l venture to say ] that 9e per cent of those who are for this kind of child care have never been fathers or mothers, and do not know | that kind of love a mother has for her child.
 Tn Chicago the Jewish charities so- l cieties have gone a step farther than the ! law. In cases where the mother Is mor- ally incompetent to care for her children the societies place the children in other l families, rather than institutions, and pay their board. The law covers only pov- i erty cases
 There is no doubt that Mir. Neil is yer, much in earnest. and that his earnestness | is bringing him sunport in the eyes ol