Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/652

 ings as a general rule belong to the husband and the right of action for this loss is in him." In 1892 Judge Thomas J. Simmons rendered practically the same decision, and in 1893 ruled again: "Inasmuch as the earnings of the wife belong to her husband, her individual and personal damages can be measured only by the consciences of an impartial jury."

In November, 1895, when William H. Flemming (now a member of Congress) was Speaker of the House of Representatives, he offered a bill which, as he said, "was to complete the good work begun with the Married Woman's Property Act of 1866, by making a wife's labor as well as her acquired property her own." It passed the House by 98 ayes, 29 noes, but was killed in the Senate.

As the law now stands a married woman in Georgia can control her earnings only if a sole trader with her husband's consent by notice published in the papers for one month, or if living separate from him.

Dower obtains but not curtesy. If a husband die intestate, leaving a wife and issue, the wife may elect to take dower—a life interest in one-third of the real estate—or she may take a child's share of the whole estate absolutely, unless the shares exceed five in number, when she may have one-fifth.

The father is legally entitled to the custody and control of the children, and at his death may appoint a guardian to the exclusion of the mother. The husband must furnish necessities for the family suitable to their station in life.

The "age of protection" for girls still remains 10 years, with a penalty of death, or if recommended to mercy by the jury, imprisonment in the penitentiary at hard labor not less than one nor more than twenty years.


 * Women have no form of suffrage.


 * In December, 1884, Representative Martin V. Calvin introduced and carried through the Legislature, under most unfavorable pressure, a bill to render women eligible to employment in the State House. Besides the large number engaged in manual labor, a woman is now postmaster of the House of Representatives, and many others are employed as stenograph-