The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1921-09-01
ASKS STATE TO
HELP MOTHERS
Judge Neil Urges Wider
Support of Mothers
Pension Law.
CONIMENDS KENOSHA

The man who believes in mothers
came to Kenosha Saturday and spent
the day persuading Kenoshans to do
what they could to promote the more
extensive operation of the Mothers
Pension law in Wisconsin. He is
Judge Henry Neil of Hinsdale, Illinois,
who has travelled over one hundred
thousand miles in ten years, carrying
his great plan that every mother of
dependent children shall be given a
sufficient allowance by the state to en-
able her to bring up her children in
health and happiness.
Judge Neil was agreeably surprised
at the situation he found in Kenosha.
By consulting statistics, he discovered
that the city was fourth in the state
in the amount of money paid to the
Mothers Pension Fund. He commend
ed city officials on their stand in the
matter and urged them to spread the
Kenosha idea to other cities until all
Wisconsin had been brought more
whole-heartedly into the movement
supporting mother-made rather than
machine-made children. When remind
ed that recent reports from Moscow,
where children are being reared in in
stitution, said that the city was ring
ing with the laughter of happy young
sters he predicted that the merriment
would be short-lived and would turn
to regret when the children became old
enough to realize what they had missed
in npVar having mother
Fathered First Mothers Bill.
Illinois was the first state to enact
a statewide Mothers Pension law.
This was fathered by Judge Neil. The
system is now in successful operation
in 40 states of America, in 3 provinces
of Canada, in New Zealand, in Aus
tralia, (Victoria and Queensland,) and
in Denmark. No state has ever repeal
ed its Mothers Pension law, and they
are continually extending and perfect
ing the system. The demand for it in
Great Britain and South Africa, just
visited by Judge Neil, is increasingly
felt and growing articulate. This year
in the United States one hundred and
twenty-five thousand children will be
kept with their own mothers who would
otherwise be in institutions. The total
cost in the United States will be s15,-
100000. This is more than is paid to
mothers of dependent children by all
the charity organizations combined.
Bought Back Her Child.
Judge Neil has had many experiences
during his promotion of Mothers PEN
sions, which have persuaded him that
there is no truth in the Bolshevik idea
that mothers will forget their children
and be freezer and happier for having
been relieved OF the care of them.
chats a mistaken notion" the judge
said Saturday. "Just one of thousand
things I've seen will prove it wrong.
One day I happened to go into the chill
dren's court in the city of Chicago.
Before the bar of the court stood two
women the one to the right was richly
dressed, robust and healthy; the one
to the left was thin, weak and shabbily
dressed. Between them stood twelve
year-old girl The testimony was that
eleven years ago the husband of this
well-dresaed woman died. She was
left with this girl, then one year old
whom she could not support. The child
had been given in adoption by this
court to the other woman, then we'll
to-do, but now poor. Eleven years had
passed.; the real mother had married
an engineer on the Panama Canal, who
was rich. She hired detectives to find
out the whereabouts of her child, as the
courts are forbidden to give such in
formation to a mother whose child has
been adopted by another. She found
her girl living with its legal mother.