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SuntoyMagasine r AM A G A Z I N E
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S A RESULT of my re
fusal this winter to assist
the Government in as-
b" sessing mv personal
property, for purposes of taxa
tion, two more or less serious
charges have been brought against me. I
have been held up before the public as one
who despises the law, and I have been
accused of encouraging "militant" tactics
among the woman suffragists of this
country.
Both charges are incorrect. I venerate
the principle of law but I do not venerate the practice of taxation
without representation. I am not encouraging "militancy," for the
excellent reason that I hold the Government to be the aggressor when
it imposes any law whatsoever upon persons who have had no voice in
making laws and will have none in regulating how they shall be
enforced. My advice to women is, that they should resist the uncon
stitutional attempts of State or Federal authorities to discriminate
against them on account of sex.
Let it be Understood that I am in favor of having an orderly com
munity, and that there are certain laws that it seems to me self-evident
that every one should observe.
Murder, theft, arson: these are
crimes that we all condemn, not
because we are men or women,
but because we are human be
ings. Again, the laws that pro
vide penalties for those who do
not observe the terms of a con
tract that they have knowingly
signed whether it be a mar
riage contract or an engagement
to deliver merchandise have
the support of a universal public
opinion. They are part of an
ethical, rather than a legal,
system.
SET, laws even so fundamental
as these work many injustices
to woman, because she has no
part in the machinery that puts
them into effect. In Connecti
cut recently, a woman, Mrs.
Wakefield, was sentenced to be
hanged for the murder of her
husband. Whether her case
merited this extreme penalty is
of small importance beside the
fact that she was arrested under
a law framed by men, was tried
by a jury of men, sentenced by a
man, and will probably be
hanged by a man. As it hap
pened, thousands of women be
lieved that she should not die on
the scaffold and petitioned the
Governor of the State to com
mute the sentence. They were
charged with inconsistency, with
demanding that the wheels of
justice should be stopped be
cause the criminal was a woman.
A cheap accusation, not sus
tained. If one can imagine a
man tried under the reverse cir
cumstances by women only
I trust that the same petitioners
would have shown equal activity
in his behalf.
But such questions as these
must give way before the imme
diate necessity of refusing to
WOMAN AND THE LAW
By Dr. Anna Howard Shaw
President National American Woman Suffrage Association
submit any longer to laws that, if
we had the power, we might modify
and possibly altogether reject.
i am constrained to return to the
vital matter of taxation. An income tax
has been adopted by the Government with
out the consent of large numbers of women
who will be required to pay a levy on their
incomes, if the latter exceed $3,000 a year.
The course that can be followed by liberty
loving women is plain. As I did in the
case of the tax against mv nersonal nron-
erty, they can decline to assist the asses
sors. That is all. If they take this stand, the responsibility will rest
upon the Government should it emulate the Colonial authorities of
1776 and arbitrarily collect taxes from voteless and, therefore, unrepre
sented citizens.
A less formidable, but probably just as valuable a campaign, can
be waged by women against city ordinances, police regulations and
vicious customs that affect members of their sex only. With the con
nivance of the authorities, many public restaurants illegally refuse to
serve unescorted women after seven o'clock in the evening. Not long
ago, I was refused accommodation by one Pittsburg hotel after an
other, for no more valid reason
than that I was a woman whose
business engagements compelled
her to travel alone.
In the past, before men appre
ciated the fact that women had
any rights, we were, farcically
enough, in a more enviable posi
tion. When the law discrim
inated, it was on the ground
that women were irresponsibl
beings who should therefore
accorded special protection
when and
want to
be there
TELL him
how you
get up he'll
with bells on.
One gives a straight 5 min
ute call the other 10 succes
sive gentle rings.
Bin Ben is made in La Salle, Illinois, U. S. A.,
by Westclox. Rings on time, runs on time, stays
on time. 82.50 in the States. S3. 00 in Canada.
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ABOUT two years ago, a mar
ried woman was apprehended
in Cleveland, Ohio, charged with
theft. She had been caught red
handed, but the attorney for the
defense, a young woman lawyer
on her first rn5f rnr11tr nrUrlcaA
- - - whww, www. UUTIiJU
the Court that it would have to
set the woman free and punish
her husband. She pointed out
that there was an old State law,
still on the books, which placed
the responsibility for the acts of
a wife upon her husband's shoul
ders. Legally, he was the thief;
she his agent. This woman was
actually released and her hus
band was punished in her stead.
The law was quickly repealed.
The Constitution of the United
States does not discriminate be
tween the sexes. It speaks
throughout of "persons." The
Judge Advocate of England has
recently handed down a decision
that, under the British laws, a
woman is not a "person." But
Benjamin Butler, when Gover
nor of Massachusetts, removed
a woman from office because he
did not hold her to be a "per
son." The case went before the
Courts and was appealed to the
United States Supreme Court,
which decided that, under our
constitution, a "person" might
be either a man or a woman.
CONTKNT8 COl'YllKMTEIJ. 1014. BY THE ABBOTT A BRIGQS COMPANY
