The History of Woman Suffrage Volume IV Part 74

In 1894 Mrs. Ellen Spencer Mussey, always an ardent suffragist, as chairman of the committee on legislation for the District Federation of Women's Clubs, began a vigorous prosecution of this bill before Congress. Miss Gillett and Mrs. Mussey were ably a.s.sisted by Mrs.

Belva A. Lockwood, Mrs. Lucia B. Blount, Mrs. M. E. Coues and Mrs.

Mary S. Lockwood.

At this time married women had no legal right to hold property, and in most respects the District laws remained about as arbitrary as they were in the reign of King Charles II. A mother had no right by law to her own child, the father having legal sanction to dispose of the offspring even before it was born. At the time this committee was urging Congress to pa.s.s the bill, the public was horrified by a notorious case in the courts of the District in which a profligate father, who had never done anything to benefit his children, had disposed of them by will, debarring the mother from their custody and control. This cruelty and injustice was an object-lesson which especially evoked the sympathy of Congress.

The bill finally pa.s.sed both Houses, was approved by President William McKinley, and became a law June 1, 1896. At a special meeting, held June 11, Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood presented the a.s.sociation with an engrossed copy of the new law, and the women held a jubilee to celebrate their victory.

The law provides that the real, personal or mixed property which shall come to a woman by descent, purchase, gift, etc., shall be and remain her sole and separate property, notwithstanding her marriage, and shall not be subject to the disposal of her husband or be liable for his debts.

A married woman may bargain, sell and convey her real and personal property, enter into any contract, sue and be sued the same as a married man.

A married woman may carry on any business or enter any profession, by herself or with others, and the proceeds shall be her separate property and may be invested in her own name.

The law also provides that the father and mother shall be equal guardians of their children, and that the survivor may by last will and testament appoint a guardian.

The husband, if he have property, is required by a recent decision to furnish his family with reasonable support; otherwise there is no penalty for failure to do so.

Dower and curtesy obtain. The widow's dower is one-third for life of the real estate, and one-third of the personal estate absolutely if there is a child or descendant of any living. If there is no issue or descendant of any, but father, mother, brother, sister or descendants of these, the widow has one-half the personal estate. If none of these, the widow may have all of the personal estate, and all of the real estate if there is no kindred whatever. A widower, if his wife has borne a living child, is ent.i.tled to the use of one-third of her real estate for life, and one-third of her personal property. If there are no heirs, lineal or collateral, he takes the whole estate absolutely.

The "age of protection" for girls was raised in 1889 from 12 to 16 years. The penalty is, for the first offense imprisonment at hard labor in the penitentiary not more than fifteen years, and for each subsequent offense not more than thirty years. No minimum penalty is fixed.

SUFFRAGE: Since the Territorial government was abolished and male citizens disfranchised, in 1874, there have been numerous pet.i.tions to Congress for the ballot by both men and women, but no action has been taken by that body.

OFFICE HOLDING: Through the early '80's Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood, Mrs.

Jane H. Spofford and others worked unceasingly for the placing of matrons at the jail and police stations. One was appointed in 1884, and, during the sixteen years since, a matron has been secured for the jail and three for the ten police stations, largely through the efforts of the suffragists and especially of Mrs. Ellen Powell Thompson, president of the District a.s.sociation. The women have had the hearty support of Major Richard Sylvester, Chief of Police.

In 1892 an act was pa.s.sed for a Board of Guardians for Dependent Children, of which at least three of the nine members must be women.

Princ.i.p.ally to the efforts of Mrs. Sara A. Spencer, with the help of other members of the a.s.sociation, is due the bill providing for a Girl's Reform School, in 1892. The board of managers has always been composed of men, but there are a woman superintendent and a woman physician.

Mrs. Lockwood and Mrs. Elizabeth A. Russell worked long and arduously to secure a House of Detention and also a special carriage and a special court for the women and children arrested. To Major Sylvester above all others, however, belongs the credit of securing this House of Detention. Senator James McMillan of Michigan, chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia, framed the bill and it was finally transformed into law. This house was opened in the summer of 1900. A Lieutenant of Police and three matrons have charge, under supervision of the Chief.

Mrs. Marilla M. Ricker was made notary public and master in chancery in 1885, and Miss Emma M. Gillett soon afterward. They secured the legislation necessary for women to hold the latter office. There are at present four or five women masters in chancery and twenty women notaries in the District.

It required six years of agitation and effort on the part of the suffrage a.s.sociation before women were allowed to serve as members on the Board of Public School Education. The princ.i.p.al movers in this work were Dr. Clara W. MacNaughton, Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Helen Rand Tindall, Mrs. Lockwood and Mrs. Caroline E. Kent. During this time the bill pa.s.sed through many vicissitudes and its friends became discouraged, but in 1894 Dr. MacNaughton went to work with a strong determination to secure its pa.s.sage. Great a.s.sistance was rendered by Senator McMillan and the Hon. Edwin F. Uhl, at that time a.s.sistant Secretary of State. The bill was finally pa.s.sed just before Congress adjourned for that year. The school board, which has charge of both white and colored schools, consists of five members, each with a salary of $500 a year. Mrs. Mary C. Terrill (colored) served five years and resigned. She was succeeded by Mrs. Betty G. Francis (colored). Mrs. Mary Hope West (white) is the other woman member. A woman is serving as a.s.sistant superintendent of the public schools, receiving $2,500 per annum; and a woman is employed as a.s.sistant secretary of the Board of Education.

