The pioneer-review. [volume] (Philip, Haakon County, S.D.) 1920-current, 1922-10-19

z any mere. Anu III may DE feTldTk X
ed, in passing, that here in South
! Dakota we accept Mothers Pen
sions as an established fact. We be-
lieve that such pensions are sim
4 ply duty which society owes the
4 widowed or deserted mother. We
expect our governors 10 recon-
mend and our legislatures to pass
such laws. Yet less than one-third
fof the states have Mothers Pen
sion laws. The Republican party
claims credit for helping to place
South Dakota among the advanced
states in this regard.
Legal Custody of Children. The
lpresent Republican administration
calls attention to progressive,
sane, fair, and just law occupy
ing only four lines in the session
laws Of 1921, but fraught with
great consequences to the women
and children of the state, and set
ting aside an age-old injustice
Prior to March 10, 1921, when Gov
ernor McMaster approved the new
law, our old law in regard to the
legal custody of children was as
follows: The father Of a legiti-
mate unmarried minor child is en-
titled to it's custody, services, and
earning; but he carnot transfer
such custody, services to an other
person, except the mother, with
out her written consent, unless
she has deserted him or is living
separate from him by agreement.
If the father be dead, or be un-
able, or refuse to take the custody
or has abandoned the family, the
mother is entitled thereto" This
expresses in rather vagce and un-
certain English a very ancient
legal principle, going back for its
foundation to a day when the
father was recognized as the ar
titray master and head of the
family and the wife and children
as something near slaves. The law
..assed by the 1921 legislature is
as follows: "The father and mother
of legitimate unmarried minor
child are equally entitled to its
custody, service, and earnings. If
either father or mother be deal or
refuse to take the custody or has
abandoned his or her family. the
other is entitled to it's custody,
service and earnings Thus the
mother comes into her honest
right, as sharing with the father
the right to legal custody of her
children. We appeal to red-blooded
South Dakota women to think it
over, and consider whether this
be not important.
: State Industrial School for Girls.
The legislature of 1921 submits
as part of its progressive record
the law it passed providing for
separate state industrial school
for delinquent girls. Heretofore
delinquent boys and delinquent
girls have been kept at the same
institution at Plankington. AS a
result the situation has not been
the best possible. Some time must
yet pass before the home for girls
can be located and erected, but we
can take no backward step in this
matter whatever else may happen.
The organizations. of women thru
out the state insisted upon sep
arate reform institution for girls,
and the act of the legislature is
the result.
Support of Illegitimate Children.
Chapter 1877 of the Session Laws
Of 1921 is also a part of the re-
cord Of a Republican administra-
tion's interest in the mother and
her child, more especially the un-
fortunate mother and her more un-
fortunate child. That chapter puts
teeth in the old law covering the
same subject. Support of an allegi-
innate child by its father is made
a matter Of greater certainty.
When paternity was established,
the old law provided for a pay
ment towards the support Of the
child not exceeding two hundred
fifty dollars for the first year and
one hundred fifty dollars thereaf-
ter for nine years. The new law
provides for a payment of not ex-
ceeding five hundred dollars for
the first year and three hundred
dollars for the succeeding years
covering total period of ten years
years. The law certainly marks "a
distinct advance.
On enactments such as these the
Republican party of South Dakota
rests it's claim to the suffrage of
women voters of the state, pledg-
ing them that so long as it is
kept in power it will go forward