Previous to 1886 legislation and public sentiment in Alabama were of the most conservative kind, but at the Const.i.tutional Convention held that year changes in the statutes were made which gave to women many rights and privileges not before possessed. Dower but not curtesy obtains. If there are no lineal descendants, and the estate is solvent, the widow takes one-half of the real estate for life, but if the estate is insolvent, one-third only. If there are lineal descendants, then the dower right is one-third, whether the estate is solvent or not. If a husband die without a will, his widow, if there are no children, is ent.i.tled to all of his personal property; if there is but one child, she is ent.i.tled to one-half; if there are more than one and not more than four children, then she is ent.i.tled to one child"s portion. A homestead to the value of $2,000 is exempt to her from all creditors and no will can deprive her of it, unless she has signed a mortgage on it. If a wife die without a will, her husband is ent.i.tled to one-half of her personal property, whether there are children or not, and to the life use of all her real estate.
A wife may will her property to whom she pleases, excluding her husband from all share. He can do this with his property, but can not impair her dower rights. She can not sell her real estate without his written consent, but can sell her personal property without it. He can mortgage or sell his real estate, except the homestead, and can dispose of his personal property, without her consent.
A married woman may be agent, guardian or administrator. She may acquire and hold separate property not liable for the debts of her husband, though necessaries for the family can be a liability. Her bank deposit is her own, and her earnings can not be taken by her husband or his creditors. A wife can not become surety for her husband. Property purchased with her money will be returned to her upon application to the court.
A wife may engage in business with her husband"s written consent. If she does so without it she incurs no penalty, but it is necessary in order that her creditors may recover their money. She must sue and be sued and make contracts jointly with the husband.
If a woman commit a crime in partnership with her husband (except murder or treason) she can not be punished; nor, if she commit a crime in his presence, can he testify against her.
Common law marriage is valid and the legal age for a girl is fourteen years.
The father is the guardian of the minor children, and at his death may appoint a guardian to the exclusion of the mother. If this is not done she becomes the legal guardian of the girls till they are eighteen, of the boys till fourteen.
Alabama is one of the few States which do not by law require the husband to support the family.
The convicted father of an illegitimate child must pay to the Probate Court for its support not exceeding $50 yearly for ten years, and must give $1,000 bond for this purpose. Failing to do this, judgment is rendered for not more than $625 and he is sentenced to hard labor for the county for one year.
It is a criminal offense to use foul language to or in the hearing of a woman, or by rude behavior to annoy her in any public place; or to take a woman of notorious character to any public place of resort for respectable women and men. Slander against a woman"s character is heavily punished; a seducer is sent to the penitentiary if his victim previously has been chaste. Procurers may be sentenced to the penitentiary.
The "age of protection for girls" is 14 years, and the penalty is death or imprisonment in the penitentiary from ten years to life.
SUFFRAGE: Women have no form of suffrage.[159]
OFFICE HOLDING: Women are not eligible to any elective office. They act as enrolling clerks in the Legislature. Two women, whose fathers died while holding the position, were made registrars in chancery.
Women can not serve as notaries public.
There are no women trustees on the board of any State inst.i.tution, although the charitable and benevolent work is almost entirely in the hands of women. A man is superintendent of the Girls" Industrial School and the entire board is composed of men. Limited State aid is extended to a number of inst.i.tutions founded and controlled by women, including the Boys" Industrial Farm.
OCCUPATIONS: Women are legally prohibited from acting as lawyers, physicians or ministers. They are not allowed to engage in mining.
EDUCATION: All educational inst.i.tutions admit women. The State Polytechnic at Auburn was the pioneer, offering to women in 1892 every course, technical, scientific and agricultural. The State University at Tuscaloosa opened its doors to them in 1896. Two scholarships for girls are maintained here, one by the ladies of Montgomery and one by those of Birmingham. In 1900, out of a cla.s.s of 178 boys and 23 girls, two boys and four girls took the highest honors.
The State Industrial School for Girls, at Montevallo, was established in 1896. There are two co-educational Normal Schools at Florence and Troy.
The colored men and women have excellent advantages in several Normal Schools and Colleges. The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Inst.i.tute, under the presidency of Booker T. Washington, has a national reputation. Colored children have also their full share of public schools.
There are in the public schools 2,262 men and 5,041 women teachers.
The average monthly salary of the men is $32; of the women, $25.35.
