Woman's Legal Status. HERE shall be no discrimination because of race or color says our Constitution, but with the great onsweep of the woman's movement toward equality of citizenship comes the awakening to the fact that there is vast discrimination because of sex. When a This is the land of modern chivalry, where the moral qualities of the woman are most highly valued and her station in society as "the glory of the man" most fully acknowledged, where she is admittedly the conservator of domestic purity, of social decorum and of public sentiment. But with equal education, commercial opportunity and responsibilty there is increasing weight of reason why she should be given the greatest degree of civil freedom. Insofar as there is discrimination because of sex there is created a condition of servitude for women. married woman cannot sell, mortgage or otherwise hypothecate or manage and control the property she was possessed of when she entered the marriage contract, she is barred from that freedom of action which is the right of every American citizen, married or unmarried. When a married woman is not sui juris, when she cannot contract or when she cannot select her domicile or exercise her right, or be held for her contractural obligations, she is in a state of legal servitude, a fact which, if more generally and thoroughly understood by womankind might reduce the business of the Marriage License Bureaus. Out of the far West the torch of woman's emancipation comes blazing its way and lighting the dark corners. In its wake there is legislation which gives to men and women the same legal status, whether constituting a right, or privilege, or claim, the protection or defense of the party. There is no subject of such vital import to every man and woman as the law of the State where he or she dwells and of legislation as it improves conditions in neighboring States and the nation-yet there is no subject upon which there is such general lack of information. The school boy bids farewell to his Alma Mater with what is deemed a completed education yet without the first idea of contracts, their making and breaking, or the number of years, under the Statue of Limitations of his State, when an action to enforce to enforce or protect his rights may be maintained. The girl leaves her school well trained in music, art, literature, but with no information of existing laws which are advantageous or predjudicial to her interests, or the obligation devolving upon her to know the laws of other States, especially where they better the condition of women. She is entirely unaware of the laws needed for the protection of working women and taxpayers, for destitute mothers and orphans, for sanitation and morality-and all of these things she should know either as the enfranchised citizen or the to-be enfranchised citizen, since it is for the courts to say what the law is, not what it should be. The conflict of laws between the States increases the ambiguity of woman's legal status in this country. In Colorado a woman has about all of the rights and privileges accorded men, except jury duty, while in Louisiana, married women have a standing in courts in civil actions only when authorized by their husbands, being in the purview of the law veritable rimless ciphers. In one State there is no controversy as to a woman's right to contract, in another she cannot be held for her contractural obligations. In one State a man may whip his wife and be within the bounds of his legal rights, while in another State the chastisement would be valid ground for divorce. There is full agreement in all of the States on just one phase of the law-women are not excluded or exempt from full penalty for violation of any of the criminal Statutes. By study and comparison of the laws of the several States in their relation to women may be evolved such legislative measures as will tend to establish a fair legal status for women, which would mean a government of the people, for the people and by the people, along with the concession that women are "people." The power is vested in the Legislatures of the several States to make, ordain and establish all manner of laws, statutes and ordinances not repugnant to the Constitution and deemed for the best good and interest of the Commonwealth. It is by and through these law making bodies women must establish their protective and defensive measures and these measures should be so fair, sane and equitable as to command universal respect and confidence. Careful and intelligent progress by women in the shaping of such new laws as are intended to equalize their status with the male citizen will best demonstrate their right to citizenship with its resultant obligations and duties, for in the multiplicity of laws now cluttering our statute books a few more, unless direct, forceful and valid, will but add to the confusion and defeat their purpose. It may be well to recall the fact that in 1913 more than two thousand bills were introduced in the Wisconsin legislature, of which eight hundred and twenty three were passed. The law making bodies of other States stagger, session after session, under equally heavy burdens. Wherefore it would seem that a Bureau of Legislation, with women fairly represented, to which all bills would have to be submitted for approval before introduction, would be a good move to prevent the duplication of bills with the same end. While in many of the States a woman is permitted separate property rights and the joint guardianship of her children, the national government regulates citizenship according to the fealty of the husband. The American woman who weds a foreign husband, although they live in this country afterward, has no citizenship here unless the husband applies for naturalization and does become a naturalized American citizen. The wife has no power to regulate her status of citizenship. The Act of March 2, 1907, Provides: "Sec. 3: That any American woman who marries a foreigner shall take the nationality of her husband. At the termination of the marital relation she may resume her American citizenship, if abroad by registering as an American citizen within one year, with a Consul of the United States, or, if residing in the United States at the termination of the marital relation, by continuing to reside therein. Sec. 4: That any foreign woman who acquires American citizenship by marriage with an American shall be assumed to retain the same after the termination of the marital relation if she continues to reside in the United States States unless she makes formal renunciation thereof before a court having jurisdiction to naturalize aliens, or, if she resides abroad she may retain her citizenship by registering as such before a United States Consul one year after the termination of the marital relation." Much individual hardship must result from the inability of a woman to declare her citizenship regardless of her husband. The late Inez Millholland Boissevein is a case in point. The intensely patriotic young American woman married a Belgian and at the end of a brief honeymoon they returned to this country to live but she was |