The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-03-26
A wIFE's RIGHTS OF PROPERTY.
A Plea for the W0man's Share OF the
Property Earned During Marriage.

What are the rights of married woman
in the property which has been made dur
ing marriage? A wife who has done her
part of the family duties-has managed the
household. has brought forth and brought
up the children, and has devoted the same
zeal to the making of the home that the
man has to his part of the business, is in
fact the Garner of one half of the property,
and Is In justice the owner of it. That is to
say, she has the same right to it as he, and
what she spends of 1t in her reasonable
wants is no more his gift than his personal
expenditure Is her gift.
Yet there are men whose wives have man
aged their province with as much zsal and
capacity IS their husbands, have managed
the family expenses prudently, have made
their household run smoothly, so that no
annoyance from their troubles reached the
husband, have brought forth and brought
up broods of children, and trained them in
the right way during all the years while
property was accommodating, who do not per
ceive that their wives have done anything
in this, and do not recognize that they have
any rights in the property which has thus
grown; who think that they made 1t ali,
and that their wives are paupers living on
their charity; who actually talk of their
wives raiment and food and personal furni-
ture as things which they, the husbands,
had given them; who commend themselves
for giving something to their wives dress,
home at rare occasions things they have
bought with the common property, making
presents of them to their wives, aud COM
mend themselves for their liberality, and
think they gave their wives 50 much to
make them happy that they are quite too
good for this world.
And, ON the other hand, these complacent
husbands think it such farce for their wives
to make them presents. In their views it is
making them presents out OF their own
money. And they make the poor, subdued
creatures think the same, and regard it as
childish playing at giving presents to the
man who has to pay for them. The man
simply lays his robber hand on all the prop
erty of the frm-ol the Joint earnings of
the two, in which she has in reality been as
efficient as he, and doles out drlblets to her
as ii she were beggar, and, as a special
favor, allows her to take little of his money
and buy him present with it, just to go
through the motion of owning something.
In Justice she is as much the owner as he.
She has the same right to the control of her
personal expenditure as he, and she is emit
tied to a share in proportion to the greater
expense which custom and his wishes
impose on her in clothes. And the money
which she spends is not his but hers. In
paying over to her what she needs. and what
is her reasonable share, he is not giving her
his money, but paying her own. He is not
doing anything liberal or generous but that
which is simply honest. He is an Ananias
If he utters it as gift. This Is not matter
of political rights, nor of the subversion of
the marital relation; it is simply a matter of
the just rights of the wife in the common
property during the life of both parties.