The most progressive movement in the State is that of the Federation of Women"s Clubs, formed in 1895, and including at present fifty-eight clubs. Its work has been extremely practical in the line of education and philanthropy. The most important achievement is the Boys"
Industrial Farm, located at East Lake near Birmingham. This is managed by a board of women and has a charter which secures its control to women, even if it become entirely a State inst.i.tution. The club women have for three years sustained five scholarships for girls, two at Tuscaloosa and three at Montevallo. They have organized also a free traveling library, and in four cities free kindergartens.
In conclusion it may be noted that the strength of the woman movement in the State has been wonderfully developed in all directions during the last five years.
FOOTNOTES:
[158] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Ellen Stephens Hildreth of New Decatur, the first president of the State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation.
[159] In the Const.i.tutional Convention of 1901, an amendment providing that any woman paying taxes on $500 worth of property might vote on all bond propositions was adopted with great enthusiasm, but the next day, under the influence of the argument that "it would be an entering wedge for full suffrage," it was reconsidered and voted down. U. S.
Senator John T. Morgan urged this amendment. The new const.i.tution did contain a clause, however, providing that if a wife paid taxes on $500 worth of property her husband should be ent.i.tled to this vote.
CHAPTER XXVI.
ARIZONA.[160]
The Territory having elected delegates to a convention to be held in Phoenix in August and September, 1891, to prepare a const.i.tution for Statehood, Henry B. Blackwell and Lucy Stone of Ma.s.sachusetts sent Mrs. Laura M. Johns of Kansas to Arizona in August to endeavor to secure a clause in this const.i.tution granting suffrage to women. She was received in Tucson by Mr. and Mrs. Hughes, editors and proprietors of an influential daily paper, who gave every possible a.s.sistance.
Mrs. Johns soon went to Phoenix, where the convention was in session, and followed up a previous correspondence with the delegates by personal interviews. She found a powerful champion in ex-Attorney-General William Herring, chairman of the committee which had the question of woman suffrage in charge. When she asked permission to address this committee it set an early date and suggested that it might be pleasanter for the ladies if the hearing should be held in a private residence. Accordingly Mrs. E. D. Garlick, formerly of Winfield, Kansas, opened her parlor, invited a number of ladies who were interested and the committee met with them and listened courteously to their plea for the ballot. A favorable report was presented to the convention and General Herring, Mrs. Johns, Mrs.
Hughes and others spoke eloquently in favor of its acceptance. The measure was lost by three votes.
So much interest had been manifested that a Territorial Suffrage a.s.sociation was formed, with Mrs. Hughes as president and Mrs. Garlick as corresponding secretary. Mrs. Johns intended to organize the Territory but was suddenly called home by a death in her family.
Four years later, in 1895, while she was working in New Mexico for the National a.s.sociation, she was requested by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of its organization committee, to speak at the annual convention in Phoenix; and on the way she held preliminary meetings at Tucson, Tempe and other places.
In January, 1896, Mrs. Hughes, whose husband was now Governor, went to the convention of the National a.s.sociation in Washington to interest that body in Arizona, which it was then expected would soon enter Statehood. She made a strong appeal, a.s.suring the delegates that the pioneer men of the Territory were willing to confer the suffrage on the women who had braved the early hardships with them, and saying:
It is of the most vital importance that our women be enfranchised before the election of delegates to the approaching const.i.tutional convention, as the Congressional enabling act provides that all persons qualified as voters under the Territorial law shall be qualified to vote for delegates to this convention and for the ratification or rejection of the same.
If our women are enfranchised before the enabling act is pa.s.sed, then Arizona is safe and no power can prevent them from being accorded their rights in the const.i.tution, and if their rights are not conceded they will see to it that the const.i.tution fails of ratification.
In March the National a.s.sociation sent Mrs. Johns again into the Territory and she remained until May. In company with Mrs. Hughes she made a successful tour through the Salt River Valley, receiving generous hospitality, addressing large audiences and forming local clubs. The two ladies then crossed the Territory to Yuma, speaking at various points on the way, and went from there to Prescott. Governor Hughes himself spoke at the meetings held in Clifton. Mrs. Johns then went to the Northern counties. Altogether most of the towns were visited, and while the distances were great and the difficulties numerous, the meetings were well attended and earnest advocates were found even in small mining camps among the mountains.
Mrs. Johns returned in the winter of 1897 and addressed the Legislature in behalf of a bill for woman suffrage but no action was taken. Among the friends and workers not elsewhere mentioned were the Hon. and Mrs. George P. Blair, ex-Mayor Gustavus Hoff, C. R. Drake, John T. Hughes; the other officers of the suffrage a.s.sociation were Mrs. C. T. Hayden, vice-president; Mrs. R. G. Phillips, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Lillian Collins, recording secretary; Mrs. Mary E.
