The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-01-27


BY Senator NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Aschooi trustees OF Henderson county
to issue bonds
BY Senator Wright-To amend the
code by giving fllegitimate children
the right to inherit equally from tn cir
mother
PASSAGE OF BILLS.
Pills passed to amend the law Of
1903 by allowing Haw River to reduce
It's tax
To amend the charter of Little
tor.
Resolution asking for report frcm
head OF all the State departments and
Institutions. as to expenses and sal
aries.
To validate the election OF magis-
t-ates in Allegheny.
To amend the homestead law of
1881.
To exempt Fountain, Pitt county.
from he act forbidding the sale of
liquor near certain churches.
SPECIAL ORDER.
The special order was taken up, this
being Wards bill allowing married
women TO make contracts as though
they were unmarried. Ward said this
matter was called to his attention
while reading supreme court decis-
ions, which suggested the bill. Su-
preme court justices had themselves
differed for twenty-five years as to the
law on this question, and every one
knows the settled law was better thar
a which invites differences in
opinion. There is no reason why a
married woman should not receive the
same rights as a single omar If
the sin gle woman must stand for her
contract. why should not a married
woman, who is supposed to have Il
good husband, be required to stand
for her contracts. The law. as II
is, invites fraud. A man nay buy
man thousands of dollars wort Of
goods in his wife's name and when
the creditor ONE to collect the
money he finds that the man die not
really buy, but that a woman was the
buyer. whom the law cannot force 70
pay, no matter how much property
she possesses. The supreme court re-
Gently decided that a married woman
10y give way her property without
-.-r husbands consent, but she an
nc, contract it away without his writ
len assent. This law is the relic of an
ancient system and has not kept pace
with the North Carolina constitution
or progress. The law is inherited from
our English forefathers and is a cov-
er for dishonesty, and is a preventive
Of progress. The law is asked for so
as to enable a creditor to collect these
debts.
Pearson. of Burt, said he was abso-
Iutely opposed to the bill. The worst
business people IN the world are wild
ows and IL these are allowed to exc
cute on 4 will, the result is bank
ruptcE. Women more than men need
protection. The bill might protect
northern creditors, but there was no
demand by North Carolina people Cor
such a radical change in the law us
this. NO remedy should be applied
until the wrong Is acute. This bill
affords no protection except to the
nonresident creditor, but he knew of
none who were complaining. He de-
clared he was a Turk in regard to
married people and that the new al
tornado women did not appeal to
him; that the man, made out of a wo-
1891 80 ~ lin NhO NV "S@-
that trade mark perpetrated on this
state.
Z%oIlieoffer heartily favored the bill
and said Pearson's remarks made him
more in favor of it, as no argument
had been advanced against it. 1t vas
not true that women are the worst
business people in the world. as in
dozens of cases he has seen widows
manage their estates admirably. If
there were any fault to blame, it
would be on the man, not on the wo-
man, since men keep secret from their
wives. business relative to their es-
tates, and when they die the poor
widows have to go to attorneys and
friends for advice, and the woman
can not De at fault. The law should
be changed. as in nearly every in
stance a woman is l~egislated against.
The law is almost in total confusion
and there is not a lawyer in the State
who can give ar intelligent opinion as
to what the rights Of married women
are. Since the towen Of Babel there
has not been such utter confusion as
has resulted in this law. ~Thirty-one
years ago the first case was tried on
hat subject and since that time every
year there nave been one or mora
cases like it, and hundreds of pages of
decisions have been written upon it
and there are scores of different con-
structiOns. The estate may be one the
wife brought to her husband, without
his investing a cent, yet the law says
she may go out and buy the bare 1e-
cessities of life and may go and pay
the debts she incurred before her
marriage, hut when h does that she
must stop. A wife may g and buy a
cloak for her mother, but if h deot
were to be collected she cannot pay
it without the consent of her husband.
She may have wished to do it without
the consent of her husband. The man
who says he cannot trust his wife with
the pocketbook should be watched
himself. The married woman is the
best Kind of a trader. Women watch
the newspapers and seek bargains be-
cause they are trying to protect their