Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1916-02-07
MONDAY, FEBRUARY :, 1916.
Az IMPORTANT HUMANITARIAN
MEASURE.

The Committee Of 100, formed re-
Gently 10 work throughout Maryland,
for Pensions for Widow Mothers, has
through its managing committee of 35,
mapped out a vigorous and systematic
campaign for that purpose Miss Ed
ma Annette Beveridge Of Baltimore.
secretary of the COMMITTEE of 100.
and author OF the measure, known as
the McQuade Bill. that passed the
House OF Delegates during the last
session of the Legislature. has been
IN incessant worker in its behalf and
has helped TO create a widespread
sentiment for this most humane meas
ure. Organizations in the various
counties OF Maryland are taking great
interest in the movement and cooper
atng with the committee to further
the plans already formulated by it,
The purpose is a humanitarian one
non-partisan. non-sectarian in charac-
ter, and calls for the support of every
man and woman interested in the bet
tering of conditions and the preserva-
ton of home life. The measure pro-
vides for stipulated sum per month
10 he paid only to a widow-mother. ac-
cording to the number of children she
has. thus enabling the mother. by re-
naming at home with her children, to
give them the right kind of care, that
their educational, moral and physical
welfare may be properly looked after
until each child reaches the age of a.
when as per the Maryland child labor
law. it can produce work and the fam
lily becomes self-supporting. The
mother has to be morally and phys
icaly able to bring up her children.
This aid is to be granted under wise
supervision and restriction. Public
assistance to the widow mother for the
proper home education of her children
is, and always will be- a necessary and
proper function of governmental does
not come within the province of pri-
vate philanthrophy or individual char
ity. II is social justice to the rehabil-
itating and preserving the home and
Their be the means. ultimately, of pro-
ducing better citizenship. The help
less widow-mother, and there are hun
dreds of them. in Maryland, whose
breadwinner is dead cannot become
both the supporter and caretaker of |
her children. The overtaXing of her
strength. through assuming this dou-
BILE duty,together with the mental wor-
ry, naturally make of her an ineffi-
cient worker. a breakdown soon fol- |
lows. and she is forced to separate |
from her children, place them in insti- |
tutions while she goes on with her
struggle for existence alone and dis /
couraged. The bill introduced by the |
Committee of 100" will be a carefully |
prepared and comprehensive one, form /
ed of the best features of the laws |
now operated in twenty-seven states
of the United States In its applica-
ton everywhere, the tendency has been |
TO raise the status of womanhood, TO /
provide a fund by which aid is rem
dered, not as charity" said Juven-
lie Court Judge. but as a right as
justice due mothers. whose work in |
rearing children is work for the |
State" From the proven fact that it |
costs less TO care for children in the
home with their mother than in an
institution, the measure becomes of |
economic value 10 the State
Illustrating by one State. we find
that in Cook county. which includes
Chicago. it cost for the year 1913. to
take care of about FIVE hundred fam
lilies $I2S.94T.9O: institutional care
would have cost S212, $1,000. making
saving to the county of SS3.572.5I. 1t
is fully realized today that family
pride is a social asset: that upon this
element in human life is built achieve
ment. ambition. attainment We must.
therefore guard and assist families
to retain their self-respect and the re-
spect of the community in which they
live. The searchlight of the Com
mittee of 100" is sending its rays into
every corner, bringing into view the
real purpose of their efforts: ito con-