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no,82
7921

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

W. B. WILSON, Secretary

CHILDREN'S BUREAU

JULIA C. LATHROP, Chief

THE ADMINISTRATION

OF THE AID-TO-MOTHERS LAW
IN ILLINOIS

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CONTENTS.

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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR,
CHILDREN'S BUREAU,
Washington, October 1, 1920.

SIR: This report on the administration of the aid-to-mothers law in Illinois was prepared by Miss Edith Abbott and Miss Sophonisba P. Breckinridge of the Chicago School of Civics and the University of Chicago. As residents of Hull-House, both authors have had long practical experience among the poor and neglected children of Chicago. In 1912 they made for the School of Civics a study entitled "The Delinquent Child and the Home," based on material gathered in the Cook County Juvenile Court. Hence this study of the operation of the aid-to-mothers act in Illinois has the advantage of preparation by recognized authorities in the field of social research, who have also been long and intimately acquainted with the work of the Illinois Cook County Juvenile Court. The authors desire that mention be made of the valuable services of Miss Helen Russell Wright and Miss Mary Cantey Preston, who made the field investigations outside Cook County.

Although concerned with a single State, this report is of Nationwide interest because the family conditions with which it deals are typical and because it shows typical difficulties which have already been surmounted, and points out those still to be overcome in making effective the principle back of the mothers' pension act.

This principle may be stated thus: It is against sound public economy to allow poverty alone to cause the separation of a child from the care of a good mother, or to allow the mother so to exhaust her powers in earning a living for her children that she can not give them proper home care and protection.

In the 40 States which now have mothers' pension laws this principle has undoubtedly been hastened to expression by the results of neglected childhood to be seen in every juvenile court. The earliest laws of Kansas City, Missouri, and of Illinois-were unquestionably based upon a belief that the juvenile courts revealed facts, not generally known before, as to the injury to the child caused by the inevitable neglect of working mothers and the breaking up of homes because of poverty.

The fact that in 21 States the administration of the aid-to-mothers law is placed in the juvenile courts indicates a purpose to place the power of help in the hands of the judge before whom the trouble is revealed and who must decide the child's future, within the limitations of the resources at his command. Probably a desire to avoid the discredit of the old outdoor poor relief also influenced the plan.

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