The Washington herald., 1915-02-07
women PROTEST
PROPERTY LAWS
Play Treating Of Legal Con-
ditions Stirs Weaker
Sex.
STUDY REVEALS FACTS
Summary of Laws in Many States
Shows Women's Hold Is
Precarious.

the unjust laws affecting women and
children, in particular the property and
guardianship laws which are still in force
In number Of the States Of the Union.
The occasion for all this discussion was
the exhibition Of the suffrage moving
picture play. Your Girl and Mine" dur
ing the whole of the past week at a local
theater. This play was produced under
the direction Of Mrs. Medill Mccormick.
chairman Of the Congressional committee
OF the National American Woman Suf-
frage Association, who has said that
these six reels will do more to teach the
American public why women want the
vote than any sixty pamphlets that they
won't read.
The plot is based upon the helplessness
OF woman when her husband is willing
to take advantage of the laws existing
In certain States which give him control
over her property and their children. 1t
Is told by a suffragist that during one
exhibition of the picture a handsomely
dressed woman sitting behind her be-
came so incensed at what she termed
the absurdity of the legal points OF the
plot that she left the theater in high
dudgeOn in the midst Of the performance
Anticipating some such feeling on the
part of those who are ignorant of the
laws and are willing to shut their eyes
to uncomfortable facts. the local suffrage
organizations have taken the pains to in
form themselves thoroughly on these
mooted points. Several lawyers among
their number have made a thorough in
vestigation of the guardianship and mar
ried women's property laws Of the differ
ent States. and the results of these in
vestigatfons have been tabuIated.
Womhn's Property Not Hers.
Some Of them reveal a startling state
of affairs. For example. under the laws
of Maryland and Virginia a man may will
away his minor children without the con-
sent Of their mother. This is true in no
less than twelve States, the others being
Delaware, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Penn
sylvania, Michigan. New Mexico. Ten
nessee, Vermont, and West Virginia In
some of these cases the law applies even
to an unborn child.
Tennessee until 1913 had a law giving a
woman's personal property absolutely to
her husband upon marriage, and the con-
troll of her real estate as well. The new
law Of 1913 correcting this injustice has
not yet been signed by the governor and
therefore cannot be said to be in force.
The property laws Of Texas and New
Mexico are almost equally unjust. Sew
eral States give a wife control over her
own wages only il she is living apart from
her husband In New York what a wom-
al III utT nome belongs
to him.
Twenty-Five States have an eight-hour
law for men in one or more trades. Five
States and the District of Columbia have
eight-hour laws for women, and these
States, Washington, Oregon. California,
Colorado. and Arizona, are States where
women vote. Washington, where the
women had been begging for the law for
eight years, received it from the first
ell FN,-a
suffrage amendment.
NonsunraEe States Laws Explained.
Utah and Idaho have the nine-hour day
In each State the women made the fight
for eight and were forced to compromise.
Only five nOnsuffrage States can say as
much. 1t took Massachusetts, forty years
to win the reform that Utah got in two.
And it took Massachusetts fifty years to
pass an equal guardianship law, which
Colorado accomplished the first year that
women had the vote.
The anti-suffragists are constantly
pointing to the fact that protective legis-
lation for women is found in States
where women do not vote, and that these
similar laws have not been passed in
equal suffrage States. For instance. Mas
sachusetts and New York have some
measures relating to factory women that
are not found on the statute books of
Idaho and Wyoming. In reply to this
criticism. 1t is show that while Massa-
chusetts and New York have 152, 7l3 and
136.7SS factory girls, respectively. Idaho
and Wyoming have lis and IS. Judge Ben
Lindsey. of Colorado. has a laconic an
swer. Neither does Massachusetts have
a prairie dog law. he says.
An abstract of the most unjust OF these
laws made by local lawyers for the Con-
gressional committee Of the National
American Woman Suffrage Association is
as follows:
Gunrdianship Laws.
DeIaware-Father lawful guardian OF
minor children and may appoint guard
ian of both person and property by
deed or will. Women have limited school
suffrage.
F1orida-Father natural guardian Of
minor children and may appoint guard |
ian of both person and property by will
or deed, attested by two witnesses.
Women have no suffrage. I
Georgia-Father guardian and may ap-
point a guardian Of person or property |
by will. Mother guardian II father dead, !
but she has no power of appointment by
will unless a widow, and then only as to |
such property as they may inherit from
her.
Maryland-Father guardian and may
appoint a guardian by will; mother guard |
ian IL father dead and he made no ap-
pointment by will.
Michigan-Father guardian and may ap- |
point a guardian by will of a child born !
or unborn. Provision made that mother |
may apply to court to revoke such guard |
ianship for cause.
Ohio-Father, II living, guardian; IL |
dead or abandons the mother. then moth |
er has custody of person and property |
and care of education of child; father |
may appoint a guardian by will; IL dead, |
the mother may appoint by will.
Pennsylvania-By act of June rs, 1895,
made equal guardian with faith
er. provided she contributes by her
labor or otherwise to its support and is
qualified and At person." etc. Father has /
the right to appoint guardian of the
person and estate of minor child by will |
without mothers consent. A mother
may appoint a guardian by will OF such
estate as she leaves to the child. pro-
vided the father Is dead and has ap-
pointed no guardian by his will. II IA
ther neglects. falls to provide or deserts
children, or IL he appoints the mother
guardian by his will, then mother may
appoint a guardian by her Will
Tennessee-Father guardian Of his
minor children and may appoint a guard i
an during any part OF infancy by deed /
or will. and such guardianship shall be
over both the person and the property or
sither. II the mother Il abandoned, she h
nay apply to the court TO be appointed
hut she cannot appoint n Ruard II