Hall, treasurer.
In the winter of 1899 the time seemed propitious for a vigorous movement, and Mrs. Chapman Catt and Miss Mary G. Hay spent a month at Phoenix during the legislative session. Every possible effort was made, there seemed to be a remarkable sentiment in favor of woman suffrage among the better cla.s.ses and it looked as if it would be granted. The final result is thus described in Mrs. Chapman Catt"s report to the national convention the following April:
Our bill went through the House by an unprecedented majority, 10 yeas, 5 nays, and then, as in Oklahoma, the remonstrants concentrated their opposition upon the Council. Here, as there, the working opponents were the saloon-keepers, with the difference that in Arizona they are often the proprietors of a gambling den and house of prost.i.tution in connection with the saloons, and thus the opposition was more bitter and intolerant because it was believed greater damage would result from the votes of women. Every member of the Council received letters or telegrams from the leading proprietors of such resorts, threatening political ruin if he failed to vote against the measure. It was well known that money was contributed from these same sources. Here, as in Oklahoma, a majority were pledged to support the bill, but here, too, they played a filibustering game which prevented its coming to final vote. Pledges made to women are not usually counted as binding, but these pledges, as in Oklahoma, were made to men who were political co-workers. They did not deem it prudent to break these pledges by an open vote against the bill, but they held that they were not violated when they kept the matter from coming to a vote. The opposition was led by the proprietor of the largest and richest saloon in the Territory.
I have never found anywhere, however, so many strong, determined, able men, anxious to espouse our cause as in Arizona. The general sentiment is overwhelmingly in our favor. At one time three prominent men were in Phoenix to do what they could for the suffrage bill, each of whom had traveled four hundred miles for this express purpose. Governor N. O. Murphy recommended woman suffrage in his message and did all that was possible to a.s.sist its pa.s.sage. The press is favorable, the intelligent and moral citizens are eager for it, but the vicious elements, as everywhere, are opposed. For a month the question was bitterly contested, but its foes prevented a vote. So again a campaign, which was sure of victory had each man voted his conviction, ended in crime and bribery won the day. The pay of legislators in the Territories is very small, and the most desirable men can not afford to serve. In consequence there drifts into every Legislature enough men of unprincipled character to make a balance of power. It may interest you to know that in both Territories we were told that all such legislation is controlled by bribery, and that our measure could be put through in a twinkling by "a little money judiciously distributed," but to such suggestions we replied that what the suffragists had won they had won honestly and we would postpone further advances till they could come in the same way. In the future years of strife over this question there will be many hands stained with guilt, but they will be those of the remonstrants and not ours. Though crime prevented the victory, yet we were abundantly a.s.sured of the lasting results of the campaign.
LAWS: Curtesy and dower were abolished by Territorial legislation, but in 1887 Congress pa.s.sed an act granting a widow dower in all the Territories. If either husband or wife die without a will, leaving descendants, out of the separate property of either the survivor has one-third of the personal and a life use of one-third of the real estate. If there are no descendants, the survivor has all of the personal and a life use of one-half the real estate; if there are neither descendants nor father nor mother of the decedent, the survivor has the whole estate. The community property goes entirely to the survivor if there are no descendants, otherwise one-half goes to the survivor, in either case charged with the community debts. If the widow has a maintenance derived from her own property equal to $2,000, the whole property so set apart, other than her half of the homestead, must go to the minor children. If the homestead was selected from the community property it vests absolutely in the survivor. If selected from the separate property of either, it vests in that one or his heirs. It can not exceed $5,000 in value.
Married women have the exclusive control of their separate property; it is not liable for the debts or obligations of the husband; it may be mortgaged, sold or disposed of by will without his consent. The same privileges are extended to husbands.
A married woman may sue and be sued and make contracts in her own name as regards her separate property, but she must sue jointly with her husband for personal injuries, and damages recovered are community property and in his control.
If a married woman desire to become a sole trader she must file a certificate in the registry of deeds setting forth the nature and place of business. She can not become a sole trader if the original capital invested exceeds $10,000 unless she takes oath that the surplus did not come from any funds of the husband. If the wife is not a sole trader her wages are community property and belong to the husband while she is living with him.
The father is the legal guardian of the minor children. At his death the mother becomes guardian so long as she remains unmarried, provided she is a suitable person.
If the husband fails to support his wife, she may contract debts for necessaries on his credit, and for such debts she and her husband must be sued jointly and if he is not financially responsible her separate property may be taken.