The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-06-09

ingIy toiled to bring back health and
 hope to the mothers and to give to
 the children disease-resisting bodiess
 dietitians who have, when necessary, given home instruction in buying, car ing for and preparing foods
 Not from the reading of ease rec
 ords' but from these more vital sources an opinion may be formed as to the progress made, the promise and
 the hope resident in these farniiIies. And the answer of these workers is that there has been a decided trend upward in these milies-p hysicaI. mental and moraI-that the money in vested in these families is returning in terest in the way of lives made strong
 CT. in the bringing into homes where
 outlook was barren and hard=new hope, renewed courage and ambition kindling outlook; that the adequate relief plus adequate personal interest and ministration is meaning to these children opportunity-op opportunity to grow into healthy, honest, capable maahood;s into gentle. Intelligent healthfui homennakfng wonanhood.
 On the other hand many Of the non pension families are living in more or less congested quarters and under con ditions that smack not of cleanliness of living Lack Of better accommoda- tions at reasonable price in the neighborhoods where they prefer to live--because of strong local ties or the natural desires to be ne0r their work that both time and carfare may be sayed-naakes improvement along this line most difficult. Further. jant- tress service. which means free rent. is for many of these women the surest source of income and apartments given for that purpose are often in the basement or in the least desirable part of the building.
 A sa..T kx. - ALL budgets of the 431 non-pension fanf- lies made by the Associations diet- itians for purpose of comparison with those of the 4S pensioned families shows that the total monthly incomes of the 431 families is 18.611. SC, while the amount that would be necessary for them to maintain the standard of living set for the pensioned families would be $24.674.23.
 It is by no means certain that all of these families should be pensioned at once. Many of them probably should. Adequacy of treatment cam not be wholly measured in figures of dollars and cents Suhaciency of in- come in one family may simply mean that the mother Or the children are working when they should be at home or in school. Or again. insult hctency of income may mean that some individuals in the family are not doing all that they should. Again, some few of these homes may be Of character that would make any effort to keep them intact unwise- Poor as institutions may be as substitutes for family lifes there is no question that they are better than some homes
 While voluntary relief aEencaes may be strong in 4he belief that ev- cry effort should first be made to ham dle the situation through ptivate en- deavor, yet unless such private agen- cies can measure I'D to the needs of the situation, they cannot allow the- ories and opinions as to the merits of one form of relief over another to prevent the adoption of a program whose honest purpose it is to put a stop to the incalcuIable social loss that is plainly written in the stories of the lives of a large number Of wo- men and children