Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-03-11
4 MILLION FOR klDDlES
Is 4 GOOD INVESTMENT
And the Pennsylvania Legislature Must Now
Determine Whether the Rights of Small
Nations Apply at Home

| Nauons Apply d' lo'Ht
TT is cheering to find that the appro-
priations committees at Harrisburg
sanction the appeal of the Mothers As
sistance Fund for Sl,000,000 "a sum
barely adequate for the continuance of
essential relief work among those women
and children whose battle with msfor-
tune is uneven and always bitter. What
every one will hope now is that the con-
scentious obiectors in the House and the
| Senate will stand aside for once and let
the appropriation go through to do
service greater, perhaps, than any other
! that is possible with the states money.
In time of colossal expenditures
| million dollars seems like a pitfully
| small contribution to ease the Oldest sor-
| row in the world. For society is still
only cropping toward true sense of its
responsibilities in relation to the neg
lected lives which, in the end, can give
back TO civilization only a greater meas
ure of what they receive.
The scheme to assist friendless moth
ers burdened with the support of small
| children is relatively new experiment
| of great significance. Everywhere in
| the world there is a sincere effort to
readjust the processes of government
| more closely TO the life and the needs of
great majorities To vitalize govern
ments with humane consciousness, to
re-establish more intimate relationship
| between peoples and their administra-
| tive systems-these are concerns of
| every statesman who knows anything of
| the time he lives in.
The fitness of public men is, indeed,
being measured and tested in almost
every civilized community by the nature
of their reactions to such trends of
thought and feeling. Certainly this sort
of enlightenment isn't coming too soon
anywhere. In this state, for example.
the very trees Of the forests and the
cabbages of the field have experts in
highly organized groups to determine
what is best for them. Until the plan
| for the assistance for destitute mothers
was proposed in Pennsylvania in 1913
there were large groups of children who
| remained beyond the reach of help, below
| the level of school influences and the
| ordinary protective agencies. Yet they
are among the most important assets of
| the state and the stuff of future society.
The sweep of the influenza epidemic
| left 10000 new orphans under sixteen
| years of age in this state. Do the rights
of small nations apply here? This dim
and silent community has no spokes-
man, no ambassador. The army that
| fights its battles is made up of desolated
mothers whose cause is as tragic, surely,
as any that ever was lost or won in lone
some trenches.
How they fare how they persist, by
what miracle of valor and patience they
make way against the confusion and
| strains that modern life and the acci-
| dents of circumstance create about them
no one knows but themselves. Often
enough they hold something of the great
! future in hands more tired than any
| hands ought to be. Sometimes they fail,
| these patient ones, and are overwhelmed.
| And then the jails and the reformatories
| take what remains of their adventure.
| In the final analysis these mothers whom
| the state seeks to help are the great
| unconscious enemies of all the forces
! which conspire to degrade and hinder
| mankind. When the state moves to their
aid il moves TO the instinct of self-preser-
| vatiOn.
Long experience has shown the cruel
| folly of denying fair chance in life to a
child and then providing harsh punish
racnt for the offenses and errors that are
| Inevitable. And it has been found that
the small sums allotted under the moth
ers' assistance plan for the maintenance
Of children in decent home environment
were actually less than would have been
required for the maintenance of these
same children in the far less desirable
atmosphere of public institutions.
The need for "a sane and humane con-
sideration of the whole question of juve-
nile deficiency is greatest in an industrial
community like ours. Crowded areas of
population complcate every condition of
poverty for women and children. This
fact was recognized in Pennsylvania
when the original plan for the assistance
of destitute mothers was proposed
| Since then the practical value of the sys-
tenn has been recognized elsewhere and
there have been times when it seemed
that we were to leave to others the full
development of really notable idea.
Last year, for example, the state of
New York spent 100000 for the sort
of service which Pennsylvania is now
asked to maintain with an appropriation
equal to half that sum. Massachusetts
has a population only half as large as
ours, yet it has arranged to spend
$l,OOO,O0O during the coming year in aid
of widowed mothers and their young
children. The movement represents an
effort to maintain these little families
until they are self-supporting, to keep
children out of institutions and under the
care Of their mothers and to save them