CityState : Reporter l by Ellen Liberman
Baby Steps
Elsewhere in New England , baby bonds are being debated as a way to lift children out of poverty . Can the idea take root here ?
According to a tribute upon his death in 1920 ,
Merritt W . Pinckney grew up in Mount Morris , Illinois , reading Latin at his father ’ s knee by an open fireplace “ and poetry with his mother and learn [ ing ] garden lore from his grandparents and farming in the holidays away from school .”
Perhaps that secure childhood accounted for the way he approached child poverty : One of the first juvenile court judges in Illinois , he was known as a kindly man who would descend from the bench to speak to a child eye-to-eye . He saw how the sharp slap of adversity could knock a family apart . Mothers with no means of support , through illness , job loss or the death of a husband , would be forced to send their children to orphanages , where the state would pay to keep them and teach them a trade .
Wouldn ’ t it be better just to pay the mothers directly and allow children to grow up in the wholesome bosom of their own families , Pinckney thought . The idea was articulated at the 1909 White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children convened by President Theodore Roosevelt . The conference declared : “ Children of parents of worthy character , suffering from temporary misfortune , and children of reasonably efficient and deserving mothers who are without the support of the normal breadwinner , should , as a rule , be kept with their parents , such aid being given as may be necessary to maintain suitable homes for the rearing of the children .”
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION : ALAN DIPETRILLO / GETTY IMAGES .
But , it concluded , this mission was best carried out by private charity .
Pinckney believed that it was best enshrined in the law . In 1911 , he advocated for the passage of , and later administered , the first state mother ’ s aid law , which provided direct income support to poor families in Illinois . But Pinckney was hardly the only supporter and Illinois was hardly the last . The change from an agrarian to an industrial economy was forcing a major shift in the way society addressed poverty . Thanks in part to the support of reformers , jurists and feminist groups , thirty-nine states adopted mother ’ s pension laws by 1919 , forming the foundation of the American welfare system . Over the next century , welfare would become largely a federal responsibility and expand to include food and health care . But it never strayed from the idea of providing temporary support for basic needs .
In recent years , a different idea has taken root : making a direct investment with a government-funded savings account that could grow up with each impoverished child from birth , sending them into adulthood with real assets . In January , Rhode Island General Treasurer James Diossa made a pitch to do that here . Nineteen states are now mulling some version of legislation — called baby bonds — which would put public dollars in service to the most vulnerable children to break the bonds of intergenerational poverty .
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l JUNE 2024 33