Surname

In condoning bastardy, North Dakota and Arizona are the most liberal States in the Union. Every child born on their soil is considered legitimate. At the other end of the legal spectrum are Texas, Louisiana and Virginia which forbid a local bastard to search out his father.

At an angle, stand Massachusetts and California which help a bastard out by not requiring a statement of his illegitimacy on his birth certificate. When he signs up for college, applies for a job or supplies a statement for Who's Who, he can omit parental names and pretend that he has made a decision to go on record as the founder of a family without ancestors.

Last week the New York Legislature gave further aid to those of anonymous ancestry. Hereafter, if Governor Herbert Lehman signs the bill, when a bastard is born in New York State his mother, midwife or other informed party must inscribe a surname on the birth certificate. The child's mother, if she pleases, may assume the same fictitious last name. Only stipulation in the pending New York law: the unwed mother may not use the "name of any known living male."

Chicago social service analysts last week found a gauge for measuring to what degree poverty and social confusion cause illegitimacy. Of the mothers of 373 bastards born in Chicago between May 1 and Aug. 31, 1934, 91% had been in trouble with the police or in the hands of charity workers. The average age of the mothers was less than 24 years. Most of them had started high school. But only 45 white girls and 33 black had graduated.

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