The Augusta Courier

IN OUR TOWN
THE SUNDAY BULLETIN, Philadelphia, Pa.

The Illegitimates . . .

THE DA's VIEW: Times have changed a lot, says District Attorney Vic Blanc, since the state's first public assistance law was passed back in 1937.

And now it's time, says Blanc, for the governor to call a top level conference on the distressing problem of what's to be done about children born out of wedlock.

In Blanc's view Pennsylvania's laws need changes:

1. Strict regulations for homes receiving relief under the state's aid-to-dependent-children program.

2. Greater powers for the juvenile court to take children from unfit homes and put them in foster homes or institutions.

Blanc says these are not "off-the-top-of-the-head" ideas. He says he's been giving a great deal of thought to the problem of illegitimate children as the result of investigating four recent murders in our town . . .

IN THESE murders, 19 youths were implicated.

Blanc says he found that 11 of the 19 had been born out of wedlock.

Six others came from broken homes - mostly where the father had deserted the family.

DA Blanc is positive that a majority of Philadelphia's youngsters involved in serious crime are the product of broken homes or illicit unions.

And many of these homes, he says, were financed with relief checks.

As a former chairman of the local relief board, Blanc insists that a number of mothers receiving relief checks have no interest in their children. In his view, these mothers use their relief checks to buy liquor or support boy friends - anything, except to provide a good home for their children.

That, he says, is why he suggested recently that mothers' assistance be denied women for the third or later-illegitimate child. But, he adds, he did not mean to say that such illegitimate children should be allowed to starve without help from the state.

What he wants is to make these children wards of the juvenile court - to be placed in decent foster homes, or in state institutions . . .

THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY points out that the state's relief law sets no standards of conduct for those helped by the aid-to-dependent-children program.

That's not true in many other states, says Blanc, quoting from a federal report.

In Maine, says the report, mothers' assistance is provided only where there is a "suitable family home that meets standards set by the state department." In Maryland, the homes must meet standards of care and health fixed by "laws . . . and rules . . ."

As for New Jersey, mothers receiving assistance must be "mentally, morally and physically fit to care for children." In Ohio the home conditions "must be such that it is to the child's benefit to live there."

Blanc says that in these states the lawmakers have recognized that merely giving birth does not make a woman automatically a good mother.

And, that it is not always in a child's interests to stay with the mother.

Blanc says he knows that if Pennsylvania had standards set by law for homes where mothers' assistance would be granted, a number of women would not be eligible.

What would you do with the children under those circumstances? That's where Blanc thinks a top level committee could suggest a code of standards to be passed by the legislature, and also recommend greater powers for the juvenile court in taking children from unfit homes. The court already has some powers but Blanc says the law is not "spelled out in the necessary detail."

Blanc says he doesn't want to act against the mothers "only for the best interest of the children . . . "