The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-08-20
Alabama Statutes Said to Dis- criminate Against Married Women in Favor of Their Husbands.
By CAROLYN VANCE Special Correspondent of The Age-HeraId Copyright, 1929, by The Age-Herald)

Copyright, isse. by The Age-HeraId)
 Washington. August 1s.-To date the sins of IS states against women have been uncovered by the national women's party. The most heinous of sins, in the eyes of the feminists, consists in the refusal of a state to recognize the equality of women in all legal matters.
 Borrowing fast into the voluminors state codes contained in the library lsof the United States supreme court, 4 the 10 women lawyers working under the direction of Alice Paul, are fer reting out the determinations against women. As soon as a com pIete list of the transgressions unearthed, the shame of that state is Haunted to the world in pamphlet form.
 It is hard to determine which of the states is guiltiest from the fem mist point of view, certainly not one of the Is is entirely blameless. Judg- ing merely superficially, Georgia seems to have received the most black marks from the recording an- gels al work in the supreme court H. brary.
 Husband Heads Family
 Under any and all circumstances, the husband is the head of the fam fly in Georgia. The parson may have sonorously announced that the two have been made one. but in Geor- gia the husband is the one.
 The husband is the head of the family, and the wife is subject to him: her legal civil existenoe is merged in the husband" is the way the law reads in that wicked state.
 Ed Scott and his wife, Belle, lived in Hall county, Georgia. She rented the house in which they lived and supported the husband by teaching school. She complained that drunken man by the nafne of Pat. terson invaded her home and used vulgar and profane. language. Her husband claimed that the man was not drunk. and that he was suitable associate and that he behaved most decorously." Whether or not the drunken man could be punished for his invasion of the house depended upon whose home it was. The court said: No matter who paid the rent the true, legal, relation of husband and wife in her (the wife's) rnind Is reversed. She puts the petticoats in a more advanced position than the pantaloons. Where husband and wife reside together. whatever else she may be head of, he Is head of the house"
 Marriage Not Partnership
 Neither does the Mississippi law recognize marriage as a partnership between equals. Here. too. the hus- band may welcome or exclude any one he wishes from the home for any reason or no reason at all. For in- stance. the following case was taken from the legal records:
 Colonel x refused to allow his step-son. the only child of Yrs. X. to visit her. The court upheld him, stating that he had perfect right. as master of the house, to exclude any person from his door, and to de- termine who should be received as visitor by his wife whether or not the grounds upon which he acted were sufficient to justify him in moral point of view
 Maryland is one of the few states where it is still possible for a father to appoint by will a guardian for his children other than the mother, and ir spite of the opposition of the mother It is therefore possible for a father in Maryland today. just as in ancient times, by his will, to tear young children from their mothers care and to hand them over to stranger, or to some one whom the mother thinks entirely unsuited to bring up a child.
 Mothers Authority Inferior
 In Louisiana the mothers author