Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1914-01-02

failed to educate the children and as
industry demanded girls and boys who
could read and write, the free public
school system was established and has
just about abolished illiteracy.
Charity is Disgraceful.
Charity schools were miserable fail.
ure. They have gone. But the Russell
Sage Foundation and other great in
stitutions will go piffling around try
ing to convince the people that charity
will relieve child poverty. Charity dis.
graces the receiver, teaches him to beg,
and fills the giver with a false pride
that hurts his character. Charity can
not even relieve child-poverty and it
does not even propose to abolish it.
For scores of years this begging bust
ness went on unhindered. The United
Charities of Chicago collected more than
$3OO,000 year, seventy-five per cent
of which went to salaries of "investi.
gators, " whose chief work was obtain
ing jobs for dependent mothers. Such
jobs as they obtained were washing and
scrubbing, laborious work which ruined
the mother and broke up the family.
Thousands of families were broken up
in this way, The technical court charge
for breaking up the family, however,
was truancy delinquency, "failing to
keep the house clean,n or the mother
was sent to the hospital broken down.
Thus, juvenile court records and the
amazing statistics of the charity trust |
show that no homes were broken up by |
poverty, The facts are that poverty
was the cause of all the broken homes
that passed through the juvenile court |
and charity trust,
Crime Against Motherhood.
Early in 1911, | happened to run in,
to this supreme crime against mother.
hood and childhood. Selling black
babies away from their mothers, outrag. |
cd humane persons throughout the world |
and helped bring on the bloody Civil |
war, But ! have seen white mothers,
good mothers, noble mothers, separated
forever from their own children, be.
cause they were poor and this crime
was committed in the name Of kindness
and charity, ! hope God will forgive
them. This is going on in New York
state at this very hour and any person
may prove it by visiting the Juvenile
courts and observing the processes
Appalled, at the sapatanon Of mother
and child, the supreme crime, and 'hc
most awful punishment that could ne
devised by friends, conr"iy''l the idea
of pensioning mothers. ,lpiotly the law |
was passed in Illinois aud went INTO
effect ON July |, 1917, since that time
thousands Of children have been re.
lieved from poverty and the breaking |
up Of homes has been checked. The
new system met with the approval oe
the public and at this ,imr has been
adopted by eighteen states The beg.
ging charities Of Chicago hlya proven
inefficient, in the eyes pf the public.
The high salaried experts and the hig
horde Of investigators could rot
raise last year more than $4,000 al.
though assisted by committees Of prom.
inent business men. Many charity work.
ers thrown out Of work by the failure
of tho begging societies have been hired
by the county as civil service employees
to help the pcnsioned mothers, instead
of wasting their time as employment
agents for wash women aud scrubbers,
Pension System Economical.
The pension system has been found
economical as all the money goes d.
rectly TO the children aud their moth.
or and the family is not subjected to
the insult Of charity amy more than the
pupil in the public school, Under this
system families aro not broken up;
hope Eliminates the life ot the mother;
she remains at home and takes caro-
Of her own children; the little ones may
have a home OF which they are proud,
anil thn rcenr1s 90 tha v,,.n,,ii, .o,vts