The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-19
PLEA FOR DIVORCE MADE BY 4 WOMAN Attack Is Made Upon Marriage
 Laws of the State MEN OWN THE PROPERTY Woman Speaking For Her Sex Says That Man Makes Laws That
 Will Benefit Solely His
 Own Sex.
MEN OWN THE PROPERTY

Washington, January 1S-That the women of the United States do not want greater restriction of divorce is the dec laration of Mrs. Trimble- Woolsey of Ken lucky. Shre is a descendant of Robert Trimble, who, when justice of the United States supreme court in 1892, joined with his brother, Judge John Trimble of the Kentucky court of ap- peals. in drafting the first law framed in this country to give women the right to own property.
 Mrs. Tlimble- Woolsey was the .princi- pal speaker at a meeting of representa- tive American women held here today to protest against the effort being made through the congress of governors, now in session here, to devise means to se- cure the adoption of a uniform divorce law In all the states.
 After calling attention to the injustice women in other countries, she discussed the conditions now existing in the Unit ed States, saying in part
 Its women are held in absolute polit- ical serfdom, with no more voice in the laws under which they live than had the negro prior to the abolition of slav- cry. An emperor represents his whole peo- pie as much as men who vote represent women who have no vote at all.
 "The laws give the husband the sole ownership of the property which the wife helps him to accumulate and at death the wife can leave no part of ii even to her own children-the father has the sole right to say if the children may be hired out to work. where they may go to school, what they may do in life, and at his death he may appoint a guardian for the children, who also has these rights.
 The father and not the mother is the next of kin to the child and If the child has been killed or injured the father alone may sue and collect damages and the father alone inherits property or wealth of which the child may die pos sessed-the husband alone has the right to choose the country or home however in furious it may be to the happiness or interests of the wife
 III llAC Stdbt OI 4NtN Oih thllli liS population about equal to some dozen oi the western or southern states) the hus- band may commit any wrong or sin against the wife but unless the wife can prove infidelity against him she can not obtain a divorce and this is the same in the District of Columbia.
 Tn South Carolina the husband may commit every crime in the category against the wife but under no crcum- stances can the wife obtain divorce
 Such is the outline of the general legal, civic and political status of abou 99 per cent of the women under the fiae of this government.
 Men exploit every government for theil own exclusive benefit and plan all leg islation solely in the interest and com fort of their own sex. There is no wom- an who is not a victim, one way ol another, of male-made institutions; and every woman. whatever her station ol wealth, is nailed to the cross by mascu line laws. This is why 1 protest agains men alone making laws in which womer are equally interested with themselves.
 So long as the law places no lock or the door leading to marriage, 1t shoule place none on the door leading to al
 
 ture, or any released criminal, or dis eased, debauch, or half-besotted drunkart who cannot get the sacred knot tied Reform marriage laws and there will b, few divorces.
 'In this country thousands of wives ar, annually murdered by husbands-ther' are more than 500,000 wives who hay, been abandoned by husbands-there art more than 100000 wives of drunkards 4t.1. la, rfrt, wives who are each year medicall, treated for the ills and sufferings whicl immoralities of their husbands infiict or them The laws have trapped these in to marriage and should not refuse to re lease them when they wish to go free.
 'eThe women of this land are not crying for either further regulation or restric ton of divorce. At least 90 per cent O. all the divorces are sought by women (6 per cent direct and the others througf their abandonment of husbands in ordel to force on divorce).
 This country would be justified in fur ther regulation or restriction of divorce if it could be shown that such has re suited in the moral elevation of the peo ple of the nations which try same. Tax, Spain and Italy, where no divorce is al lowed. and contrast them with Nevada and South Dakota, where divorce is very free. FeW W1VeS Tn tnese AInerlcan state' would tolerate such immoralities in theil homes as practically every wife endure' in the Spanish and Italian home. Europ, generally has far more restricted divorce laws than the United States republic, bu no sane person believes that there fl more immortality in American homes thar in those of Europe
 'We have one state. South Carolina which denies all divorce, and 1t is thu only state which has enacted law fix ing how much of his estate husband may will to his concubine This speak it's own story.
 "It is the desire to lift marriage t' an equality with other contracts, and t place it on as high plane as othe human affairs, that leads to divorce. "A uniform law is practically impossi ble of repeal or betterment, and If thi divorce law is enacted 1t will stop al progress in reforming marriage-thu striking a serious blow at civilization. A women form one-half of the marriage re lation this divorce law should be stoppe until the women of the land sanction it passage