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Combining the Mothers' Pension and the Public School System

(By Judge Henry Neil, Father of the

Mothers' Pension System.)

Two hundred years ago in England it was the law that children convicted of stealing should suffer the death penalty.

At that time there were no free public schools or public schools of any kind. All schools were privately operated for profit.

The cost to the parents of sending their children to these private schools (conducted for profit) was so large that men who worked for the ordinary wages of that time were not able to send their children to schools at all.

Most of these children grew up illiterate, but thousands of them were caught stealing and many were hanged till dead.

It was discovered that children when educated did not steal and get hanged. An agitation was started to school all children at public expense. This was bitterly opposed for longer than 100 years.

In 1829 in the city of Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, the home of the Liberty Bell, some public spirited citizens attempted to organize a meeting to promote the idea of free public schools, to be supported by general taxation. They were set upon by the police, beaten, thrown into prison, called anarchists and undesirable citizens.

Some property owners said it was confiscation to tax one man's property to educate another man's children. They said that each man should pay for the schooling of his own children or their children should go unschooled, and that it would pauperize parents to educate their children at pub

lic expense.

People who opposed this idea of free public schools said, that if par

ents who were poor were relieved of paying for the schooling of their own children, and relieved of this responsibility, these parents would become lazy and shiftless.

Last year in the United States, over seven hundred and fifty million dollars, raised by general taxation, was spent on free public schools, and the taxpayers are prouder of and more satisfied with this expenditure of public money than with any other.

Previous to 1911 in the several States, it was the law that mothers who were too poor to provide for their own children had their children taken away from them by the Juvenile Courts and sent to institutions, which institutions were supported by general taxation.

Tens of thousands of children were separated from their mothers in this way in the United States during the years from 1898 to 1911.

In 1911 the State of Illinois enacted the first Statewide mothers' pension law, which law authorized the payment of "sufficient" money to mothers of dependent children to enable these mothers to take care of their own children in their own homes; this money to be collected by general taxation.

Twenty-six States now have this law and this year more than twelve million dollars will be paid to these mothers under this system.

This is known as the Mothers' Pension System for abolishing child poverty.

For five years I have been making and am still continuing to make, a nation-wide campaign to extend this Mothers' Pension System into every State in the Union and to expand its provisions so that it will abolish child poverty in the same way that free public schools have abolished illit

eracy. During the year 1915 1 crossed the continent six times, from ocean to ocean, and campaigned in every large city in the United States. I propose that the Mothers' Pension System and the Free Public School System be combined. They are one, in principle, and should be one in administration.

MINIMUM WAGE LAW ILLEGAL

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Detroit, Mich. Judge Frank Davis, of Ionia County, has ruled that the Detroit minimum wage charter amendment is illegal. This legislation was initiated by the local federation of labor and was made a part of the municipal organic act last spring by the largest vote ever given a charter amendment. It provides that city employes shall work only eight hours; that common laborers on public work shall not receive less than $2.50, and that skilled mechanics shall receive the highest prevailing rate in that particlar work.

Despite the emphatic vote this legislation received, municipal authorities have not looked upon it with favor and now Judge Davis rules that the amendment is illegal because it "did not lie on the table before the common council for 30 days before being voted on," and that the amendment was not placed before the governor before being submitted to the voters.

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ing, have arranged that the building shall be seven stories in height instead of five stories, as provided under the original plans and contracts. The building was to have been five stories and a basement, with provision for two additional stories some time in the future. The trustees have decided, however, that the building could be more advantageously constructed by making it the full seven stories at this time.

ANTHRACITE MINERS WIN TWO VICTORIES

Hazleton, Pa.-A big victory for anthracite miners was secured last week when Charles P. Neill, umpire of the conciliation board, served notice on operating companies that they must abide strictly by the award of the strike commission of 1902 and by subsequent wage agreements. The two rulings are against the Pardee Brothers & Co., Inc., and will result, it is estimated, in back pay amounting to over $8,000, as the cases have been pending for some time and the back pay will date from the time that the grievance was placed before the board. The Pardee company is notified that under the agreement it has contract relations that it cannot change. The rates provide for $9.91 per yard for coal cutting. This was reduced to $5.61 by the company.

