Another prime duty of the State is to compel the father to support the child and also to support the wife, not so much because it is the wife but because it is a woman who is the mother of a child, or may be the mother of a child. One great weakness in the nonsupport laws of the various States and, at the same time, a danger in the mothers’ pension acts of the various States is the lack of a practical system of operation and enforcement that will not permit the father to shirk—that will hold him to a strict accountability to his duty to the State, namely, to support the child. The child is the State and the State is the child. The man or woman, therefore, who does most for the child does most for the State. As a part of every nonsupport law and mothers’ compensation act should be provisions for workhouses where fathers who wilfully and without excuse refuse to perform their duty to the child should be committed.
Failing in the last Legislature in Colorado to get any legislation for the relief of needy mothers, our people have appealed to the people under their rights to initiative laws, for what we term a Mothers’ Compensation Law, rather than a Mothers’ Pension Act. We think that the difference is more than a mere haggling over terms.
The State maintains a standing army for its protection. Soldiers fighting its battles, or standing ready to fight its battles while performing that function, are paid—compensated. They receive money, food and clothing from the State. When the fight is over, when they have retired from service, in their old age they are pensioned.
In a different capacity, but none the less important and effective, do mothers of children serve the State. They do not face death on the field of battle, but they go down to the gates of death and bring back their children. The perils and hardships that soldiers endure in times of war are more than equalled by the struggles of hundreds of thousands of mothers fighting the enemies of the State that killing competition and the injustices of present economic conditions have raised up in its path. In fighting these enemies to save their children to the State these women are more serviceable soldiers of the State even than those sons they reared, who may have died on the field of battle.
The term “pension,” therefore, is a misnomer. It is confusing. It interferes with a real understanding of what this fight is all about.
It might not be a bad idea to consider pensioning mothers, as we pension soldiers after the battle is fought, after they have gone through the valley of the shadow, after they have slaved, and toiled and suffered and reared their children to manhood and womanhood, to guarantee them a peaceful, happy old age by providing a “pension.” But while they are engaged in the service of the State, in saving the State by saving the child, I insist, where it is necessary to enable them to do their part in the battle, they should be paid—they should be compensated.
I insist further that the compensation should no more be in the interest of the mother than it should be in the interest of the soldier, except as a means of preserving the home and the State, except as in the interest of public morals and for the prevention of poverty and crime—all of which is necessary to save the State.
Maternity is more than a prompting of nature. It is a patriotic duty to the State. As in the case of the patriot who enlists for the war, of course it should be voluntary and in accord with social and religious custom. But a wilful evasion of so plain a duty should be visited with the same contempt that meets the deserter from the ranks. As the profession of the soldier is no more the business of the individual without the part and duty of the State, neither is the perpetuation of the race wholly the business of the individual. And of course it is the duty of the State to see that those individuals responsible for the race should perform their duty. There must be laws recognizing the man as the breadwinner and the mother as the home maker. The man must be held strictly accountable to the State for the support of the woman he has chosen to be the mother of his children. And this must be primarily not so much in the interest of the woman as in the interest of the children she bears or is expected to bear. If the man fails in his duty he should be compelled to perform that duty where it is possible to compel him to do it. If that is not possible, then the State itself must assume the burden. If the man has wilfully shirked it must provide workhouses in which he can be made to perform the duty he has voluntarily undertaken.
But, at whatever expense or hazard, the State must see that the child is protected. This is impossible unless the mother is protected.
The State has no right to scold women for race suicide when the State itself is responsible for race suicide. The father would have just as much right to scold his child for stealing when the neglect of the father was responsible for the thefts of the child. The State has just as important a part in this problem as the individual. The individual must do his duty, but the State must see that the conditions are such that it is possible for the individual to perform his part. If the struggle for bread makes maternity a tragedy instead of a blessing, it is the duty of the State to reverse the conditions and make maternity a blessing instead of a tragedy. (Applause.)