Women sit on the Hospital Boards and those of Public Charities. It never has been possible to secure the appointment of women physicians at any of the hospitals or asylums.

As women are admitted to the various Government Departments there naturally would be more of them holding office in the District of Columbia than in all the States combined. The relative number of men and women employed is as follows:

_LEGISLATIVE._

_Male._ _Female._

Senate, officers and employes 382 3 House of Representatives, officers and employes 272 ...

Capitol Police 65 ...

Library of Congress 216 151 United States Botanic Garden 28 ...

---- ---- 963 154

_EXECUTIVE._

Executive Office 28 ...

State Department 92 17 Treasury Department 3,234 2,313 War Department[215] 2,411 300 Navy Department[216] 2,992 85 Postoffice Department 812 237 Interior Department 4,810 2,862 Department of Justice 191 21 Department of Agriculture 650 332 Government Printing Office 2,623 1,068 Department of Labor 74 10 Fish Commission 55 12 Interstate Commerce Commission 133 ...

Civil Service Commission 55 6 Industrial Commission 10 7 Smithsonian Inst.i.tution 320 39 Bureau of American Republics 13 9 Local Postoffices in District 606 22 ---- ---- 19,109 7,340

_JUDICIAL._

Supreme Court of the United States 12 ...

Court of Claims 25 2 ---- ---- 37 2

_SUMMARY._

20,109 7,496

Whether the number of women is increasing or decreasing is a disputed question. The Civil Service alone enables them to hold their places or to secure new ones against the tremendous pressure for the offices which is brought upon the appointing powers by the men who form the voting const.i.tuency of the country. Chiefs of the Divisions rarely call for a woman on the Civil Service list of eligibles.

Few women fill the highly salaried positions. One woman receives $2,500 as Portuguese translator; one, working in the U. S. Land Office at Lander, Wyoming, receives the same. One secured a $2,250 position in the Federal Postoffice Department but was soon reduced to an $1,800 place and her own given to a man. The salaries of women in general range from $900 to $1,600, not more than fifty receiving the latter sum, while many hundreds of men clerks receive $1,800. Clerks.h.i.+ps under Civil Service rules are supposed to pay the same to men and women, but the latter rarely secure the better-paid ones. There are a large number of positions graded above clerks.h.i.+ps and paying from $2,000 to $3,000 a year to which women are practically never appointed.

OCCUPATIONS: No professions or occupations are forbidden to women. Two of the pioneer women physicians in the United States made name and fame in Was.h.i.+ngton--Dr. Caroline B. Winslow and Dr. Susan A.

Edson--the latter the attending physician during the last illness of President James A. Garfield.

EDUCATION: Howard University, for white and colored students, is the only one which graduates women in medicine. In all of its ten departments, including law, it is co-educational. Columbian University (Baptist) opens its literary departments to women but excludes them from those of law and medicine, which are its strongest departments.[217] They were admitted to the Medical School in 1884, but excluded in 1892 on the ground that the university could not afford to have professors for separate cla.s.ses and that the buildings were too small for the increased number of students.

Mrs. Ellen S. Mussey and Miss Emma M. Gillett, in 1896, established the Was.h.i.+ngton College of Law for the legal education of women. Mrs.

Mussey has been the dean since its organization and is the only woman dean of a law school in the country. The Hon. Edward F. Bingham, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the District, is president of the board of trustees, and leading members of the bar have used their influence to make the college a success. The curriculum is the same as obtains in the leading inst.i.tutions. There are several men among the students. Mrs. Mussey is counsel for the Red Cross Society.

The American University (Methodist Episcopal), now being organized for post-graduate work, is to be co-educational.

The great Catholic Universities, here, as everywhere, are closed to women. Trinity College for Women (Roman Catholic) was dedicated Nov.

22, 1900. The necessity for this college became apparent from their many applications to enter the universities for men. It is the first inst.i.tution founded by this church for the higher education of women such as is provided by the largest of the women's colleges in the United States.

There are in the public schools 155 men and 1,004 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $94.48; of the women, $64.31.

The introduction of Kindergartens into the public schools received the a.s.sistance of all the women's societies in the District. In 1898 a bill pa.s.sed Congress appropriating $15,000 with which to make the experiment. This proving successful an annual appropriation of $25,000 was made.[218]

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Mrs. Clinton Smith, president, has secured the suppression of liquor selling in the cafe of the new Library of Congress, and a large number of most beneficent measures.

In December, 1900, the national convention of the W. C. T. U. was held in Was.h.i.+ngton and among the strongest resolutions adopted were those declaring for woman suffrage and the abolishment of the army canteen.

A bill for the latter purpose pa.s.sed the House while the convention was in session, and soon afterwards pa.s.sed the Senate.

The District Federation of Women's Clubs includes eleven affiliated organizations comprising nearly four thousand women.

Mrs. Julius C. Burrows (Mich.) is among the most prominent of the many women engaged in philanthropic work. Largely under her direction the Training School for Nurses connected with the Garfield Memorial Hospital has become one of the best in the country.

Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby has long owned and published the _Woman's Tribune_. Mrs. Mary S. Lockwood for a number of years has edited the _American Magazine_, the official organ of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood is a.s.sociate editor of _The Peacemaker_.

Dr. Anita Newcombe McGee was the first woman in the United States commissioned as surgeon, with the rank of lieutenant and the privilege of wearing shoulder straps. She examined most of the women nurses who volunteered their services in Cuba and the Philippines.