The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-12-27
OUR LAWS FOR
 CHILDREN BORN
 OUT OF WEDLOCK

What rights do the laws of this i country give to the child born out of we2lock? What responsibility has the State toward him? What method of placing a part of the burden of his support and education upon the ia ther? Can the child inherit property from either his father or his mother? Has he a right to his fathers name? Does the subsequent marriage of his parents make him legitimate in the eyes of the law? These and many other questions about the legal obli- gations of parents and of the State to children born out of wedIock are answered in q bulletin entitled ''II- Legitimacy Laws in the United States and Certain Foreign Countries" is- sued by the Ch;ldren's Bureau of the U. s. Department of Labor.
 The English common law. in some re- spects still unaltered in England and in parts of the United States, regards the child born out of wedIock as the "chiId of no one" He bears no legal
 relationship even to his mother, and
 the subsequent marriage of his par
 ents can not legitimate him. Many
 of our Sta teS have altered the com
 mon law by statutes more fav0ra hle
 to the child One of the most radical
 departures is found ir the North Da- 1Iota. law of 1917 which declares every
 child the legitimate child of his nat
 ural parents, but which weakens this
 broad provision by the failure 10 pro-
 vide adequate administered tive ma chinery Minnesota Tn 1917 passed a law which aims to secure for child ren born out of welIock the nearest approximation to the care. support, and education that they would be en- titled to receive if born of lawful
 marriage The State board of con troI is made the chiId's official guaro- ian: this board may bring complaint in illegitimacy proceedings and must see that the chiId's interests are safe guarded.
 Provisions were adopted in Virginia
 as early as 1785. whereby the issue
 of certain annulIed marriages could be made legitimate, and whereby sub
 sequent marriage could legitimate is sue, and the child could inherit from
 the mother. These provisions are not
 even vet universal in this country.
 states have no provisions for legiti-
 nation by subsequent marriages, and many limitations are placed upon the right of children of annuued or Eold marriages to be considered legitimate
 Attention is called in this report to the fact that our legal provisions for the support of the child born out
 of wedIock are inadequate--the pay
 mants prescribed are often too low, and in most States the period of sup port is too brief. sometimes reaching only to the chiIdS 10th or 12th year, In one State only a single payment of $50 Is required; in another S90 distri- buted over three years is required The two most liberal States have al Iowances that total, in one case, B. 75O for the first IS years of the child's life. and in the other, s1750 for the first eleven years of the child's life.
 The report suggests that illeg1unacy legislation in the United States might be improved by uniform provision for the establishment of legitimacy; the legitirnation of children of null or stlbsequent marriages; possibility ot adoption by the father; and declara- ton that the relation of mother and child is the same whether the child is legitimate or not.
 In addition to a1 critical anaiysIs or iTegitimacy legislation in this coun- trv. the report contains an analysis | of certain phases of the various State 1 laws in tabular form, the complete i text of all the State laws, the inegit- l imacy provisions of the Codes of 1 France, Germany and Switzerland [ and 8 reference index to the U. $. H. 1 legitimacy laws.