The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-06-24
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HASKIN. Director.
washington, d. G.
PROFESSIONAL MOTHERS.

living and a good education whether
its mother is married or not. and.that
it is the duty of the state to enable
Ithe mother to provide these things. re-
ceived an impressive endorsement the
other day when the state conference
on mothers pensions in Ohio passed
resolution favoring the extension of
the mothers pension law to mothers
| Of Legitimate children
This radical principle was not en-
| dorsed without heated discussion. A
woman delegate asserted that the
! mother of an illegitimate child is an
abandoned creature who does not de-
serve the help of the state, and some
what the same point of view was ex-
pressed by others; but the day was
carried for the unmarried mothers by
Judge Frank w. Geiger of Springfield.
How about the bables?" he de-
| manded. THE real purpose of the
pension is to protect the children
the illegitimate child needs this pro-
lection as much, or very much more,
than any other"
He went on to say that the mother,
in such a case, also needs the help of
| the state, and that the state should
grant it. This is a startlingly new
principle in American law and social
custom but an old il somewhat
Judge Geiger took the same attitude
toward the unwed mother that Jesus
Christ took toward a woman in some
/ what similar circumstances.
Admittedly, however, it is not the
humanitarian value OF compassion for
the woman, but the practical and
economic value of justice for the child
which is back of the growing move
ment for the granting of pensions to
mothers. AlthO few Americans realize
it, pensions are now granted to moth
ers, under various circumstances, by
a majority of the states in the Union.
only one of them so far has included
unmarried mothers in these benefits,
but the tendency plainly is to extend
the aid to them also.
Against Our Traditions.
| The growth of-the mothers pen
sions movement is a striking example
of how a practical need makes itself
felt and is answered despite all
theories against it. For the theory of
American government is absolutely in
dividualistic. That is, We are all
taught to believe that in this country
opportunity is equal for all, and that
anyone who will work can make
good living, bring up his children in
health and comfort and give them
good education.
In practice this theory seems not to
work perfectly. In the old days when
there were not so many people in
America, nearly everyone got enough
to eat and probably most of them got
such education as the country afford
ed. But of late it has become in
creasingIy apparent that many thou
sands of American children get neither
enough to eat nor decent education.
In the slums of our great cities chill
dren die like flies of malnutrition and
neglect. In many rural districts they
die almost as fast of hookworm. ma
laria and other diseases that spring
largely from poverty. and in some
rural districts the children get no
education worthy of the name. One
of the results of these conditions was
seen when the draft brought forward
thousands of young men who were
undernourished. diseased, ignorant
and even illiterate. It is self-evident,
of course, that the state cannot afr
ford to go on raising that kind of
men any more than farmer can af-
ford to raise NANCY, stunted and dis
| eased livestock.
1t has always been recognized, of
| course, that some parents would be
una BILE to care for their children and
that some children would be born out
| of wedIock and that the state had
certain responsibility for such unfor
tunAte children. The recognition of
these facts created the orphana ges.
orphan asylums and like institutions
| which dot the country. But these
places do not fill the bill. The child
has no home life, no proper freedom.
He is not given the living and the edu-
| cation which he deserves, but merely
makeshift substitute, the acceptance
of which he often regards as a dis
grace.
Charity Fails.
The efforts of private charity have
likewise proved inadequate. and so
| have the attempts to solve the prob
. nv nj r. in
Despite these measures. the enormous
| waste of child life has gone on. The
system of pensioning mothers with
| state funds has gained Roadway be-
cause it has, to some extent met the
need when everything else has failed,
| One state after another has adopted
it, and everywhere it has accomplished
good. The laws are all different and
few of them are drawn by experts.
| Few of them provide really adequate
pensions. and still fewer make any
adequate provision for the adninistra-
ton of the law by competent persons.
Yet mothers pensions have triumph
ed. and it has been purely practical
triumph. 1t is against all American
| tradition for the state to pension
mothers 1t is a purely socialistic
measure Washington and Jefferson
and the rest of the pantheon of Amer
| lean political gods never endorsed it.
] But it saves child life, keeps homes
intact, keeps women from taking to
the street in sheer desperation. and
therefore it has triumphed again and
| again in conservative legislatures
where common sense is stronger than
devotion to tradition or fear of social
! theory.
The dangers of granting pensions to
mothers are self-evident. There is
Obvious danger of fraud and waste.
There is also an obvious temptation
for officeholders to use such pensions
as a means of building up their con-
lstituencies. Yet those who have had
experience in administering these laws
say that the practical drawbacks are
not so serious as they look. The
growing participation of women in
politics and public service will prob
ably be stimulus both to the passa ge
of such legislation and to its proper