OFFICE HOLDING: The constitution provides that "all qualified electors, and no others, shall be eligible to office."
In the constitutional convention of 1890 Jordan L. Morris offered a resolution "that the Legislature may make women, with such qualifications as may be prescribed, competent to hold the office of county superintendent of schools." This amendment was tabled. J. W.
Cutrer submitted a section "making eligible to all offices connected with the public schools, except that of State Superintendent of Public Education, all women of good moral character, twenty-five years or upwards of age," which was not favorably reported. A clause was introduced by W. B. Eskridge making "any white woman twenty-one years old, who has been a _bona fide_ citizen of the State two years before her election, and who shall be of good moral character," eligible to the office of chancery or circuit clerk; and another, that "any white woman, etc., shall be qualified to hold the office of keeper of the Capitol and State librarian."
The last office, as recommended in a separate measure by George G.
Dillard, which was adopted, is the only one to which women are specifically eligible, but none has held it.
In some counties the constitution has been liberally interpreted to make women eligible to serve on school boards; this, however, is regulated usually by the judgment of the county superintendent. Women are elected to such positions occasionally in the smaller towns.
The code of 1892 created the text-book committee, whose duty is to adopt a uniform series of books for use in the public schools of a county. An official record is kept of its specific functions, all members being required to "take the oath of office," etc., and thus constituted public officers according to a recent ruling of the Attorney-General. The majority of these committees are women teachers, appointed by the county superintendents, but no provision has been made for their remuneration.
Women can not serve as notaries public.
OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women. They are licensed to practice medicine, dentistry and pharmaceutics. It is believed that the statute would be construed to enable them to practice law, but the test has not been made. Several women own and manage newspapers.
EDUCATION: The State University has been open to women for twenty years, and annually graduates a number. Millsaps College, a leading institution for men, has recently admitted a few women to its B. A.
course, and this doubtless will become a fixed policy. The Agricultural and Mechanical College and the State Normal School (both colored) are co-educational. Several women hold college professorships.
In the public schools there are 3,645 men and 4,254 women teachers: The average monthly salary of the men is $32.18; of the women, $26.69.
The State Federation of Women's Clubs was organized in 1897 and has a membership of fifteen societies.
Women have never actively participated in public campaigns except in local politics where the liquor question has been the paramount issue.
Miss Belle Kearney is a temperance lecturer of national reputation, and a pronounced advocate of woman suffrage.
FOOTNOTES:
[347] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Hala Hammond Butt of Clarksdale, president of the State Woman Suffrage Association and editor of the _Challenge_, a county paper.
[348] Officers elected: President, Mrs. Hala Hammond Butt; vice-president, Mrs. Fannie Clark; corresponding secretary, Mrs.
Harriet B. Kells; recording secretary, Mrs. Rebecca Roby; treasurer, Miss Mabel Pugh. Other officers have been Miss Belle Kearney and Mesdames Nellie Nugent, Charlotte L. Pitman and Pauline Alston Clark.
[349] Any municipality of 300 or more inhabitants may be declared a "separate school district" by an ordinance of the mayor or board of aldermen if it maintain a free public school at least seven months in each year. Four months is the ordinary public term, the additional three months' school being supported by special taxation. Thus as soon as a woman has to pay a special tax she is deprived of a vote.
CHAPTER XLIX.
MISSOURI.[350]
The movement toward equal suffrage in Missouri must always recognize as its founder Mrs. Virginia L. Minor. She was a thorough believer in the right of woman to the franchise, and at the November election of 1872 offered her own vote under the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. It was refused; she brought suit against the inspectors and carried her case to the Supreme Court of the United States, where it was argued with great ability by her husband, Francis Minor, but an adverse decision was rendered.[351]
The first suffrage association in the State was organized at St. Louis in the winter of 1867. Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Miss Susan B.
Anthony lectured under its auspices at Library Hall in the autumn of that year, and a reception was given them in the parlors of the Southern Hotel. For many years meetings were held with more or less regularity, Mrs. Minor was continued as president and some legislative work was attempted.
On Feb. 8, 9, 1892, an interstate woman suffrage convention was held in Kansas City. Mrs. Laura M. Johns, president of the Kansas association, in the chair. Mrs. Minor, Mrs. Beverly Allen and Mrs.
Rebecca N. Hazard were made honorary presidents and Mrs. Virginia Hedges was elected president. Addresses were given by Mrs. Clara C.
Hoffman, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Mary Seymour Howell of New York and Miss Florence Balgarnie of England. A club was formed in Kansas City with Mrs. Sarah Chandler Coates as president.
During the next few years the State association co-operated with other societies in public and legislative work. Mrs. Minor passed away in 1894, an irreparable loss to the cause of woman suffrage.
In May, 1895, the Mississippi Valley Congress was called at St. Louis under the auspices of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and various other organizations participated. Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw, president and vice-president-at-large of the National Association, stopped on their way to California and made addresses. Just before Miss Anthony began her address, seventy-five children, some of them colored, passed before her and each laid a rose in her lap, in honor of her seventy-five years.
