The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-11-24
ARE WOMEN BOYCOTTED?
HOW BUSINESS FIRMS REGARD
MALE PROPERTY HOLDERS

East and West.
New York, Nov. ga recital of the
hindrances encountered by women in bust
ness which has been made by Mrs Sewall
in the Woman'S Magazine is receiving a
wide circulation by reason of tho state
ments therein made. Mrs. Sewall saws
that, "having lately heard that certain
large business firms, divers great loan com
panies and numerous brokers declined to
have any business dealings with women, ;"
she has taken pains to ascertain the facts,
and finds that no false rumor has been
spread, but that in very truth ''many of the
wealthiest corporations issue orders to every
agent in their employ under no circum-
stances to loan money to a woman" This
rule is said to be final, to apply to all women,
to spinsters aud widows as well as to wives
and to be enforced without regard to the
security that may be offered.
Business men are said to justify this dis
elimination on two grounds. first, because
women Is never satisfied that she is being
treated fairly, cannot count roll of bills
accurately, will avail herself Of the slight
est technicality to cheat a creditor, will
the witness stand, and, second, because in a
suit instituted to recover money from a
woman any jury will take the woman's
part, without considering either the law or
the evidence
Such a condition Of things seemed to call
for investigation, and investigation shows
that while individual firms or corporations
may have been discovered which have put
as they have right to put, certain limita-
lions on their transactions, yet men in gen
eral will certainly adopt and maintain only
such business rules as are profitable, and in
the money centers of New York aud Bos-
ton and In the growing western cities it is
not profitable to refuse mortgage on valu-
able and unencumbered property owned by
a woman.
The New York ReaH Estate Record and
Guide, for instance, shows that for the
week ending Oct. 81, Of 1888 mortgages
effected in the city, 267 loans we're given
on property owned by men, and II on
property owned by women, a proportion
as large probably as the relative holdings
OF the sexes would call for. At the Record
and Guide office--this publication being
the recognized organ of tho New York real
estate business-I asked If any loan COM
panies or corporations were known which
boycotted women. The answer was
emphatically in the negative. Money, so
the assurance ran, was so plentiful that
men we're glad of a chance to put it
out on good security and paid small atten-
ton to the point of skirts or trousers.
The law firm of S. NJ & D. e. Meeker,
OF Brooklyn, are counsel for the Williams
burg Savings Bank, one of the largest and
most conservative in the world, and trans
act besides a considerable real estate and iu-
vestment business for private clients and
for estates in trust. Speaking from such
VIDE experience, an attorney of the firm
assured me that in New York state at least
no discrimination between persons was
made by corporations or others loaning
money. The security and not the sex was
alone considered. If the security was good,
the loan would never be refused. In the
case of contract to perform certain obli-
cations the firm would prefer to deal with
man rather than his wife, for instance,
but the preference was not too strong TO
yield at once to the slightest contrary
reason. In many cases the woman
had the best business or moral sense of the
two, and in such cases the firm would I'M
heSitatingly prefer to transact any legal
business with her. So far as the bank was
concerned, probably the majority of its
depositors. as we'll as large proportion of
those obtaining its loans, were women, and
n Its experience women were quick to
AOoA OhSihCoo anu Iuloo anu
to conform to them. Women were coming
more and more into responsible business
relations every day, and they were as
steadily proving that they were no more
devoid OF business sense OF fretful under
business obligations than men. They were
no more prone to rush into litigation than
men, perhaps less so, and in cases involv-
ing property right juries would not favor
the womans side unduly except possibly in
cases which especially appealed to the
sympathies. In short, the statement that
any discrimination was made against
women or their property in the loan bust
ness was utterly absurd.
Miss Agnes K. Murphy. New York's
woman real estate agent, who is the pioneer
member, girl that she is, of Ter sex in the
real estate exchange, and whose sign is one
of the forty-four that the ], 121 members
have voted to allow to adorn the walls,
has never heard of a business man who
boycotted women. At the Emigrant's
Saving bank and in other business houses
she has met men who assured her they
would rather deal with her than with most
men. As business woman she has been
treated with such general courtesy by the
other sex that she says with modest little
smile they may sometime make her vain.
Miss Murphy has certain proportion of
women among her clients and had never
had complaint brought her that it was
difficult for a woman owning property to
obt in loan.
She acknowledges, however, tnat the in
fantlle ignorance of many women of bust
ness affairs is frequently a cause of serious
annoyance, and that when a broker has
sent an appraiser to value piece of proper
ty prior to taking mortgage he does not
always receive the news with entire equa-
nimlty when the woman, after subiecting
him to expense and trouble, discovers that
she didn't know her own mind and doesn't
want to mortgage her land after all.
las an illustration of the business ways
OF some women,n continued the brown
haired and Dright-eyed broker, take the
case OF two who were here this morning.
They were educated and refined ladies, and
had inherited piece of property worth
about $4,000 in conjunction with their
brother. This they entered into ninety
days contract TO sell, free from incum-
brance, and before the expiration Of the
period the tax for 1SS9-90 was confirmed.
The share of each woman was 81 50, bat
this they absolutely refused to pay, declar-
ing that it was some contrivance of their
brothers and that he was trying to de-
fraud them, and, being wholly unable to
understand that under the contract the tax
payment fell on the sellers, they actually
threw up the bargain. One lawyer left,
swearing he would sue for partition of the
property, the purchaser left threatening to
bring suit for damages, he having raised
money from n buildinQ and Loan associa--