The History of Woman Suffrage Volume IV Part 117

Either husband or wife can make a will without the knowledge or consent of the other, the latter disposing of all her separate property, the former of all but the wife's life interest in one-third of the real estate. The law provides, however, that no person having husband, wife, child or parent can bequeath over one-half of his property, after payment of debts, to any inst.i.tution, a.s.sociation or corporation.

The wife can mortgage or convey her real and personal estate without the husband's signature. He may do this with his personal property but not with his real estate.

A married woman may carry on any trade or business and perform any labor or services on her own account, and her earnings are her sole and separate property. She may sue and be sued as if unmarried, and may maintain an action in her own name and the proceeds of such action will be her separate property.[393]

She may contract as if unmarried and she and her separate estate are liable. A woman engaged in business can not be arrested for a debt fraudulently contracted. All women enjoy certain exemptions from the sale of their property under execution which in the case of men are granted only to householders--that is, a man who provides for a family.

The husband's creditors have no claim to a life insurance unless the annual premiums have exceeded $500; and it is also exempt from execution for the wife's debts.

Common Law marriages are legal, requiring neither license nor ceremony, and 14 years is the legal age for the girl.[394]

Absolute divorce is granted only for adultery. In case of either absolute or limited divorce the husband may be required to pay alimony to the wife during her life, even if she should marry again.

Every married woman is joint guardian of her children with her husband, having equal powers, rights and duties in regard to them, and on the death of either parent the survivor continues guardian. (1893.)

A husband is required to support his wife commensurately with his means and her station in the community, without regard to the extent of her individual property. If he fail to do this or if he abandon his family he may be arrested and compelled to give security that he will provide for them and will indemnify the town, city or county against their becoming a charge upon the public within one year. Failing, he may be sent to prison or penitentiary for not less than six months'

hard labor, or until he gives such bond, but none of this is obligatory on the court.

In 1887 the "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 16 years, and it was made optional with the court to impose less than the existing penalty of ten years' imprisonment. A few years afterward it was proposed to reduce the age to 12 years. Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, in behalf of the W. C. T. U., went before the Judiciary Committee and said: "I represent 21,000 women and any man who dares to vote for this measure will be marked and held up to scorn. We are terribly in earnest." The matter was dropped. In 1895 the age was raised from 16 to 18, with a penalty for first degree of not more than twenty years'

imprisonment; for second degree, not more than ten. No minimum penalty is named. Trials may be held privately, and it is the testimony of the various protective a.s.sociations of women that it is almost impossible to secure convictions.

The laws contain many provisions for the benefit of female employes; among them one that if any employer in New York City fail to pay wages due up to $50, none of his property is exempt from execution and he may be imprisoned without bail.

SUFFRAGE: In 1880 a law was enacted by the Legislature declaring that "no person shall be deemed ineligible to serve as any school officer, or to vote at any school meeting, by reason of s.e.x, who has the other qualifications now required by law."

It was the undoubted intention to give School Suffrage to all women by this law, but at once Attorney-General Hamilton Ward rendered a decision that it did not apply to cities but only to places where separate "school meetings" were held, mainly country districts and villages.

In 1881 another attempt was made by the Legislature to confer School Suffrage on all women by striking out the word "male" in an old statute of 1864, but as it failed to amend the very portion of the law which referred to School Commissioners, this left the condition unchanged.

In 1886 the Legislature tried it again by enlarging the qualifications of voters, but as the words "school district" were used it did not succeed in giving the suffrage to any women except those who already possessed it.

In 1892 the Legislature once more came boldly to the rescue, and undertook to enact that women should have a vote for _District_ School Commissioners, which would bring under its provisions all the women of the State. The Act read: "All persons without regard to s.e.x, who are eligible to the office of School Commissioner, and have the other qualifications required by law, shall have the right to vote for School Commissioner."

As the Act of 1880 had said specifically that "no person shall be deemed ineligible to serve as any school officer by reason of s.e.x,"

this seemed to settle the question. The Act further provided that "All persons so ent.i.tled to vote for School Commissioner shall be registered as provided by law for those who vote for county officers, and whenever School Commissioners are to be elected it shall be the duty of the county clerk to prepare a ballot to be used exclusively by those who, by reason of s.e.x, can vote only for School Commissioner."

This Act went into effect in April, 1893, and in the autumn Mrs.

Matilda Joslyn Gage registered in Manlius, Onondaga County.

