WAR ORPHANS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 95, 15 January 1918, Page 5

WAR ORPHANS

THE CHILDREN AND THE NATION

MARRIAGE QUESTION OF THE FUTURE

Judge Noil, of Chicago, well known in connection with his "Mothers' Pensions" scheme, which has been adopted by thirty States in America, is now in. London, whero the authorities, political and social, are taking tho greatest interest in his project. In a recent interview, Judge Neil explained the importance of his proposals in their bearing on tho great war problem. "To me," ho said, "the millions of children who must be reared without finanoiol nid from fathers obviously present tho biggost problem that the world has ever eeen. Britain, France, Italy, Russia, Germany, Austria, and perhaps America, will find themselves unable to continue by tho old methods and still survive as nations. If the widows and orphans of this war aro permitted to struggle unaided through their lives and to bo degenerated by inevitable poverty decades of progress will be lost. My claim is that if tho State has the right to tax all property to educate its children, it has an equal right to tax all property in order to bo snro that the children which it educates are fed and reared with an intelligence sufficient so that they may surely get thel best out of the education.

"Destruction of life ia abnormal now, not only because men are dying in the trenches, but because they are dying nioro rapidly than usual elsewhere. Excessive work in the war industries is accompanied by a greatly increased death-rate among men, partly duo to the fact that work is carried on at a treraondous pressure, and partly to the fact that the absence of the strongest in tho trenches frequently throws overstrain unon the weak and aged.

Same Anomalies. I "The situation hero in England is anomalous. In one house will live a widow with three children whoso father died in military service. She will re-1 ceivo from the State a pension of a ! pound a week, in the next house- will | livo the widow of a man who died from } overwork in a munition factory, and j while she also has three children to j support she gets no assistance from j the State. Yet if men did not work in i ffhe munition factories others could j not fight in the trenohes. Who shall say which man's national service was of greatest value to thp ""f-ate? It is only a step fro. Lildiors' pensions to soldiers' and that step was taken long &ya. ■. .JS r ow, the following and logical step to pensions for all widowed mothers is but another short one, and the further step to pensions for all mothers who havo not the advantage of support from husbands is still a shorter one. Indeed these, in existing circumstances, are mere extensions of ths* soldier's pension system. "When the State takes up tho *iatter of soldiers' widows' dependent children, is it not an absurdity for it to> aeglect the equally grave question of other widows' dependent children? Why' in heaven's name should a child bo penalised because his father was not a soldier? That was not the child's fault. It makes his life ol nc less value to the community in future. Any reasonable pension system should include all widows ~.»;

orphans. The soldier's orphan is not likely to ho of greater benefit to the State than tho orpiian of the skilled and devoted munition worker who chanced to bo beyond military age when wnr broke out or who was rejected by tho doctors when lie endeavoured to enlist.

• ''The- loss to tho nations through failure to give their children proper care would liii greater than the loss of the fathers tneuison/es. There are more of tho children and their whole lives ar«i before them,'while when the war began their lathers already had lived a. part'of theirs. Children reared in poverty cannot be rehabilitated after maturity has come. The greatest of all tne problems of a war is how to preserve the following generation from tho evil effects of war's waste ol manhood.

The Superfluous Father. "Personally, 1 believe the loss oi fatheruocd mj bu less important than it may seem to some, ly is ti general impression that me auinoniy m iatner is necessary to tne proper rearing oi u child. 1 senousiy question tins. I believe that tliu average mower could do beucr wim her oiiiiuieu wifciiouo tho fatiier thau slw touiu do with him wero she .relieved of money-cares. "Some fathers drink. Mothors could do better with their families it' tucn fathers never saw their children. A very large proportion of fathers, coming tired to their homes at night, fuss, iume, complain. Mothers could Uo betiur with their children it they never saw such fathers. Tho importance ol fatherhood is mistaken by many, who do not dilfereiitiate between tliu father's value as a provider of funds and his value as an ethical guide. There is not a very large proportion of eases in which the State could not perform, without much harm to the child, the functions of the father, but in only a small proportion of cases could it perform tho i unctions of tho mother without damage to the child. "As a matter of lact, tho trained mother almost always could do better without the lather around the house than with him there. Therefore it is necessary, according to my view, that the State should train all mothers who j accept its training, and that it should j make provision against the separation of any child from its mother save in those extremely rare instances when tho mother has proved herself to bo unfit. In comparison with tho number of instances in which fathers prove unworthy and inefficient the number ot cases in which mothers similarly fail is infinitesimal. Malting Marriago Easier. "Of course, a primal necessity, particularly of tho present abnormal situation, is that it should bo made easier for workmen to maintain properly both wives and children. Under the existing system a vaet mass of workmen never marry, for they never are able to see their way clear to the proper support of their wives and families. Tho elaughter of men in tho world will mako it necessary, 1 believe, tlmj tho State should see to it that men generally get a better economical opportunity. This can be brought about only by bettering general conditions. "Iu existing circumstances, if the lot of the malo workers and their remuneration be not generally bettered women will not marry, but will themselves go into industry. Tho effect ot this upon the population of the world would be disastrous, and its effect upon the world's happiness would be more so. Women have- been thrust into industry by tho war, and nothing but matrimony will thrust them back again."