The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1913-12-12

hand the hair of five-year-old boy
who chung TO her dress. The other
/ children q girl of eight and boy of
! seven, looked up at her as children
| only can look at those they trust.
1T pays the rent" she went on, ''and
| it buys the coal and it gives me a
chance to clothe them as they ought
| to be clothed. Before the first check
| from the county came we didn't have
any clothes that you might call
| clothes. | didn't mind for myself, but
| the little ones were without warm
things except what i could make for
! them between the days work, and
| even in July the winter isn't far off,
| for the poor at least, and this house
| is cold. l hated to Ieok ahead and
think of them shivering all day and
the coal most gone, and then it was a
| puzzle as to whether to spend our lone
dollar for food or warmth for them.
But now" she smiled again, its
different. It pays the rent, and it buys
! the coal and-we can eat three times
every day"
New York Investigating.
New York is fighting for the very
| law New Jersey now has. The fore
most charity and philanthropic stu
| dents in New York city ardentIy in
dorse it. Every club in the City Fed
Grafton and all those throughout the
! state have given it their unqualified
| approval. The state of New York has
| taken a step in the direction of wild
owed mothers pensions. Last year
| the governor appointed a commission
to Investigate the workings of the law
! in several states, including New Jer-
| sey. This committee will report upon
! the ACCESSIBILITY of enacting similar re
| lief legislation. One of the members
| Of the commission is Mrs. William Elm
stein, president of the Widowed Moth
ers' Fund who for many years has
! been the heart and soul of the now
| great movement. According to her,
| there really is but one side to the
! question.
There is not a bit of doubt she
| declared" that the state owes the
| duty to the children. l speak ad-
visedly of the children instead of the
| mothers. However difficult and pa
thetic may be the condition of a Wild
owed mother, who is unable to support
| her children and who must bring them
| up in a state of pitiful sordiness or re
! linquish them to the state. the condi-
ton of the children is worse.
Eighteen States Give Relief.
THE influences of their early years
are the influences of lifetime, and
they make or mar them. And certainly
it is obligatory upon the administra-
| ton to see that all possible be done to
make those influences of the best.
Mother love and home surroundings
are Of inestimable value, and since the
state can preserve those to the chill
dren it should do SO.
Since I have been interested in this
| problem, Is states have adopted a sys-
TEN of relief for widowed mothers, and
in every one of them it is working
beautifully. 1t can't help but be a last
ing success. The argument that the
state viii be spending too much money
is not worth consideration. The only
rectly into the needy homes instead
of into institutions. 1t will do in
finitely more good in those homes
than in institutions.
And, what is just as important. we
wish to DO away entirely with private
charity. That accomplishes very little.
It is only temporary relief and
doesn't for a moment get at the big
principle of the situation"
Mr.. Bruere, the head of the Bureau
of Municipal Research, believes in
such relief but he declares the pres
ent scheme does not go far enough or
quite grasp the underlying principle of
the question.
Would Go Even Further.
LAS a step in the right direction,
he said, L am in favor of the present
movement. In considering it l have
gone through many phases. And while
l am theoretically in thorough agree
ment with it, l cannot help thinking
that it stops a little short
I prefer a general social insurance
that will lay less stress on relief as a
necessity and more on the payment as
a. right. For unquestionably there is
an indubitable right that these moth
ers and children should have relief
THE danger in the present scheme.
it seems to me, is that the mother has
no absolute surety she will be paid,
and that there is DO incentive for
husband and father to provide for his