Pensions the United States

Old Age Pensions.

At the end of 1935 old age pension laws were on the statute books in 38 states, the District of Columbia, Alaska and Hawaii. Approximately 330,00o aged were in receipt of pensions. There were no pension laws in Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Caro lina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia. A total of $3 2,000, 000 was spent on pensions in 1934 at an average of $16.16 per month. Under the 1935 Social Security Act the Federal Govern ment will pay one-half of the pensions up to $15 a month per pensioner.

Mothers' Pensions.

The term "Mothers' Pensions" is popu larly applied to the plan by which mothers of dependent children receive financial assistance from public authority to enable them to keep their children with them in their own homes, thus avoiding the necessity for institutional care. Laws providing such assist ance or "pensions" are to be found on the statute-books of forty six of the forty-eight states, as also in the District of Columbia, only the two states of Georgia and South Carolina remaining without this legislation. Missouri and Illinois were the first states to pass legislation of this character, both states enacting statutes in the year 1911. The Missouri law at first applied only to one community within the state—Kansas City—while the Illinois statute was of Statewide application.

In the beginning, assistance to mothers was generally limited to widows but only two states still make such limitations. The tend ency now is to include mothers, whether widows or not, whose children are dependent for a variety of reasons : where the mother is deserted or divorced, or where the husband and father is physi cally or mentally incapacitated or imprisoned. Some laws also extend this aid to expectant and unmarried mothers.

In order to establish the dependency of the children it must ap pear that the mother, as well as the father, is incapable of caring for them without assistance. The usual provision in this respect is that a mother is ineligible if she has personal or real property of a value in excess of an amount prescribed in the law, and this may vary from State to State. Also the mother must be of good moral character, capable of giving good care to the child or children and her home must be a suitable one for the child or children. The aid may be granted until the child reaches the age of sixteen years, although a few States have a slightly higher or a slightly lower age limit. There is considerable variety in the pro

visions of the laws of the various States regarding the amounts of money which may be granted to the mother for the care of her children.

The administration of mothers' pensions is carried on under different methods in the different States. The juvenile court is the administering agency in fourteen jurisdictions. In other States the public board of the county, town or city which admin isters poor relief in general also administers the mothers' pen sions. This method has not usually been as successful, because mothers are not to be regarded as supplicants for public relief but as co-operating agencies with the public authorities in the rearing of future American citizens. A third form of administra tion is through specially created county boards, usually made up of citizens who serve without any compensation.

The trend toward mandatory rather than optional laws, now established in twenty-six States, toward State participation in the cost, in practice in twenty States, and toward the setting up of state agencies for supervision has been noteworthy during the last few years.

Federal aid of one third of the cost of pensions, limited to $6 a month for the first dependent child and $4 for any additional children, has been provided by the Federal Social Security Act of 1935. Liberalization in the granting of mothers' pensions and more effective operation of the laws, which now aid about 280, 000 children of the approximately 750,000 needy children, can be looked for in the near future.

BmLI0GRAPHY.—Epstein, The Challenge of the Aged (New York, 1928) ; Epstein, Insecurity—A Challenge to America (New York, 1933) ; Rubinow, The Quest for Security (New York, ; Digest of State and Territorial Laws Granting Aid to Dependent Children in their own Homes, November i, 1935, Federal Emergency Relief Administration, Division of Research, Statistics and Finance ; Lund berg, Public Aid to Mothers with Dependent Children, U. S. Children's Bureau, Publication No. 162, (Revised 1928) ; Nesbitt, Standards of Public Aid to Children in their own Homes, U. S. Children's Bureau, Publication No. 118, (1923) ; Reports of U. S. Children's Bureau.

(A. EP.)