Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-10-25

] Essex county officials having to do
with the granting OF pensions under
the Nichols widows pension act are
going ahead very carefully in that
work. as the law. as at present con-
stituted, is full of inconsistencies
not to say grievous faults.
Probably no official in tine county
| is better qualified to judge of the
| necessity of such a law than County
Probation officer John j. Gascoyne
and while he is heartily in favor OF
law to aid widowed women with
children under the age of sixteen
years to support. he can shoot the
| law, as it stands now. so full of holes
that it would look like statement
of what Sulzer really thinks of Muir
ply after an ardent and hard work.
ing copy-reader had finished cutting
out the unprintable parts. There
would be nothing but the hole left
and that is about all that is left of
the law after Mr.. Gascoyne has
pointed out its shortcomings.
The law, as it at present stands
provides that a widow with minor
children under the age of sixteen,
and who is so afflicted that she Is
unable to support and educate the
children, is entitled to draw, after
proper petition has been filed and
verified, the sum of 80 a month for
one child. s14 a month for two chill
dren and "a a month for each child
above that number.
Here are some of the things the
law does not provide and which MI
Gascoyne. as well as other county
officials. think it should: Provision
for medical examination of the appll-
cants by a physician appointed by the
court; partial payments OF the
amounts now decreed by law in cases
when such partial payment Is
deemed sufficient by the court
taking care of the families of men
in Jail for long terms; provision for
taking care of families where the
husband, though alive, is unable to
provide for his family and also to
enable the law to apply to widoWers
as we'll as widows where the situation
is that a. man, whose wife has died, Is
left with minor children to care for
and is physically unable to do So
MT. 6aSCOyne DDiulS OuI ilieh1 ~ Wv
law were amended TO take in the
above classes of cases it would be
practically a new law, but in his
opinion the cases all come under the
same general class.
1.-THE Nichols law, otherwise known
as the widows pension act" said Mr.
Gascoyne today, lis primarily IN
tended for the protection of and to
provide education for minor children
under the age of 16 years, where
through affiiction or illness the par
ent is hot able to do so. Under the
law as it stands at present only a
widow with children that comes I'M
der the provision of the law can be
aided.
THAT is all right as far as it goes,
but 1t does not go far enough to
cover all children or to cover any
children, in fact, except those of a
widow. Take an instance of where a
man is convicted of a serious crime
and sent to prison for a long term of
years, say twenty years. or even SEN
fenced to life Imprisonment. His
wife, if she be afflicted and unable to
work for her children and support
them, is in practically the same po-
sition as though she were a widow,
I believe the law should apply to
such cases as well as to the actual
widow.
"Then there are cases where there
are minor children in families that
under the law would be entitled to
benefits IL their father were dead.
But he is not. Instead, he is a. hope
less invalid, able to contribute moth
ing to the support of the family,
while the mother is also afflicted and
unable to bear the burden of sup
port. Surely the children suffer loss
Of education and proper protection
just as much in that case as if the
man were dead and his wife widow.
THE same thing, to my mind,
would apply to a man who had lost
Ills wife through death, leaving him
children under the age of Is years to
support and educate. Should he be
an invalid. afflicted so he could not
support those children, are they not
entitled to support under the law?
They should not be barred simply be-
cause their mother instead of their