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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (March 14, 1913)
!w'mrwijBmmjBwmfym ppqpjg!)! 6 The Commoner. 'f""rw-fW hi Sfo- fr ns w Kfr y fc 1 W & Keeping the Family Together On Octobor 9, 1912, at 4 o'clock In tho after noon, Mro. Mary Morson, in tho city of Now York, walked toward tlio St. Rachel Orphan asylum. Four children walked beside her chlldron of hor own body. It would bo many days boforo they walkod beside her again. Half a mllo to tho south, on East Fifty-ninth Htroot, at No. 124, In a filing cabinet, there stood a card which authorized Mrs. Morson to walk witn nor children toward tho St. Rachel Orphan asylum on hor errand of bereavement. This card, In recent ink, displayed tho words 'commitment papers." Four, of Mrs. Morson's children had been "committod" from hor to tho asylum. Tho filing cabinets at No. 124 Bast Fifty ninth stroot (tho children's bureau of tho city of Now York) aro comoterles in which thous ands di' stout white enrdu'boaring tho epitaph 'commitment papers" havo boon erected to com momOrato tho living separation of rolatives and tho doath of child lifo of living children. Mrs. Morson had come to No. 124 Bast Fifty ninth stroot on Octobor 7. Sho sat, with other applicants, on ono of tho long wooden benches in tho basement. It is a room at which I look with moro disquiet than at any other room in my world. Ton thousand applications wore made in it last yoar for "commitment" of children. What Mrs. Morson said, when it came hor turn, was put down on a card and borne to Jrodorick B. Dauor, superintendent, on tho floor above. Mr. Bauer sees cards which tell him that tho fathor of tho children who aro to bo "com mitted" is sick, or crippled, or insane, and Is thoroforo unablo to support them. Ho sees cards which tell him that the fathor is a drunk ard or a deserter or a prisoner and has left his chlldron without food. All day long he seos cards which show him how thoughtless, how absurd, how cruel, wo aro in assuming that wo have sottlod tho question of the support of a mother and hor chlldron when wo have made a man stand up before a clorgyman or a magis tral and say, "With all my worldly goods .1 thee onflow." Wo havo doponded too heavily, too com pletely, on tho character and tho fortune of ono Pir,s,011"Ttho fathG1 Wo havo eamblod tho child s chancos of having a home on tho father's chances of having an Income, Wo havo even gamblod tho child's chances of having a homo on tho father's chances of being alive A child has committod no crime. Ho has a right, an undeniable right, to tho homo care of a mothor, even if his fathor is sick or crippled or insane, oven if his fathor is a drunkard or a dead1 r a prlaoner' ovon if hIa fathor is fmSVlfc xr NGW Yi.1:k' having "emitted" four of tho Morson chlldron to the St. Rachel Orphan asylum will allow the asylum, in tSrS ihnJnWi MMl Vlrtually lnoans "commit") Morson? " flt individual oxcPt Mrs. xt 0nvOctober 9, 1912, while Mrs. Morson of Now York was seeing hor children "committed" to strangers, there had already been a largo Issue of an entirely different kind of "commit ment papers" in tho three cities of Kansas C?ty Chicago and Milwaukee. Kansas uty, In those cities, on Octobor 9, there wore some mWiUed"0Utoa?h,rUI1(iren Y,h0 lmd W muted to thoir own mothers by order of tho Juvenile court. There wore sonfe six hundred of these r-'hers; and t, t authorities by order of tlie juvenile court, were paying them I inoTuh. m0W t0taHng UP t0 SS llijfoo Tho money thus paid over is spoken of some- Tho oarllost and moat carefully organized oP ICansas City" Judge For orriole o Z S?8 ln City Juvenile court says of it- aMtt3 tar9Of this n?X Tho settlement woman civon ii tt Juvenile court) a printed ? J er (fr?m the answer. In answering them li qUGStions to the principal events of toStmV? t11 comes finally to a question wK pointstward the future. This question is the guidepost to tho Kansas City system, and to every other thinkable good system of "widows' pensions." Its purport is: "Will you, if you get a pension, stay at homo and mind tho children?" It is not, you see, a "pension" at all. It is not for anything Mrs. Morson has already done. It is for something sho is about to do. It is not for benefiting tho state by having borno children. It is for benefiting tho state by pro ceeding to feed and clotho and rear them. Sho is not on tho retired list. Sho is in active service. Kansas City does not pin a medal on Mrs. Morson. It gives her a job. When tho children como to tho working age, tho job ceases, andftho "pension" ceases with it. Intho intorim'if Mrs. Morson neglects tho children that is, if she ceases to work at her job sho is discharged. Her pay stops. Her "pension" is stricken from tho juvenile court rolls. Tn Kansas City, besides tho widow, just ono other class of womon como within the law, namely, tho wife of the man who is in prison. In Milwaukee tho law is broader. It is to prevent "separation" of families which, for tho sake of tho children, ought to be kept together. Tho law in Kansas City, though state law, ap plies to Kansas City only. The "law" in Mil waukee is merely an order of tho local county commissioners. Tho Illinois law is broadest in its application, for it covers tho whole state; and it is also broadest in its possible operation, for it pro vides that if tho "parents" aro "poor," tho juvenile court, being convinced of their value as parents, may grant the man allowance out of county funds. William Hard in tho Delineator. VOLUME 13,- NUMBER If Indeed, ho actually sought to establish thn proposition that criticism of a public official waq equivalent to treasonable utterance." Whatever else may be said of Mr. Bryan ho certainly has a most dangerous way of retort when ho stands on familiar ground. He might have gone further on the merits of the case and reminded Colonel Roosevelt that his claim of Lincoln having said savage things about tho Dred Scott decision is absolutely baseless . What Lincoln -said was that the Dred Scott decision should bo obeyed because it was the decision of the court, but that efforts should be made in some later case to persuade the court that its decision was not on the right side and he based that plea upon the fact that in some other cases between the time of the creation of the court and the Dred Scott decision, a period of less than seventy years, the court had on some occasions reversed itself in a later dP cision. But then, Colonel Roosevelt has small show as a rule, in arguing with Colonel Bryan -1 Buffalo (N. Y.) Evening News. HOW TJIE AHNIMUM WAGE WORKS Tho system has been in effect for no less than sixteen years in Australia, and with ever- andToZrs nd0r8ement from bot employers Victoria adopted tho plan in 1896. At first It applied I only to five "sweated" trades-boot-making baking and the manufacture of cloth ing, underwear and furniture. By 1910 virtu ally all trades had come under its operation The report of a- competent observer, in "the Journal of Political Economy, says: ' The extensions have usually taken place at tho request or with tho willing acquiescence of earnS10811 5 aS We of The wage "Experience aa well as theory seems th-it v compared with no regulation of wagS or m leaving tho employer to deal IndividuaHy w ' each operative, tho legal minimum wage mist n3Ss?r0yU"U.y S taow", WwthS cPSS f ? daTunr! eVferC S&AZ I'S toelWe f h tent or old-fashioned em.6 ?' lnC.mp?: whfch "Ts "tHlST ,? -. in ono form or anotw el by the con"nunity, of product ?heJraeriJeprBerBOnS taaPab,e MISTAKEN ABOUT UNCOLN undoubtedly render him If.w'I de.cls'on would contempt of court H liSJlH0 bB 1M 'or ot course. hUoffense "''"ota? a?'.?- TO0US?,Ura;?s,gr!ate thin yours" '"' Was worr HANDLING THAW MONEY Tho name of a moro or less famous news paper man is figuring conspicuously in Governor Sulzer's investigation In the alleged attempt to secure the release from prison of Harry K Thaw An Albany dispatch to the New York World says: Asserting that William F. Clark, secretary of Governor Sulzer's in quiry commission, acted as press agent for Jw? Kl ,Thaw as receny as January last and Sli-w P ?ISnS,er?CeTs ;a check for 100 ws made payable to Clark, Horace A. Hoffman, who de scribed himself as a "messenger for Thaw," told the inquiry commission tha.t Alfred Henry Lewis, the magazine writer, had also received Thaw money. Clark, Hoffman swore, was com missioned to go to Utica early in January when S2mi assciation, then in session, con templated passing a resolution indorsing a bill hrM W if enacted PreveSt Thaw from bringing habeas corpus proceedings more than once a year. Clark, Hoffman swore, was to bring about the publication of letters and other UonTf?la ,t0 diSsuadG the af associa tion from furthering any plan inimical to SZS erests', Shry alter Clark had per formed this service, Alfred Henry Lewis Hoff- fT$ OO1?'"81 Mnm 0ne for ab'chefk t 11 t0 Eay,,r- Clark for nls expenses." nil gT T?e ech explained Hoffmai, "pay aj1 tp Mr. Clark to Mr. Lewis." "Has that know"66 P,dT" Hoffman as asked. "I don know," was his answer. "Have you had vour vouchers returned since that time?" "I have S?geWdaSfrHmff?lfn'S rePtt ? eVidenJewS who 4 Ti?nVb "nwillinS PB of Hoffman, SiSffSi i a S bus.Iness agent at Matteawan Alfred iLttl "t111111 Superintendent Russell wno were using Thaw as "a meal ticket ; " How "SS Th?n AUr?d Henry Le received from He "adrnTue i 'tJJg P', Hottmai1 would not say some cnh h?at eWls,sot three checks .and IZt thi ?enHrXhe Pinned down remarked call "very large Unt WaS n0t What he would WALIUNG IS GOOD cnt?uXsit!cItoosevteTtUbmean0n T S Ad4eh lon! Jes,dBeanyt "i "S ? toft "ere" imTT Voiced gooseveU,' l?" crntPonVo're1 hCW Ponuld it Zi0l , VFrom Portlana to for one to."? who Iost 'Ms bet will wear Roosevelt " Th JSSner TeadlnS' "Theodore Ore. The onlv se', Idaho' and Portland, may board is feoatSIf fT complete -his trin of LS ,, He exPects to 'LM. -v.
