The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1928-10-25
sAUR CENTRE HERALD, sauk Centre, MINI.

tHAN ANG ACAALOS 00OA OSU
ties than in cities where the close
ness of the neighbors control neg
lect more or less. Destitute chill
dren are the children of destitute
parents usually. If poverty is the
only problem re-adjustment of the
home is attempted. Methods of
poor relief in rural communities
under the township system is a sub
ject that needs careful considera-
ton.
Finding foster home for a child
is a different matter today from
what it was a few years ago. For
many years inmates of asylumns
and orphanages were placed out
under contract system with little
or no preliminary Investigation.
There was time when an oganiza-
ton with children to place took a
number of them inso parish often
to church service on Sunday al
lowing members of the congrega-
ton to pick the child they wanted
after sermon by the minister on
the duty of compassion to the
poor. The little girl who was at
tractive or the boy who looked like
a prospective farm hand, were TAX
en- while the plain child and the
poor little understood child were al
ways left behind. You may mag
inc the humiliation of those chill
siren not chosen.
This is no longer possible in
Minnesota. Ali agencies for plac-
ing children are licensed by the
state. The Board of control must
be notified as soon as any child is
placed in foster home for adop-
tion or temporarily. While wealth
is not a determining factor in Sc
lecting home, there must be SUI
ficient means to insure proper
standards in selecting home. The
child must be treated as one of
the family. 1t must attend school
every day that school is in session.
1t cannot be kept out to help with
the planting or the potato digging
or the corn husking. This is dis
tinctly understood by the foster
parents before the child enters the
home. No child can be legally
adopted until it has been 6 months
in the home. Where families re-
fuse to adopt we look for some
Interior motive which is usually
work.
Mrs. Moynihan stated that the
mothers pension law has effected
great change in the status of fine
group of children in our country.
When a good home is menaced by
the removal of the father through
death or disease and where the
best interests of the child forbid
the mother to seek employment
outside the home, the mothers pen
sion law can be invoked.
Any mother having a child un-
der the age of sixteen whose hus-
band is dead or an inmate of a
penal institution or a state sani-
torium or has been under indict-
ment for desertion for period of
three months, who has lived one
year in the county and two years
in the state, is entitled to county
allowance provided she has no
property real or personal valued at
more than one hundred dollars.
She may own a home sufficient for
her needs however,
The rapid growth of the moth
er's pension movement in a brief
period of years indicates how wide
ly held and how deeply rooted is
the conviction that home life and
a mothers care shall be denied no
child because of poverty. No insti-
tuition however, good can give to
that child those sterling qualities
of patience, unselfishness, loyalty
and self-respect that develop norm
ally through the friendly candor of
the family group.
But the most ardent admirers of
the mothers pension law do not re-
gard it as perfect but rather as an
development which
will give place in time to some
more democratic and less paternal
scheme of social insurance.
One of the problems in Minneso-
ia today is the inequality of the
operation of the law in various
counties and the difficulty for ade-
quate supervision. In most coun-
ties the maximum amount is sell
dom granted and strict interpresa-
ton of what property constitutes
a bar, is adhered to. In others the
court holds that it is discouraging
to the mother and a menace to the
spirit of thrift to limit her to 500.
In another the sum of 500 for
each child may be kept as an emer-
gency fund and the mother still
draw pension.
Another difficulty in dealing
with mothers pensions is the fact
that nc allowance is made for the
of the mother herself. In
many cases the maximum is made
quate to maintain decent stand
ari for the children and no pro-
vision whatever is made for food
aad clothing for the mother. It
is not desirable to place these
not hove II, ~ olocc NTH no1,norc ond