Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/315

 it became liable for his debts, unless she filed a notice with the recorder of deeds setting forth her claim to the property with a full description. The same rule applied to specific articles of personal property. Married women abandoned by their husbands could, upon application to the court, procure authority to transact business in their own names.

The Code of 1860 did not materially change these provisions. Under both the husband was entitled to the wages and earnings of his wife. The Code of 1873 was intended to place the husband and wife on an equality as to property rights. By its provisions a married woman may own in her own right real and personal property acquired by gift, descent, or purchase; and she may exercise as absolute ownership over her property as the husband does over his. The wife may receive wages for her personal labor, maintain an action therefor in her own name and hold the same in her own right. She may prosecute and defend actions at law, or in equity, for the preservation and protection of her rights and property. Contracts may be made by a wife, and liabilities incurred and the same enforced by, upon or against her, to the same extent as though she were unmarried. The property of both husband and wife is equally liable for the expenses of the family and the education of the children and neither is liable for the debts of the other without express contract. The parents are the natural guardians of the children and are equally entitled to their care and custody. A man is not permitted to mortgage the homestead, household furniture or other exempt property without the coöperation and joint signature of the wife.

In 1894 an act was passed by the Legislature granting suffrage to women at municipal or school elections, where bonds are to be issued or taxes levied.

The Democratic party of Iowa has never, in convention, indorsed woman suffrage. The Republican party, as mentioned, once only, approved equal suffrage. Neither