Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-03-30
THE wOMEN'S COUNCIL.

THE wOMEN'S COUNCIL.
Yesterdays Proceedings In the Inter
national Gathering.
by telegraph to tho Displtch.l
WASHINGTON, March 29.-The morn
inc session OF the international Council
of Women was opened with an invoca-
ton by Isabella Beccher Hooker, sister
Of the late Henry Ward Beecher. Mrs
Matilda Joslyn Gage presided The
topic Of the morning was organization.
Mrs. julia Ward Howe vas the first ora
tor of the morning The audience sang
tine " Battle Hymn Of the Republic IN
L.r honor. Mrs. Howe was followed 10y
Mrs. Mary +. Eastman, Of Boston, dele
gate Of the Association for the Advance
mcnt of Women.
Mrs. Alexandria Gutenberg, delegate
from Finland, being i'll and unable to
appear, her place on the programme was
taken hy Rev Amanda DeyO, delegate
from the Universal Peace Association.
She argued for universal peace, and
spoke OF her own organization. its aims
and objects, political equality for man
and woman before the law, and total
prohibition as a means To bring about
total peace
Mrs. Abby Horton Diaz, president Of
the Women's Educational and Indus
trial Union, followed. Through lis in-
strumcntality similar unions have been
formed in Buffalo, Syracuse. Providence,
Coyingtou, Ky, and recently call has
come from Washington.
Mrs. Marella NJ. Hill, Of Dover, y. H.,
clghty-two years Of age, WIS next intro
duccd, and spoke of the work Of the
Free Baptist Society.
Mrs. NJ. Louise Thomas delegate from
Sorrosis, gave an outline history of
women's clubs in this country.
Mrs. Thomas read a letter from the
Crown Princess Of Denmark to Mrs.
Cramer, sister Of General Grant, con-
tanning an earnest appeal to the women
Of the council for their interest and con
Germ in behalf of the Danish Woman's
Association.
Mrs. Croly Gennie June) was intro
duced, and said she was the founder OF
" Sorossis." She delighted in the COM
pauionship of good women. Women's
clubs have always represented the moral
aspect Of women's lives. All take up
some form Of self-culture The Work
iugwoman's Guild. of Philadelphia, is an
outgrovth OF the establishment OF the
New Century Club
ms. May Wright Sewall and Miss
Willard continued the subject OF organi-
zstIoD.
1t was announced by Miss Anthony
that the President would receive the
council tomorrow afternoon at 1880
O'Clock.
The first speaker ut the evening session
was Lille Devereaux Blake on the legal
disabilities OF women. She said in part
The general impression prevails that
the laws in this country arc especially
favorable TO women yet this IS far from
being the case. Under the English law
marriage is to woman civil death. and
where it prevails, as it does in all south
ern and some Of the northern States,
the wife has no right to her own pro-
pcrty or her own earnings. In many
northern and most Of the western States
these provisions have been modi- |
fled TO the extent that property !
rights are secured to wives and |
vet even in States where married women |
may enjoy their own earnings they have /
no claim to their children, New jersey, |
Kansas and Iowa alone securing to the |
mother legal claim to her offspring. !
In New York. as in all other States, IN
honorable wife has no right to her child |
for q single instant of its existence. The |
father can give it away during his life |
and Will it away after his death without |
her knowledge or consent. In happy |
union this cruel law has 10 terrors, but
it places fearful weapons IN mems hands,
which have been used III thousands
Of cases to wiring women's hearts.
One of the most oppressive OF the legal
disabilities is that every dollar of the
Joint earnings of q marriage co-part-
nership belongs to the husband. and
him alone. No matter how severe
" the wife may toll in a store, on
farm, or in a household, she las 10
legal right 10 any she Is a pcnslOner
Oh her husbands bounty all her life,
her industry counting for nothing.
md dependent Old age her reward.
Women have never been secured in the
rights of trial by a jury Of their sex,
and while they are treated as legally III
to make laws they are yet
held to full accountability for their VIC
ation. When will justice wake to life
and redress these wrongs?
The next speaker was Mrs. Alice
Scatcherd, of Leeds, England, who
poke OF the legal conditions of women
n the three kingdoms. She spoke of the
evils of legislative interference IN the
work Of labOring women. Single women
n England, Scotland, and Ireland have
aearly the same property rights as men,
lut the law of lntestate bears equally
lard on all women, whether maids,
wives. or widows. Before 1871 the
rights of married
women were nil Ia 1882 far
better married-woman's property act
vas passed, and now she does not 10y
marriage lose all control Of her property.
But even now III England husband has
right TO leave his vile pennlless at his
leath. In the English common law the
is used that by nature and
nurture the father was parent Of the
hild.' The English have an unenviable
lotoriety for wile-beating and wife-kick-
ng, and only since 1873 had the wife
nal "a right to go before a magistrate
nd complain of this cruel and barbarous
regiment.