The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-11-26
THE MATERNITY BILL.

Passage of the maternity bill by
congress marks another advance in
maternalistic government. In case a
thing should be done and the people
or the states neglect or refuse to do
it it may be entirely proper in the
interest of the public welfare for the
federal government to step in. How
ever, much opposition to the principle
involved developed while the bill was
under discussion.
Without entering into the merits of
this class of legislation, attention may
well be called to the fact that the ap-
preparation provided for in the bill
seems so inadequate to the magnitude
Of the work to be undertaken as to
Indicate a possibility that the law was
designed more to provide jobs for the
faithful than to confer benefits on the
public. In other words the cost of
administration threatens to absorb the
bulk of the money for which provi-
sion is made.
One of the first things to be done
following, of course. the organiza-
ton of the management of the fund
at Washington, will be the passing
out to each state of $4,000. State
organizations, of course, must be per-
fected to take charge of this and such
other money as is granted under the
terms of the bill. Naturally the CEN
trail bureau at Washington will have
ideas as to how the money must be
employed. 1t is not beyond the pow
ers of imagination to suppose that the
program mapped out by those. in
charge at Washington will be the
one that the several states will be
supposed to follow.
The bill provides that for the next
five years $1,24O.OOO shall be avail
able. Each state, beginning year
from July 1, next shall receive $5,-
900 outright and then another $4,000
provided the state itself puts up a
like amount. The balance of the fund
each year is to be distributed among
the states according to the population,
with each state matching what it gets
by similar appropriation.
That is how the money Is to be
doled out-not counting the part
which goes for the expense of admin
istration. What is to be done with it
is hardly so certain.
Just how completely the work will
be under the direct supervision of
Washington is seen by quotations from
the act itself This is how the states
will be enabled to carry on the work:
Sec. s. Any state desiring to re-
ceive the benefits of this act shall,
by its agency described in section 4,
submit to the children's bureau de-
tailed plans for carrying out the pro-
visions of this act within such state.
which plans shall be subject to the
approval of the board: Provided,
That the plans of the state under this
act shall provide that no official, or
agent. or representative in carrying
out the provisions of this act shall
any child over the objection of the
parents, or either of them, or the
person standing in loco PARENTS or
having custody of such child. If these
plans shall be in conformity with the
provisions of this act and reasonably
appropriate and adequate to carry out
its purposes they shall be approved
by the board and due notice Of such
! approval shall be sent to the state
agency by the chief of the children s
| bureau.
The enactment of the measure
probably can be traced to the entry
of women into federal politics. The
title of the bill may have won it some
support but the desire to win the
woman vote and the ever present ne
cessity for more political jobs prob
ably induced many congressman to
vote for it.