The preceding spring the National Association had sent Mrs. Anna R.
Simmons of South Dakota into Missouri to lecture for two months and reunite the scattered forces. A State suffrage convention followed the congress and Mrs. Addie M. Johnson was elected president. At its close a banquet with 200 covers was given in the Mercantile Club Room, with Miss Anthony as the guest of honor. A local society, of nearly one hundred members, was formed in St. Louis. During October Mrs. Simmons again made a tour of the State at the expense of the National Association.
On June 15, 16, 1896, the annual convention took place in St. Louis with delegates present from seventeen clubs. Addresses were made by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, Henry B. Blackwell, editor of the _Woman's Journal_, Mrs.
Mary C. C. Bradford of Colorado and others who were in the city trying to obtain some recognition for women from the National Republican Convention. Miss Ella Harrison was made president. Public meetings were called for November 12, 13, in Kansas City, as it was then possible to have the presence of Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw and Mrs.
Chapman Catt on their return from the suffrage amendment campaign in California.
In January, 1897, Mrs. Bradford spent three weeks lecturing in the State, and the president devoted a month to this purpose during the autumn. The annual meeting convened in Bethany, December 7-9, Mrs.
Johns and Mrs. Hoffman being the principal speakers.
The convention of 1898 was held at St. Joseph, October 17-19, with Miss Anthony and Mrs. Chapman Catt in attendance, and the board of officers was re-elected.
In the fall of 1899 a series of conferences, planned by the national organization committee, was held in twenty counties, being managed by Mrs. Johnson and Miss Ella Moffatt, and addressed by Miss Lena Morrow of Illinois and Mrs. Mary Waldo Calkins. These ended with a State convention at Chillicothe in October.
The annual meeting of 1900 was held in St. Joseph during October, and Mrs. Johnson was elected president.[352]
LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: In 1887, through the efforts of Mrs.
Julia S. Vincent and Mrs. Isabella R. Slack, a bill was introduced in the Legislature to found a Home for Dependent Children. The bill was amended until when it finally passed it created two penal institutions, one for boys and one for girls.
In 1893 a bill proposing an amendment to the State constitution, conferring Full Suffrage on women, was brought to a vote in the Assembly and received 47 ayes, 69 noes. In 1895 a similar bill was lost in the Assembly.
In 1897, largely through the efforts of Miss Mary Perry, a bill was secured creating a State Board of Charities, two members of which must be women. This was supported by the Philanthropic Federation of Women's Societies, who also presented one for women on school boards, which was not acted upon.
Bills for conferring School Suffrage on women have been presented on several occasions, but never have been considered. One has been secured compelling employers to provide seats for female employes.[353]
Dower and curtesy both obtain. If there are any descendants living, the widow's dower is a life-interest in one-third of the real estate and a child's share of the personal property. If there are no descendants, the widow is entitled to all her real estate which came to the husband through the marriage, and to all the undisposed-of personal property of her own which by her written consent came into his possession, not subject to the payment of his debts; and to one-half of his separate real and personal estate absolutely, and subject to the payment of his debts. If the husband or wife die intestate, leaving neither descendants, father, mother, brothers, sisters, or descendants of brothers or sisters, the entire estate, real and personal, goes to the survivor. If a wife die, leaving no descendants, her widower is entitled to one-half of her separate real and personal estate absolutely, subject to her debts. (Act of 1895.)
In 1889 an attempt was made to give a married woman control of her separate real estate, which up to that time had belonged to the husband. Endless confusion has resulted, as the law applies only to marriages made since that date. To increase the complications a wife may hold real property under three different tenures: An equitable separate estate created by certain technical words in the conveyance, and this she can dispose of without the husband's joining in the deed; a legal separate estate, which she can not convey without his joining; and a common-law estate in fee, of which the husband is entitled to the rents and profits. In either case, if the wife continually permits the husband to appear as the owner and to contract debts on the credit of the property, she is estopped from withholding it from his creditors. There may be also a joint estate which goes to the survivor upon the death of either.
No married woman can act as executor or administrator.
The wife's separate property is liable for debts contracted by the husband for necessaries for the family. If he is drunken and worthless she may have him enjoined from squandering her property. For these causes and for abandonment the court may authorize her to sell her separate property without his signature.
The wife may insure the husband's life, or he may insure it for her, and the insurance can not be claimed by his creditors.
A married woman may sue and be sued, make contracts and carry on business in her own name, and possess her wages. She may recover in her own name for injuries which prevent her from conducting an independent business, but not for those which interfere with the performance of household duties, as her services in the home belong to the husband. She may, however, bring suit in her own name for bodily injuries.
The wife may sue for alienation of her husband's affections and recover, according to a recent Supreme Court decision, "even though they may not be entirely alienated from her and though he may still entertain a sneaking affection for her."
The husband is liable for torts of the wife and for slanders spoken by her, although out of his presence and without his knowledge or consent. (1899.)