The father is the guardian of the persons, estates and education of minor children. At his death the mother is guardian, but if she marries again she loses the guardianship of the property because no married woman can be curator of a minor"s estate.
If the husband abandon or fail to support his family, he may be fined and imprisoned and the court may decree their maintenance out of his property. The wife must live where and how the husband shall determine. If she chooses to live elsewhere his obligation to support her ceases. In case of divorce he must support the children, even if their custody is given to the mother.
The "age of protection" for girls was raised from 12 to 14 years in 1889 and to 18 years in 1895. The penalty was reduced, however, and is at present "imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of two years, or a fine of not less than $100 or more than $500, or imprisonment in the county jail not less than one month nor more than six months, or both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court."
Between the ages of 14 and 18 years, the girl must be "of previously chaste character."
SUFFRAGE: Women possess no form of suffrage.
OFFICE HOLDING: In 1897 the Supreme Court decided that women may hold any office from which they are not debarred by the const.i.tution of the State. They are now eligible as county clerks, county school commissioners and notaries public, and for various offices up to that of judge of the Supreme Court, which are not provided for by the const.i.tution. It is the opinion of lawyers that they may serve on city school boards, and they have been nominated without objection, but none has been elected. Women are barred, however, from all State offices.
Two women sit on the State Board of Charities, but they can not do so on any other State boards.
A number are now serving as county clerks and county commissioners.
The W. S. A. and the W. C. T. U. have secured the appointment of salaried police matrons from the board of police commissioners in St.
Louis, Kansas City and St. Joseph. There are also depot matrons in these cities, and the first two have women guards at the jails and workhouses.
St. Louis has a woman inspector of shops and factories.
OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women.
EDUCATION: This was one of the first States in the Union to open its Law and Medical Schools to women. In 1850, when Harriet Hosmer, the sculptor, could not secure admission to any inst.i.tution in the East where she might study anatomy she was permitted to enter the Missouri Medical College.
In 1869 the Law College of Washington University at St. Louis admitted Miss Phoebe W. Couzins, and she received her degree in 1872.
The State University and all the State inst.i.tutions of learning are co-educational. The Presbyterian Theological School admits women.
In the public schools there are 5,979 men and 7,803 women teachers.
The average monthly salary of the men is $49.40; of the women, $42.40.
FOOTNOTES:
[350] The History is indebted for material for this chapter to Mrs.
Addie M. Johnson of St. Louis, president of the State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation.
[351] See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. II, p. 734, and following, or Wallace"s Supreme Court Reports, Vol. XXI.
[352] Other officers elected: Vice-president, Mrs. Kate M. Ford; corresponding secretary, Dr. Marie E. Adams; recording secretary, Mrs.
Sue DeHaven; treasurer, Mrs. Alice C. Mulkey; auditors, Miss Almira Hayes and Mrs. Ethel B. Harrison; member national executive committee, Mrs. Etta E. M. Weink.
Among those who have held official position since 1894 are: Vice-presidents, Mrs. Cordelia Dobyns, Mrs. Amelie C. Fruchte; corresponding secretaries, Mrs. G. G. R. Wagner, Mrs. Emma P. Jenkins; recording secretary, Mrs. E. Montague Winch; treasurer, Mrs. Juliet Cunningham; auditors, Mrs. Maria I. Johnston, Mrs. Minor Meriwether.
[353] In 1901 women obtained a law and appropriation for a State Home for Feeble-Minded Children.
CHAPTER L.
MONTANA.[354]
In August, 1883, Miss Frances E. Willard, national president, came to Montana and formed a Territorial Woman"s Christian Temperance Union in b.u.t.te. At this time Miss Willard in her speeches, and the union in its adoption of a franchise department, made the initiative effort to obtain suffrage for the women of Montana. This organization has been here, as elsewhere, a great educative force for its members, training them in parliamentary law, broadening their ideas and preparing them for citizenship. Out of its ranks have come the Rev. Alice S. N.
Barnes, Mesdames Laura E. Howey, Delia A. Kellogg, Mary A. Wylie, Martha Rolfe Pla.s.sman, Anna A. Walker and many other earnest advocates of the ballot for women. Within the past five or six years a number of professional and business women have joined the suffrage forces and to-day they compose a majority of the active leaders.
No attempt was made to organize the State until Mrs. Emma Smith De Voe was sent by the National a.s.sociation in 1895. She visited most of the prominent towns and formed clubs or committees. The first State convention was called at Helena in September of this year by the suffrage a.s.sociation of that city, Miss Sarepta Sanders, president, and Mrs. Kellogg, secretary. It was a.s.sisted by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, to whose eloquent addresses was due the great impetus the cause received at this time.[355]
Mrs. De Voe again visited the State in the spring of 1896. The annual meeting took place at b.u.t.te in November. Mrs. Harriet P. Sanders, wife of Senator Sanders, having declined re-election, was unanimously made honorary president, and Mrs. Ella Knowles Haskell succeeded her in the presidency. Nearly 300 members were reported.
