IX. Married Women.—In 1800, a husband could appropriate his wife’s personal property not held in trust, and use her realty while he lived. Except for necessaries or for her separate estate, she could not contract. Her emancipation began in 1839, in Mississippi, and now her property, under the statutory interests secured to her by laws generally prevailing, is hers free from control or interference. This statutory estate includes property inherited, or derived by purchase or gift, or in some States by labor. The wife’s power to contract has been extended, and in some States has little restriction beyond perhaps inability to become surety. Before this era, some States, acting on a London custom, had allowed feme sole traders in cases of mariners’ wives, or of desertion or neglect.
X. Children.—Regulation of the labor of children in hours and employments is usual, debarring them from workshops and factories at certain ages and from occupations dangerous to their morals, as in theatricals, circuses, rag picking, mendicancy, street music. Laws prohibit their entrance into gambling, or worse, houses, into pool rooms, or unaccompanied into dance or concert halls, roller rinks, vaudeville theatres. Minnesota excludes them from criminal trials. Sale of liquor to minors is prohibited. Numerous recent statutes prohibit sales of cigarettes, cigars, or tobacco, and Utah and West Virginia forbid sales of opium. Oregon and Rhode Island prohibit their public use of tobacco. New Hampshire, Indiana, and Connecticut forbid children over three in almshouses. North Carolina makes it a misdemeanor to leave a child under seven, and unattended, exposed to fire. Prohibiting employment inconsistent with school attendance is usual. Compulsory education exists in twenty-nine States and two Territories, and largely throughout Europe and the colonies. Fourteen is the more frequent limit of age. Children’s welfare now determines their custody, rather than the rights of either parent. Laws in some States protect children more or less from wills made before their birth by parents. Many States provide that bastards may inherit from their mother or from each other, and she from them, and that their parents’ marriage legitimates them.
XI. Real Estate.—Ownership of land is no longer embarrassed by joint tenancies, nor need conveyancing resort to cumbrous fine and recovery; while transfer has been further lightened by title companies pending the adoption, likely, of the Torrens system of registration and certificate. Democracy has rejected distinctions of sex or age in inheritance, and the half-blood may share in many States after certain degrees. Disability of aliens to hold lands has been removed in some States, in others there are limitations in acres, value, or time, while in some disability ceases on declaration of intention to become a citizen. The English doctrine of tacking, whereby ownership of earlier and later incumbrances cut out intermediate titles, mortgages, etc., is inconsistent with the American recording acts.
XII. Copyright.—After printing became general, the author received some, if inadequate, protection, in England through the Stationers’ Company, or sometimes through particular privilege; in continental countries, through such privilege. The statute of Anne confined him to such years, etc., as it specified, and the courts have decided with hesitation that there was no copyright at common law. The statutory rights have varied. Since 1831 the copyright period in this country is 28 years, with 14 more if author, widow, or children are living at expiration of first term; and in England since 1842 it is 28 years or author’s life, whichever is longer.
The first known copyright directed to an author was granted by Venice in 1491. In 1791 France allowed copyright to all dramatists, extending it in 1793 to authors in general. Countries in sympathy with France adopted the policy. Prussia in 1794 extended copyright to authors represented by publishers at the Frankfort and Leipzig book fairs. General protection has now come about, aided by consolidation of European states into great nations. International copyright began with separate treaties; and the movement culminated in the Berne Convention of 1887, participated in by Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Hayti, Italy, Switzerland, Tunis, Great Britain, Liberia. Authors resident in any country which was a party to the Convention may have copyright in the other countries. The United States did not join, although it had and since has had treaties with a few nations exchanging such protection. The International Copyright Law of 1891, however, protects foreign authors but not foreign publishers, it being required that the printing shall be done in this country.
XIII. Admiralty.—The difference between the majestic rivers of America and English streams was recognized in the case of “The Genesee Chief,” wherein the Supreme Court rejected the English doctrine that admiralty has no jurisdiction except on the seas or where the tides ebb and flow. This has insured uniformity in the regulations of travel and commerce, and has protected such waters from local interference. International rules to prevent collisions at sea have been joined in by the United States. By acts of 1851 and 1884, Congress relieved innocent shipowners of liability for merchandise destroyed by fire, and provided that liability in case of collision, embezzlement by crew, etc., shall not exceed the owner’s interest. The Harter Act of 1893 provides that on due diligence neither owners nor charterers shall be liable for faults in navigation or in management, nor for perils of the sea, defects in goods, etc., but prohibits agreements relieving from liability for injuries caused by neglect in fitting out, provisioning and manning the vessel, stowing the cargo, or in caring for or delivery of the same. Parliament, in 1890, protected seamen from commercial greed by requiring load lines to be marked on vessels at a height fixed by the Board of Trade.
XIV. Corporations.—The source of corporate life was formerly the king; to-day, the charters are virtually the general corporation law, and special incorporation is forbidden. For a season, minor amendments for particular companies were tolerated, but constitutions are forbidding even these. Applications for charters must state such particulars as name, nature, and place of business, amount of stock, limit of indebtedness, number and names of directors. Annual reports must be lodged with the tax authorities.
Doctrines respecting corporations have wonderfully changed. The Dartmouth College case held that charters were contracts and could not be impaired; and thereafter, by constitution or otherwise, the States provided that all new charters should be subject to alteration or repeal, although even this does not authorize radical change of corporate character. American law has recognized advantage of freedom in execution of corporate affairs. It has dispensed with the burdensome requirement of seal to contracts, and even in England the corporate seal is unnecessary, unless in unusual transactions. The American courts uphold negotiable notes and bonds given in authorized business. The company is confined to the business for which it was created, although a cautious tolerance exists in respect to related enterprises; and mortgages may be acquired if for debts contracted previously and not as a device. The old theory was that a company could not be held for misfeasance, since it could not authorize its agents to commit wrong; but corporations are now held for many torts sanctioned by them, such as trespass, assault and battery, infringement of patents, negligence, and even fraud and libel. Exemplary damages may be awarded against them. One or another kind has even been subjected to indictment, in cases of nuisance, violation of Sunday law, maintenance of disorderly house, habitual omission of lights or signals, etc. They may be guilty of contempt. They may be punished by penalties and forfeitures.
A corporation outside its own State cannot exceed either its own charter or the power granted like companies of the other State. Connecting railways are sometimes adopted in each of several States, but the parts remain foreign to each other as respects jurisdiction in the federal courts. Foreign corporations are subject to the police power, but not to interference by the State in their interstate commerce, except Congress so authorizes. Companies not engaged in interstate commerce nor in governmental service may have conditions placed upon their entry into a State, and may be practically excluded by taxation. Property within the foreign State is alone taxable there, but the value of the franchise may be considered. Usually, statements are required showing location of agent, names of officers, etc. Contracts made before compliance are differently regarded, being void in some States, and only until compliance in some others, and in some not void at all where penalty is imposed. Some States seek revenue by lax laws inviting outside companies. Thus, by Delaware law of 1899, companies need not oblige themselves to keep their original books nor hold their meetings there, assessment beyond subscription is forbidden, and taxation is light.
