Official proceedings of the annual meeting: 1912

468

JOINT SECTION MEETINGS

officer can be of invaluable service, correcting the faults and defects of
the husband by first correcting those of the wife.
Notwithstanding the fact that my discussion started with a confession of failure the total progress made in the handling of non-support
cases under probation is really remarkable and the possibilities of this
course of treatment are as yet but faintly realized. On the whole, it
seems to me to be of comparatively little importance whether the cases
are all disposed of in a single court called the Domestic Relations Court
or whether they are merely segregated in some other court having jurisdiction of one or more classes of cases. Wherever they are segregated,
there will be a Domestic Relations Court with unbounded possibilities for
social and economic usefulness.
THE COMMITTEE ON FAMILIES AND NEIGHBORHOODS WITH
THE COMMITTEE ON CHILDREN.
PUBLIC PENSIONS TO WIDOWS.
Introduction by Sherman C. Kingsley.
There is a wide-spread and deep-seated interest in the woman who
wants to be matron of her own children. That is a reasonable ambition.
But many mothers cannot do this because they cannot buy food, and
rent, and clothes. There is an increase both in numbers and in the
variety of people who want to lend a hand. They range all the way
from those with a genuine desire to help, and who have an abiding conviction that large numbers of children will bear in their bodies the effects of under-nourishment, neglect, and of the things a mother can give
if she has a chance-those with a sincere and unselfish interest-to the
unscrupulous, the self-seeking who want to make personal or social or
political capital out of their friendship and good deeds to the poor and
unfortunate.
The fact that four states have enacted laws and created some kind
of pensions for such families, is one expression of that interest. At
least four other states are actively agitating the question, and there is
an increasing interest along similar lines in still other states. It was on
account of this widespread activity, and because the question of proper
relief in families has always been an important question, that both the
Children's Committee and the committee on Needy Families, of the National Conference of Charities and Correction planned for a session
where this question might be discussed at the Cleveland Conference, and
which finally led to the joint meeting of the two committees.
The Illinois law, and the work under that law connected with the
Juvenile Court in Chicago, is the most far reaching of any at present in
effect, and while this discussion was on the general principles relating
to the administration of relief, its adequacy and supervision, and whether