Another important question which demands regulation through international agreement, is the suppression of the White Slave Trade, that horrible evil, which under the imperfect conditions of civilization has assumed such amazing proportions. To abolish it, women have presented to the League of Nations Commission resolutions saying, that States who enter into the League shall undertake to suppress the sale of women and children and to punish severely the traffic in women, whether under or over age, and of children of both sexes, for the purposes of prostitution.—
The suppression of tuberculosis, of syphilis and other venereal diseases is likewise a serious problem calling for international regulation. The energetic co-operation of women is of utmost importance, as far too often innocent women become sufferers from these horrible diseases through infection from their unscrupulous husbands, who have concealed from their wives the fact that they were afflicted with such maladies.
The supervision of such diseases by health officers, and the provision of clinics for all infected persons will be demanded by woman legislators; likewise penalizing for infecting with venereal diseases.
While in most countries no questions are asked in regard to the health of the candidates for marriage, it has been through the activity of women, that the new marriage law that came into force in Norway on January 1st, 1919, demands that both candidates must declare in writing that they are not suffering from epilepsy, leprosy, syphilis, tuberculosis, or other diseases in an infectious form. Written declarations must also be given as to previous marriages and to children born to them out of wedlock. As this new marriage law contains not less than eighty-one sections, it is evident that henceforth in Norway it will be difficult to marry in haste.
Such laws for the protection of women are nowhere more needed than in the forty-eight States which together form the American Union. As everyone of these States makes its own laws, there exists a variety of laws in regard to the “age of consent,” to marriage and divorce, far too intricate for any woman or lawyer to be thoroughly informed about them all. For instance the legislators of Florida have fixed the “age of consent” at 10 years (!), documenting herewith their utter ignorance in such a serious question. In other States it is 12 or 14 years, in Wyoming it is 18. How competent women think about this subject, may be judged by a resolution of the “Woman’s Political Association of Australia,” asking the Government to raise the age of consent to 21 years, and to extend this provision to cover girls as well as boys.
Very heterogeneous are also the marriage laws of the United States. In Tennessee girls may marry without their parents’ consent when only twelve years old, while in other states they must not do so before eighteen, or even twenty-one. Missouri is one of the few states which still recognize common law marriages. As this state sets no minimum legal age for marriage, a boy or girl of twelve may without their parents’ consent live together as man and wife.
Still more perplexing is the diversity in regard to the causes for absolute divorce. While South Carolina grants no divorce, other states are very liberal and acknowledge eight or ten different reasons as sufficient reasons for divorce. Marriages between Whites and Indians, or between Whites and Negroes or persons of negro descent, or between Whites and Chinese are prohibited and punishable in a number of states, while they are allowed in others.
Improvement in the status of the illegitimate child; child-labor and welfare; woman’s status in industries; mothers’ insurance during maternity; proper insurance for the invalid and aged; combating of alcoholism; the suppression of the traffic in opium and other injurious narcotics; the traffic in arms, especially with uncivilized or semi-civilized tribes and nations, and many other questions call for international regulation and the co-operation of women. To compare the laws of the various countries and to select the best and clearest laws to be used as a standard to which other states should be urged to raise their legislation, will be one of the great missions for the women lawyers connected with the various national leagues of women voters.
That women have the ability as well as the hearty desire to contribute in this way to the progress and welfare of the human race, needs no further explanation. It is for the men to accept and encourage their help and to utilize it to the fullest extent. The beneficial result of such co-operation can not be doubted. Women with their intuitive judgment, spiritual insight and knowledge of the needs of women, children, public education, sanitation, philanthropy, etc., will become a most important factor in the vast task of human betterment. And man, working with woman side by side in these noble endeavors, will not only profit, but learn that nature has given him nothing more sublime than woman.
