The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-03-30
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A SEX HELD In SLAVERY.
MISS BLAKE PICTURES THE LAWS
WRONGS TO WOMEN.


Possession OF Children a Powerful
Weapon Which Men Can Use to
Wiring Women's Hearts-The Wife's
Right to an Interest in the Money She
Helps to Save.
WASHINGTON, March 29.-The morning
session of the International Council of
Women was opened with an invocation by
Isabella Beecher Hooker, sister of the late
Henry Ward Beecher.
Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage presided.
The topic of the morning was "Organi-
zation." Mrs Julia Ward Howe was the
first orator of the morning.
The audience sang 'The Battle Hymn of
the Republic" in her honor.
Mrs Howe was followed by Mrs. Mary
F. Eastman, of Boston, delegate of the AS
sociation for the Advancement of Women.
Mrs. Alexandra Cripenberg, delegate
from Finland, being i'll and unable to APP
pear, her place on the programme was
taken by Rev. Amanda Deyo, delegate
from the Universal Peace Association.
ARGUED FOR PEACE.
She argued for universal peace and spoke
OF her own organization, its aims and OBJ
jects, 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
Woman's Educational and Industrial Union,
followed. Through its instrumentality SINH
lar unions have been formed in Buffalo,
Syracuse, Providence, Covington, KY, and
recently call has come from Washington.
Mrs. Marella NJ. Hill, of Dover, N. H. SO
| years of age, was next introduced and
spoke of the work Of the Free Baptist So
ciety.
woMAN's CLUBS.
| Mrs. M Louise Thomas, delegate from
the Sorosis, gave an outline history of
women's clubs in this country. Mrs. Thomas
read letter from the Crown Princess of
| Denmark to Mrs. Cramer sister of Gen.
| Grant, containing an earnest appeal to the
| women Of the council for their interest and
| concern in behalf Of the Danish woman's
association.
Mrs Croly Jenny june was introduced
and said she was the founder of "Soross." j"
She delighted in the companionship Of good
women.
THE MORAL ASPECT.
Womens' clubs have always represented
the moral aspect of womens' lives. All
take up some form of self-culture. The
Working Womens Guild, of Philadelphia,
is an outgrowth of the establishment of the
new Century Club.
lard continued the subject of organization.
1t as announced by Miss Anthony that
the President would receive the council to-
morrow afternoon at $3.50 o'clock.
woMAN's LEGAL DISABILITIES.
The first speaker at tine evening session
| was Lille Devereaux Blake ON the Legal
| Disabilities of Women" She said in part
that general impression prevails that the
laws IN this country are especially favor
able to women, yet this is far from being
the case. Under the English law marriage
is to a woman civil death, and where it pre-
walls, as it does in all the Southern and
some OF the Northern States, the wife has
no right to her own property or her own
earnings. In many Northern and most of the
Western States these provisions have been
modiilei to the extent that property rights
are secured to WI yes, aid yet even in States
where married women may enjoy their own
earnings they have no claim TO their chill
dren, New jersey, Kansas and Iowa alone
securing the n,yJhers legal claim to their
offspring In New York, as in all other
States, the honorable wife has no right to
her child for single instant of its existence.
USED TO WIRING woMEN's HEARTS.
The father can give it away during his
life and will it away after his death, with
out her knowledge or consent. In happy
unions this cruel law has no terrors, !
but it places a fearful weapon in
mems hands, which has been used
in 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 a marriage copart-
nership belongs TO the husband, and him
alone. No matter how severely the wife
may toll in the store, on the farm or in the
| household, she has no legal right to any
| money. She Is a pensioner on her husbands
bounty all her life, her industry counting
for nothing, and a dependent old
age her reward. Women have never
been secured in the right of a trial by a
jury OF their peers, and while they are
treated as legally incompetent 10 make
laws, they are yet held to full account
ability for their violation. When will
justice wake to life and redress these
wrongsl
woMAN'S CONDITION IN BRITAIN.
The next speaker was Mrs. Alice
Scatcherd, of Leeds, Eng, who spoke Of the
legal conditions of women in the three
kingdoms. She spoke of the evils of legis
lative interference in the work Of laboring
women. Single women in England, Scot
land and Ireland have nearly the same
property rights as men, but the law Of in
testacy bears equally hard on all women,
whether maids, wives or widows. Before
1871 tho property holding rights of married
women were NIL. In 1882 the far bette
married woman's property act was passed,
and now she does not by marriage
lose all control of her property.
But even now in England the husband has
a right to leave his wife penniless at his
deatu. In English common law the ex-
preston is used that "By nature the father
was the parent Of the child" The English
have an enviable notoriety for wife beating
and wife-b licking, and only since 1878 has
the wife had right TO go before Isagis
trate and complain Of this cruel and bar
barous treatment.
pANL,s ROCTTS DRAFT