The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1890-02-19
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
SUFFERERS BY The LAW.

SUFFERERS BY THE LAW.
Women Have no Voice in Legislation
Which Concerns Them Equally With
Men.
The question Of marriage and divorce
laws and their reformation, says Mrs.
Livermore, is one in which women are
vitality interested, for they are gener-
ally the deepest sufferers from the laws
immoral and unequal action, and for
them there is the least redress. What
ever legislation may be undertaken,
whether by concerted action Or through
a national constitutional amendment,
concerns both sexes equally, and both
should have equal influence in directing
it. Very many of the evils that have
sprung up in the marriage relation have
originated in the fact that one sex has
been the sole dictator of laws which
concern both equally. Men have made
the laws of marriage and divorce. and
women have never been consulted as to
their wisdom or adaptability to women's
own circumstances, or their approval of
them. The husband has legal control of
the person of the wife; her services be-
long to him, and have no money value.
She is expected to work for food, shell
ter and clothing, and is thus made
pauperized dependent on her hus-
band. Whatever gains accrue from her
unpaid labor become his property. If
she has leisure and ability to engage in
money-maBing exployments after per-
forming the household labor, many of
the States of the Union give her earn
ings also to her husband. Four women
of prominence in literary and profess
sional life, whose names would be IA
miliar to most of my readers, have been
compelled to apply to the courts for pro-
lection against their husbands who
would have robbed them of their earn
ings, while they were charged with the
maintenance and education of the chill
dren. The impecunious condition of
wives, not alone among those whose
husbands are men of small incomes, but
among many whose means are ample, is
one of the most fruitful sources of rest
lessness and unhappiness in married
life. and is one of the underlying causes
of frequent divorce. Only six of the
United States allow married mother to
be an equal owner and guardian of the
minor children with their father. In
all other States the father is their sole
owner and guardian. If the mother has
no ownership in her little children,
whom she wins i'll the valley of death,
at the risk of her own life, she is indeed
pauperized, most abject, most wretched.
All, if men were not, in most instances,
better than the laws they have made for
women, this world would be Pandemo-
mum itself
A wife and mother should always be
mistress of herself, and never the slave
of another. not even when that other is
her husband and the slavery is founded
on her undying love. That robs her of
half her value. Give your child to be
educated by slave" said the old Greek.
land instead of one slave, you will then
have two" There should be legal
equality established between the hus-
band and the wife, equal ownership OF
the family property, equal guardianship
of the minor children. For more than a
quarter of century have been SO sit
uated that have been the recipient of
the condolences of wives and mothers to
very large extent. If | should publish
the sad stories of injustice, wrong and
outrage of which they have been the
silent victims, perpetrated under cover
of laws made by men for the government
of both sexes in married life, by hus-
bands who intend to be in the main fair
and just, l should startle the COM
munity. "No ordinary man. said
John Stuart Mill, years ago, lis will
ing to find at his tireside an equal in
the person he calls his wife" Have
we outgrown the narrowness of the day
when these words were penned? Are
men now just enough to counsel with
women in formulating a code of laws
that shall bear equally on husband and
wife? Are they prepared to convert into
living verify the axiom of our great Bill
of Rights. which declares that ''all just
governments derive their power from
! the consent of the governed?' Then,
| indeed. is better day about to dawn on
/ the world-a statelier Eden will come
/ again to man. If not, then reformation
of our laws of marriage and divorce
must tarry yet longer for the tardy ad
vent of the day when ID man will see il
woman his other half, equal but diverse
who will be his best helper and his di
vinest friend, when he elevates her t.
the same plane of equality with him
SELF and forbids her to be fettered ever
by a gossamer