The herald., 1897-05-27
The nee Of consent Rl|sED /;

On March 10. 1889. the state legislature
raised the age OF consent from 10 yeare-
the age prescribed by the common law
to II years, and the last legislature again
raised the. age to 1e years. On the 9th
day of the current month, sixty days
from the time Of the enactment OF the
lamen6ment. the new law will be in force.
About twenty states have now ad-
vanced the age to IA. two to Is, one to
II, eight to 16, while Wyoming. Colorado
and Kansas have fixed the age at IS
yearc. Two of the Southern states still
keep the age at 10. which was the old
common law age, and twelve others hold
the age OF consent at IL years.
Helen Gardiner. who has been the
foremost champion in contending for
raising the age Of consent laws through
out the country. has fairly well defined
what the attitude Of the law-making
power ought to be toward girls that
have arrived at the age of discretion.
In this regard che says Nov. you
must choose for yourself, and take the
consequences. If you choose now 10 poll
lutte yourself and the public fountain
of health, I cannot interfere, unless you
use violence upon others, or until you
become in one form or another & public
charge. With your morals as such. l
have nothing to do; but with your ca
pacity and willingness to add TO the
volume of crime, vice. disease. insanity
and mortality have something to do,
and I will protect myself. also, until
you were Of mature age and judgment /
also protected you even against your
self"
KEYNOTE OF EDUCATION
1t will be noted that in thus defining
the attitude of the law the keynote is
not struck by fixing specific age of
consent. but by fixing an educational
standard. What girl is there of how
ever tender an age, much less a young
woman OF mature age. that realizing
the train of evils enumerated above
which might possibly result from light
~ regarding Natures laws, would fall
from grace? In fixing. then, upon an
age when a young girl can consent to
her own undoing one is confronted by
two considerations, viz. the dictates
of nature and the requirements of Sc
ciety as understood by girlhood gene
rally.
The age Of consent-physically speak
ing is in reality misnomer for ma
ture has but one age of consent alike
COR males and females; and she has fixed
Jaws and regulations for the carrying
out of her desires and aims in this as in
all other acts, and that humanity should
have ignored and perverted these in
dealing with virtue, as with other ques-
tons was, perhaps, to have been ex-
pected. 1t is scarcely to be doubted
that mothers have failed to recognize
and acquiesce in the great "stamp-act"
Of Nature, which is made plain at what
is known as the age of puberty; this is
the first discovered age of the fructif1ca-
ton in the human species and any law
legalizing an act presuming female pre-
cocity before such time set by Nature
is monstrous. In failing to teach their
girls the meaning ana Importance of
this emergence from girl into woman
hood mothers have left minds fallow of
the sweeter teaching of home, to be cor
lupted by the sly imparting of hidden
knowledge from school companions and
oft-times from the gutter In this mo-
thers have failed to do that justice to
their children which is now demanded at
the hands of the law making power.
CLIMATIC CONDITIONS, ETC.
In fixing an age of consent, too, it has
to be borne in mind that the matter of
latitude and longitude have to be taken
into consideration; that girls in some
states are older at Is than others in other
states are at 18; that owing to lack cf
mental or physical development, here
dity or environment, or all combined,
some girls are mere children until .
years Of age, and at IA years are hardly
equal to other girls at 10.
1t is true that the band of women who
have agitated, and not without success.
for an advanced age of consent, desire
to have the age made un:f5rnl through
out the United States. Climatic ccnai-
tions and environment are ignoraC and
Is years Is considered the age tina.
ought to be fixed in every etate of the
union. Some years ago when number
of people, both learned and unlearned,
ventilated their opinincs in the Arena,
one writer contended that the pubic was
all adrift on this question ana that there
was little if any difference between the
girl of torrid India and the Esquno
girl of the far north, so far IS the age of
puberty was concerned.
From any such dictum, needless, per-
hape, to say, the attorneys officers and
others spoken to regarding this matter,
dissent. Scarcely one OF these gentle
men was born and reared in LOS Ange-
Iles-few indeed, in California, and con-
sequently most of them have had op-
portunites for comparison between other
states and that in which they are now
residing. Without exception, so far as
seen, the consensus of opinion is tina;
healthy girl Of IA in California is in
mind and body equal to girl of IS in the
New England states.
SURMISING AS TO THE FUTURE.
But the law will soon go into effect and
what will be the result? The future can
only be gauged by the past. The law
has not Disseminated between violence
done to the person of an innocent child
against her will, and the precocious child
who willingly submitted herself. Since
Clifton Mayne received a heavy sem
tence for outraging Elsie Shipton-or at
least is said to have done so, for the mat
ter of her age and other considerations
are involved in much doubt and are now
before the supreme court-there has
, been a veritable epidemic of this form of
crime. 1t has been worthy of note that
in almost every case, too the girl was a
willing victim. This, while in no sense