In holding for the mine workers, Umpire Neill declared that the company had completely failed to meet the claims of the workers, and that the company officials were even ignorant of the terms of the agreement. On this point, he said:

"The replies of the superintendent were in such flat contradiction to conditions shown by the rate sheet as to create the impression that the representatives of the company, who were conducting its case, were decidedly unfamiliar with the terms of the arbitration award and the subsequent agreements under which they are assumed to be carrying on their operations."

Urge Vocational Education

In a plea for vocational education, President Heiskell, of the Knoxville, Tenn., board of education, said:

"The highest function of the public schools of the future, the imparting of vocational education to American children, will be the grandest achievement of human effort in the history of the world. Universities and colleges already make lawyers, doctors, chemists, trained nurses, civil, mechanical and electrical engineers and other professional men and women whose vocations call for years of training and large expeditures of money by the student. The great

mass of public school pupils cannot hope to attend the university. If they acquire skill of hand and eye it must be in the public schools. A majority of the public school pupils stop school at an early age in order to help support the family. They enter the ranks of the common laborers and there remain all their days. To reduce the number of common laborers in the United States to a minimum is the greatest problem before the American people, and the highest and grandest function of the public schools."

To the Attention of Elevator Constructors

Elevator Constructors are thoroughly aware that wire rope is a very important part of any elevator installation. Accidents can be reduced to a minimum; the factor of safety raised to a maximum if the right rope is a part of your equipment. It is therefore to the advantage of any elevator constructor or engineer to purchase or specify only that rope that is dependable and of long life. We therefore call to your attention the fact that Roebling elevator ropes are special ropes undergoing special processes of manufacture in heat treatments, tests, etc., and subject to most skilled workmanship. Roebling chemists, metallurgists and Engineering departments analyze most carefully our various standard types of elevator rope. Strength, uniformity of structure, flexibility, dependability, and long life are a few of the many qualities that make Roebling Elevator Ropes so universally used.

Further information will be gladly furnished on request by

The John A. Roebling's Sons Company

TRENTON, N. J.

BRANCHES : New York Philadelphia
Atlanta San Francisco

Chicago

Pittsburgh
Los Angeles Seattle

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Portland, Ore.

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Preparedness! All right, but how are we going to pay for it? By direct taxes say some: by indirect taxes say others. The beauty of indirect taxes that make our millionyou are paying them, and what you don't know doesn't hurt you. But indirect taxes flow not into the coffers of the government but into the pockets of a few people. It is indirect taxes that make our millionaires and our trusts, very largely. The tariff on foreign goods that are shut out is added to the home product. The foreigner doesn't pay the tax. And in any tariff there is always more protection that there is revenue. That singularly able, independent and clear-thinking Congressman, Warren Worth Bailey of Pennsylvania, has introduced a bill to provide revenue for preparedness. It proposes a tax, in addition to the normal income tax, of 5 per cent. on incomes between $10,000 and $25,000, of 10 per cent. on incomes between $25,000 and $50,000, of 15 per cent. between $50,000 and $75,000, of 20 per cent. between $75,000 and $100,000, of 25 per cent. between $100,000 and $250,000, of 35 per cent. between $250.000 and $400,000 and of 50 per cent. on all over $500,000. The bill further provides that should there be a surplus after meeting all military and naval requirements, it shall be applied to payment of pensions to soldiers and sailors. This proposal meets the requirement that taxes shall be collected from those who can pay. It fulfills the requirement of justice that those most benefited by government should bear the larger part of the cost of government. Of course,

it errs in that it makes no distinction between earned and unearned income, between the yield of industry and the yield of privilege, but granting that much, it must be said that such taxes will get a great deal of the unearned income, since there are not many great incomes from individual effort. Representative Bailey says that if the incomes are properly found and taxed they will yield enough to give us all the preparedness we need. I understand, though, that over in Great Britain the men who have been heavily taxed and super-taxed on their incomes have found a way to pass a large part of the tax on to the people at large. The result of the heavy taxes has been an increase in rent. There are rent strikes in all the large towns. Rents have gone up particularly in the places where there are great munitions works. This makes the workers pay the taxes on war profits. The worker has to pay higher prices for the necessaries of life. The heavier income taxes can be unloaded on the workers in this country, too. Will the supertax on incomes operate to force down wages? Possibly and probably, yes. But wage-earners, through organization, have means of redress. The one strong feature of Representative Bailey's proposal is that it will get big slices of that part of big incomes-and the greater part by far-which is the product of the industry of the whole community and therefore should not be engrossed by an individual.-Reedy Mirror.

The closer you get to some people the more distant they are.

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