Immediately the board of inspectors were requested to remove her name from the registry. They refused and application was made to the Supreme Court to strike off her name, on the sole contention that she was not a lawful voter on account of her s.e.x. The application was granted on the ground that the Act conferring upon women the right to vote for School Commissioner was unconst.i.tutional. The inspectors obeyed the order. Mrs. Gage appealed to the General Term, where the order was affirmed, and then she carried her case to the Court of Appeals. The decision here was in brief that a School Commissioner is a _county officer_, and that by the State const.i.tution only male citizens may vote for such officers. The decision closed by saying: "A Const.i.tutional Convention may take away the barrier which excludes the claimed right of the appellant, but until that is done we must enforce the law as it stands."[395]

Thus after twenty years of time, four acts of the Legislature and three decisions of the highest courts, the School Suffrage for women is still confined exclusively to those of the villages and country districts. The law condensed reads as follows:

Every person of full age residing in any school district, etc., who owns or hires real property in such district liable to taxation for school purposes; and every such resident who is the parent of a child who shall have attended the school in said district for a period of at least eight weeks within one year preceding such school meeting; and every such person, not being the parent, who shall have permanently residing with him or her a child of school age, etc.; and every such resident and citizen as aforesaid, who owns any personal property, a.s.sessed on the last preceding a.s.sessment-roll of the town, exceeding $50 in value, exclusive of such as is exempt from execution, and no other, shall be ent.i.tled to vote at any school meeting held in such district, for all school district officers and upon all matters which may be brought before said meeting. No person shall be deemed ineligible to vote at any such school district meeting, by reason of s.e.x, who has one or more of the other qualifications required by this section.[396]

This was the only suffrage granted to women until 1901, when the following was enacted by the Legislature:

A woman who possesses the qualifications to vote for village or town officers, except the qualification of s.e.x, and who is the owner of property in the town or village a.s.sessed upon the last preceding a.s.sessment-roll thereof, is ent.i.tled to vote upon a proposition to raise money by tax or a.s.sessment.

This law is believed to include about 1,800 places. The bill for it was managed by a committee of the State Suffrage a.s.sociation in three successive Legislatures.

By the city charters of eleven of the thirty-six third-cla.s.s cities--Amsterdam, Cohoes, Corning, Geneva, Ithaca, Jamestown, Newburg, Niagara Falls, North Tonawanda, Oswego and Watertown, taxpaying women have a vote on special appropriations. Hornellsville also conferred this privilege but it was declared illegal by the corporation council, because the word "resident" was used instead of "citizen."

OFFICE HOLDING: By a statute of 1880 women are eligible for any school office. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction is elected by the Legislature. Instead of county superintendents, as in most States, New York has District Commissioners. A district may comprise either a part or the whole of a county, but no city may form any part of it. At present ten women are serving as District Commissioners. A considerable number sit on the school boards of cities and villages but no exact record is kept. In Greater New York thirty women serve as school inspectors; there are also four supervisors in the departments of sewing, cooking, kitchen-garden and physical culture, at salaries ranging from $2,000 to $2,500.

The same law which enables women to serve as District School Commissioners makes them eligible to all district offices, including those of trustee, collector, treasurer and librarian, as the law in prescribing qualification, omits the word "male."[397]

Women also are eligible to the office of village clerk. They serve as notaries public, clerks of the Surrogate Court and deputy tax collectors. Miss Christine Ross of New York City is a certified public accountant and auditor.

Most cities have police matrons. Sixty fill this position in Greater New York at a salary of $1,000 per annum.

Women are employed as city physicians in several places. The law requires one woman physician in each State hospital for the insane and eleven are at present employed, leaving only the State Homeopathic Hospital at Gowanda[398] and the Manhattan Hospital on Long Island without one.

One woman trustee is required on the board of every State inst.i.tution where women are placed as patients, paupers or criminals, but this is not strictly obeyed. A list of the boards of eleven hospitals shows twelve women and sixty-five men, but four have no women members. Two women are on the board of Craig Colony of Epileptics; three on that of the Custodial Asylum for Feeble-Minded.

The following are serving as State officials: On State Board of Charities of twelve commissioners, one woman, with thirteen employed in different departments at from $480 to $1,400 per annum; State Superintendent Woman's Relief Corps, at $1,500; two State hospital accountants at $1,400, three at $700; princ.i.p.al of House of Refuge for Women at Hudson, $1,200; superintendent Western House of Refuge, $1,200; five in Commission of Lunacy Department, $700 to $1,400; fourteen in the State Library, $50 to $175 per month; seven in Administrative Department of the Board of Regents of the University of New York, and thirteen in the College and High School Departments (not teachers), $720 to $1,200 per annum; ten in Home Education Department, $50 to $150 per month; in the Department of Public Instruction, five confidential clerks at from $900 to $2,000; in Bureau of Examinations seven women at $900 (men in same positions receive $1,800); in State Museum one woman at $600; in Training Cla.s.s Bureau two women clerks at $900; three women in office of Secretary of State at $900; one index clerk in Bureau of Charitable Inst.i.tutions at $1,050; one in State Comptroller's office at $1,050; one examiner for Civil Service Commission at $900 (men receive $1,400 for same work), and three stenographers at $600 to $900; two State's prison stenographers at $1,000; a Bertillon indexer, $1,200; one clerk for Commission of Labor, $1,200; one for Free Employment Bureau, $900; under Superintendent of Insurance, five women, $1,200 to $1,400; in office of State Architect three, $626 to $900; in Bureau of Records two clerks, $1,200; thirteen women are Factory Inspectors or employes in that department, $600 to $1,500; twelve in the service of Commissioner of Excise, $720 to $1,080.

OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women. Several are presidents of banks, a number are brokers, many are directors of corporations and there are women managers of countless enterprises.

EDUCATION: The two great universities, Cornell at Ithaca and Columbia in New York City, admit women to all departments and grant them the full degrees. In Cornell they recite in the same cla.s.ses with the men students, and have the additional advantage of a residential hall on the campus. There are no women on the faculty. Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College, has been a member of the board of trustees for several years. The women undergraduates of Columbia have cla.s.s-rooms and residence in Barnard, an independent corporation but an affiliated college, its dean having the same relation to Columbia as the heads of all the other colleges. The faculty is composed partly of the regular Columbia staff and partly of special professors, among whom are a number of women. The seniors attend certain courses in philosophy and science in the regular university cla.s.ses, and all of these are open to post graduates. The University of New York, situated in and near the city, is co-educational in its post-graduate courses and in its Departments of Law, Pedagogy and Commerce. Its Law Department is celebrated for the prominent women it has graduated.

Pratt Inst.i.tute of Brooklyn is open to both s.e.xes alike.

The Universities of Syracuse and Rochester are co-educational. The latter was opened in 1900 through the efforts of the women of the city in raising a fund of $50,000. The project would have failed, however, had it not been for the a.s.sistance of Miss Anthony. On the morning of the day when the limit would expire which had been fixed by the trustees for the raising of this sum, $8,000 were still lacking.

Every possible source had been exhausted and in despair the women appealed to Miss Anthony, who already had collected and turned over a considerable amount. She set out with the wonderful determination which always has characterized her, and at 4 o'clock in the afternoon she went before the board of trustees with the full quota in checks and pledges, making herself responsible for the last $2,500.

Union Theological Seminary of New York City (Presbyterian) is one of the very few orthodox inst.i.tutions of this kind which admit women.

The State is distinguished by having in Va.s.sar the first of the great colleges for women which offer a course of study approximating that of the best universities. It was founded in 1861. Over 700 students are in attendance.

Besides seven large co-educational inst.i.tutions there are eight or ten smaller ones for boys alone and several for girls alone.

In the public schools there are 5,405 men and 28,587 women teachers; in New York City 1,263 men and 10,949 women. The average annual salary for teachers in the cities outside of New York is $597; in that city, which employs one-third of the whole number, $1,035. The average annual salary in the commissioner districts is $322.49. There are women in Greater New York receiving $2,500; there are hundreds in the State receiving one-tenth of that sum. So far as it has been possible to secure an estimate there is fully as much discrepancy between men's and women's salaries for the same work as in other States.

The women of Greater New York take a prominent part in political campaigns. There are seven or eight Women's Republican Clubs, a Health Protective a.s.sociation and a Woman's Munic.i.p.al League which were active in 1897 when Seth Low, president of Columbia College, was candidate for mayor on the Reform ticket.[399] There is also a flouris.h.i.+ng Ladies' Democratic Club.

A unique observance is the annual Pilgrim Mothers' Dinner at the renowned Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. This was inst.i.tuted in December, 1892, by the New York City Suffrage League, Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake, president, in memory of those n.o.ble women, who are apt to be overlooked at the celebrations in honor of the Pilgrim Fathers.

New York divides with Ma.s.sachusetts the honor of forming the first Woman's Club--Sorosis, in 1868--and it continues foremost among the States in the size and influence of its organizations of women. Over 200, part of them suffrage societies, belong to the Federation of Clubs, and these represent only a portion of the whole number. There are eighty auxiliaries to the State Suffrage a.s.sociation.

FOOTNOTES:

[376] The History is indebted for the material for this chapter to Mrs. Mariana Wright Chapman of Brooklyn, Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf of Rochester, and Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake of New York, the presidents of the State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation during the past twenty years.

[377] See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. I, p. 67.

[378] Those making addresses were Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw, Mrs.

Chapman Catt, Mrs. Gannett, Mrs. Searing, Rabbi Max Landsberg, the Hon. Charles S. Baker, the Hon. John Van Voorhis, the Rev. H. Clay Peeples, the Rev. Ward Platt, the Rev. H. H. Stebbins, the Rev. J. W.