State Pensions to Widows: The Campaign in Maryland

Publication Date: October 1913

Publisher: Jewish Communal Service Association of North America

Author(s): Solomon Baroway

Research Area: Social conditions

Keywords: Family; Social Services; Policy

Type: Other

Coverage: United States Maryland

Abstract:

The author reviews the arguments for providing state pensions to widows, specifically widows with children, rather than institutionalizing children when the family breadwinner can no longer support the family. This should not be regarded as charity, but rather as compensation that allows mothers to do their civic duty of caring for their children, in recognition of the fact that, under normal conditions, children will grow up to be better citizens if they are raised by their mothers rather than in institutions. Private charitable resources are insufficient to this task and Maryland, like other states before it, ought to establish this practice.

Bulletin of the National Conference of Jewish Charities, 4:3