El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-04-18

M Despite the much Wanted al
w vantages enjoyed by the
American woman, there are some
.+stas in which her rights before the
law are practically nil and her legal
status if she is married is little pet
ter than that of a chattel or save ~
ber husband The woman suffrage
movement. in its wide-sweeping IN
fIuence, is largely responsible loI
calling attention to these deIects N
American law. and also IS ms u III -Lt -
taI in securing the passage OF many
LEGISLATIVE measures to correct theIu-
A great deal yet remains TO pc aSD '.n
DIished in this dlrecIlon- -
George Elliott Howard OF Ihe INV
sitI- Of Nebraska, said in recent az
dress llpOu this subject, me LdCI y
that. touching the legal posiIlO n. U
women. American legislation IS oIteh
found to be medieval, even bar0arous
in its provisions.
Laws Favor the Men.
To the average person, VINO mas
made no investigation upon w 80
ject. it would seem reasonaDle ina
the rights Of the father ana InOtheI
in the guardianship Of their chlldren
should be equal, but in only seven
states Colorado, Kansas haLHe' W
braska- New York, Pennsylvania ana
Rhode Island is this the case IN
these states this equal right has been
won only after hard tlShI hSoe "
the women themselves
The laws affecting property rlShIS
of married women leave much 10 Zee
desired. although. in view of the fact
that a century ago married women
were not supposed TO possess any PIOp-
erty rights a great advance mas Dee-l
made There are today a large num-
her of great estates in America which
are being controlled and administered
by women in a manner that "ouLu
have been impossible even genera
ton ago In many states there mas
M O.
depreciation OF the old EngIlSh com
mon law upon which most OF American
law is based. creeping in Louisiana
where the Code Napoleon is the basis
Of law
Women Of Tennessee Aroused.
In Tennessee, the management OF the
wife's esta;" passes absolutely to ner
husband with marriage a recent de-
cision has called attention to this
provision and incidentally has made
a good many Tennessee women Ieel
like one who recently said When
think of what We women have TO put
up with here. and then realize how
much worse things are for English
women 1 don't blame those English
suffragets for smashing everything
within their reach in the case re-
ferred TO a woman rented some land TO
a tenant and accepted the rent money
because she needed it. The husband
brought a suit to eject the tenant and
won. The rent paid to his wife had TO
be repaid to him. The wife had no
right to rent her own property, &C
cording to the judges decision who
declared that the husband only as
governor Of the family has the right
to control the lands Of his wife"
Louisiana and Texas Laws.
When the great Napoleon formulated
his famous code he said: There Is one
thing which is not French and that is
that a married woman can do as she
pleases." So IN Louisiana and par
TALLY in Texas, because that state also
bases part Of its law upon the Napo-
leOnic code, married woman cannot
make any disposition OF her property
without the consent Of her husband In
the eyes of the law he is the owner
OF everything which had been hers L
the time OF her marriage Even the
clothing in her trouSseau does not be
long to her. The man who took the
clothes and jewels from his wife and
distributed them among his female rel
atives was sustained by the Law Of
Louisiana
woman in Louisiana is not even
considered a legal witness to a will
Toward the close Of her life, Mrs. JET
fersOn Davis desired to add a codicil
to her will bequeathing to a certain
chapter Of the Daughters Of the Con-
federacy a collection of valuable rel
les which had belonged to her hus-
band She had this cOdicil witnessed by
two women and, when the action be-
came publCl it was ascertained that
the gift was Ineffective in louisiana
less. Fortunately this was discovered
in time for Mrs. Davis to correct the
mistake and secure masculine sigma
lures.
Men Control Texas Estates.
In Texas. a wife's money is entire
" controlled by her husband even
though it is kept separate. In a case
IN the supreme court of Texas, II was
shown that a husband had drawn
$4,000 Of his Wife's money from her
bank account upon his own checks
and spent it in dissipation. She
brought suit TO recover it from some
property which he owned. The court
decided that the fact that the husband
was imprOvident in the use Of money
did not detract from his authority as
manager Of his wife's estate Even
by the wife before marriage and re
NAMED in bank afterward, as sole
manager of her estate, he had the right
to draw it at will
Man Punished for Wlfe's Offence.
In many states women are so COM
pletely the property of their husbands
that in the eyes Of the law they have
no moral responsibility. If they COM
nit q crime the husband must suffer
for it a Massachusetts, woman kept
a saloon and sold beer on Sunday. Her
husband who knew nothing about the
transaction was fined for her offence
1t is said that in New Mexico, If a
woman would rob hen house or steal
the clothes from her neighbOrS line,
her husband instead Of herself would
suffer punishment. Sometimes a mar
ried wOuan's lack of responsibility
stands her in good stead
Woman Cannot Sign Checks.
In Kentucky, last year, a married
woman endorsed a check for n friend.
The check turned out to be fraudulent
and the bank lost The woman endOrser
was asked to make good the $500
and did so. A little later she brought
suit against the bank for the money
and il was ordered returned to her.
She found out that as a married woman
she had no right to endorse a check,
and, therefore, was not responsible
for the banks loss. The highest court
in the state compelled the bank to re-
fund the money and it still retains her
signature as a mute witness to the pc
culiarities Of the laws of the state.
WOmen's Notes Not Legal.
In Georgia, a man has right TO go
into a business partnership with his
wife. but if the wife promises to pay
her husbands debts anyone who takes
her note may lose. bectuse in GeOr-
gia the note of a married woman has
no legal value. This is true also in
Texas, where a married woman re-
Gently was asked by a New York firm
to perform a certain legal transaction.
She consented and the party desired to
p