A large and successful convention met at Helena in November, 1897, when a State central committee was appointed, with Mrs. Haskell as chairman and members in nearly every county. Madame F. Rowena Medini was made president, but she left the State before her year of office had expired and Dr. Mary B. At.w.a.ter filled her place. No convention being held in 1897 or 1898 she acted as president until that of October, 1899, when Dr. Maria M. Dean was elected. Mrs. Chapman Catt was present.
To Mrs. P. A. Dann of Great Falls, a contemporary of Miss Susan B.
Anthony, too much honor can not be given for her years of service and financial help. U. S. Senator Wilbur F. Sanders has been a loyal friend. Foremost among the early workers for woman suffrage in Montana was Mrs. Clara L. McAdow, whose energy and business talent made the Spotted Horse, a mine owned by herself and husband, a valuable property.
In July, 1889, Henry B. Blackwell, corresponding secretary of the American W. S. A., came to Montana to present the question to the Const.i.tutional Convention. His address was received with warm applause but the convention refused to adopt a woman suffrage amendment by 34 yeas, 29 nays. A resolution was presented that the Legislature might extend the franchise to women whenever it should be deemed expedient, thus putting the matter out of the hands of its proverbial enemies.
The measure had able champions in B. F. Carpenter, W. M. Bickford, J.
E. Rickards, Hiram Knowles, P. W. McAdow, J. A. Callaway, Peter Breen, T. E. Collins, W. A. Burleigh, W. R. Ramsdell, Francis E. Sargeant, William A. Clark (now U. S. Senator), its president, and others.
Prominent among those opposed were Martin Maginnis and Allen Joy. It was lost by a tie vote, July 30. A proposal to submit the question separately to the electors was defeated by the same vote, August 12.
The const.i.tution conferred School Suffrage, which women already possessed under Territorial government, and gave to taxpaying women a vote on questions of taxation.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: In 1895 women secured an enactment that the commissioners of any county, at the request of a certain number of pet.i.tioners, must call a special election for a vote on licensing the sale of liquor. A two-thirds vote is necessary to prohibit this. Women themselves can neither pet.i.tion nor vote on the question.
This year a bill was introduced by Representative John S. Huseby for a const.i.tutional amendment granting suffrage to women. It was pa.s.sed in the House, 45 yeas, 12 nays; indefinitely postponed in the Senate by a "rising vote," 14 yeas, 4 nays.
In 1897 a systematic effort was made to secure a bill for this amendment. Mrs. Ella Knowles Haskell, chairman of the State central committee, invaded the legislative halls with an able corps of a.s.sistants from the W. S. A. Pet.i.tions signed by about 3,000 citizens were presented, and it looked for a time as if the bill might pa.s.s. It was debated in the House and attracted much attention from the press, but lacked five votes of the required two-thirds majority. It was not acted upon in the Senate.
In 1899 Dr. Mary B. At.w.a.ter, then president of the State a.s.sociation, with other officers and members, succeeded in having a Suffrage Amendment Bill introduced. Some excellent work was done, but the measure was lost in Committee of the Whole.
Dower is retained but curtesy abolished. If there is only one child, or the lawful issue of one child, the surviving husband or wife receives one-half of the entire estate, real and personal; if there is more than one child, or one child and the lawful issue of one or more deceased children, the survivor receives one-third. If there is no issue living the survivor takes one-half of the whole unless there is neither father, mother, brother, sister nor their descendants, when the widow or widower takes it all.
The wife may mortgage or convey her separate property without the husband"s signature. He may do this but can not impair her dower right to one-third.
A married woman may act as executor, administrator or guardian. She may also sue and be sued and make contracts in her own name.
A married woman can control her earnings by becoming a sole trader through the necessary legal process. She thus makes herself responsible for the maintenance of her children.
The father, if living, or if not, the mother, while she remains unmarried and if suitable, is ent.i.tled to the guardianship of minor children. In case of divorce, other things being equal, if the child be of tender years, it is given to the mother, and if of an age to require education and preparation for business, then to the father.
By the code of 1895 the husband is required to furnish support for the family as far as he is able, and the wife must help if necessary. Her personal property is subject to debts incurred for family expenses.
Even though divorce be denied, the court may award maintenance to wife and children.
Montana is one of three States which make 18 years the legal age for the marriage of girls. In all others it ranges from 12 to 16 years.
In 1887, on pet.i.tion of women, the "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 15 years, and in 1895 to 16. The penalty is imprisonment not less than five years.
SUFFRAGE: Women may vote for school trustees on the same terms as men, but not for other school officers. They had this privilege under Territorial government. Those possessing property may vote also on all questions submitted to taxpayers. These privileges were incorporated in the first State const.i.tution.
OFFICE HOLDING: Women may serve as county superintendents or hold any school district office.