The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-03-20
STATE URGED TO AID
! WIDOWED MOTHERS
Commission Recommends a Sv,
tenn Of "AllOwances" linda,
Supervision.
MAYOR TO GIVE HELP HERE
Widow With One Child to r..
ceive 500 a Month: With
Two Children S35

ALBANY, March 1s.--The Sta. r..
submitted its report 10 the Ler stature "a,
duy. The report urges Legislation r.,
the establishment Of local boards o, chin,
welfare to be appointed by III. lo,s,
Judges In each county except In New Yo,t
city, where the Mayor IL to hav. N,
power.
These boards will be permitted to xr,,,
allowances to any dependent " dow WIN
Ia Of good moral cha racter and has o-,
OF more children under 1s years Old
IL a mother has one child the allowenr.
Ia not to exceed $40 month. II two
children e15 q month for the additional
child and $40 q month for each additional
child after the second.
The commission reports in part a. fol.
lows:
I'VE urge this Legislature 70 pas.
widows allowance" bill. After man,
months Of earnest inquiry We bellev. Ina,
the passage OF such a bill Is an lrnmed.
ate duty which the Legislature owes 10
the children Of the State of New York
Neglect CholAeen 90 suppc~, THE.
I'VE fnd that many thousands q,
widowed mothers In the State OF Men
York are obliged to neglect their Chi.
dren In order to support them. They
are obliged to deprive those chill.
dren Of motherly affection and training
In order to give themselves over TO wsg.
earning work.
And we And further tina, mos, such
mothers, doing wage earning work OF
the crudest sort. bending over Laundry
tubs. for instance, or crawling with wash.
N hat IA he
Of Office buildings in the late even ng OF
in the early dark morning. are unable 70
provide their children with proper
measure OF the necessaries of Iife.
They cannot in such cases be cue.
cessful mothers because they are too
much d stracted by wage earning They
cannot be successful wage carriers be.
cause they are too much distracted BY
the child life In their hearts and homes
The children suffer in soul and body both
They get neither proper maternal car.
nor proper physical support
"Then comes the appeal 10 charity
Often, on the other hand, that appeal Il
never made and the Widowed mother
with her children goes her WAY without
ass stance Many witnesses who have ap-
peared before US and who are very clos.
to the poor in their homes have told u.
with one voice that large numbers OF
Widowed fnotntTs never bPNrod'i Nllf Alldr
lily societies at all In view OF that iAc,
the following fact becomes peculiarly
startling:
Situation In New York City
To-day In New York city alone there
are some 5000 widowed mothers on n
books Of the private charity socic,i-s
I'VE find that about quarter ~ o.
the cases coming to the private Chlr'r
societies are cases Of widowed mothers
And we And II tn he fact, and We en-
phasize that fact, that the private char
'ty societies are themselves too poor 70
be able to rescue those widowed mothers
as class, from poverty. Private cnar
,ty in this particular matter Of M
widowed mother liz to-day a failure.
"There are to-day In orphan asN'lr''
and child caring inst tut ors and othef sim
liar institut ons In New York state nor
than 1000 children who have beer
taken away from widowed mothers ~
no other cause than that those mothers
though physically strong and morAE
worthy. have been unable to support ih.r
any longer either by earning money '
their own or by begging money IRON
private charity societies
In addition to these 1000 oh'lt--'
there are about 1000 more "a the mt
buttons OF our state who are tn,i- 'r
cause their widowed mothers broke
down in health trying to support then.