The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-08-29
BETTER THAN PENSIONS FOR
MOTHERS

Bills, in various forms, for the
granting of pensions to mothers, have
recently been introduced into the leg
islatures of about one-third of the
seates of the union. Many people
doubt the wisdom of this movement,
but it appeals powerfully to public
sentiment. Such laws at best would
be only palliative. They begin at
the wrong end. If certain vicious
and widespread conditions We're
changed there would be little or no
necessity to pension mothers.
If something really effective could
be done to abolish or materially les
sen the drink curse, few mothers
would need pensions. In a great ma
iority of cases, had the husband abb
stained, the mother would never
need help. In other cases, intemper-
ate or defective children (made so by
drink, accident or sickness or mis-
fortune, due directly or indirectly to
liquor, make help necessary.
Let us consider a concrete illus
tration: Nearly $4,000 arrests were
made in Boston last year for drunk
eness. Some were arrested more
than once, and many were unmarried.
But it is fair to estimate that 10000
were comparatively poor married
men. In these cases, the spending OF
money on drink was an actual rob-
bling of the family, preparing the way
for outside help later.
But this is very small part of the
story. The man so arrested loses his
lob for a time. Later he loses his
Job and becomes an intermittent la
borer at smaller pay. His lntemper'
ance means more sickness, which Is
expensive. This lessons the mothers
earning capacity, for she must care
for him. Children, for this and other
couses incident to his habit, are kept
from school, and grow up with less
capacity to help their mother. Many
children of such parents are born de-
fective in various ways-more slckly
and therefore more costly to raise
also with vicious impulses which
make them a burden rather than a
help to their mother. The evil exam
pie of the father tends to degrade son
and daughter so that the mother is
worse off in after years than though
childless. The money wasted on Ii
ouor compels the family to live in un
sanitary and demoralizing conditions
which entail sickness, death and trou
bles worse than death-all expensive
Sooner or later, continued drink leads
MANY among these $4,000 husbands
to crime, and then the mother Is, In
deed. driven into a corner.
These are only few of the ways
in which drink is wasting money and
life and placing thousands of mothers
where they need private or public
aid. How many among the l5,OOO
wives of men arrested last year in
Boston for being drunk will sooner
or later be reduced to that situation
no one can tell Certainly a very
large proportion. Our lawmakers fal
to go to the root of the matter. Coco
people seem blind as to the ravages
of the saloon Would it not be wiser
to do more to prevent the evil condl
ton? Perhaps. But 1t would be q
thousand times better to destroy the
drink curse, and SO abolish the need
Abstinence for husbands is vastly bet
ter than pensions for mothers.-Rev
Joseph H. Croker, President Unita
rian Temperance Society.
The babies or the liquor traffic
which? That is the question to be
considered. The liquor traffic kills
more babies every year than die from
all other causes combined. Are We
mot worth more to the nation than {
thousand billion-dollar liquor trusts
Exchange.
Before prohibition was established
| in Gainesville there was a saloon a
each of the four corners of the square
Now, in their places, there are foul
banks. Which bespeaks prosperity
|
/ Before prohibition, Palatka was ;