The Textile Bill was read twice in the House but failed to secure a third reading. Lyman Hall, president of the school, was in favor of the bill.
The Age of Protection Bill, introduced by Representative C. S. Reid, was very quietly handled. Only one paper (the Atlanta Daily News) informed the public that it would be made the special order for November 15. It was defeated by 71 ayes, 77 noes. At the request of women Mr. Reid moved that it be reconsidered November 16, which resulted in its being voted down by a larger majority than the day before. Mr. Reid thought it well that his bill was defeated, since it only asked that the "age of protection" be raised from 10 to 12 years.
The suffragists asked that it be raised from 10 to 18, and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union from 10 to 21. Many petitions had been sent to previous Legislatures by both these organizations, but this was the first time a bill had been presented and carried to a vote.
The bill to admit women to the State University was not considered by the Legislature of 1900.[226]
The State W. C. T. U. has been laboring to secure the passage of a law for scientific temperance instruction in the public schools since 1890, when Mrs. Mary H. Hunt of Massachusetts, who was the first woman to speak in the capitol building, addressed the Legislature. The bill passed both Houses in 1894, but was vetoed by Gov. William J. Northen because no provision had been made to require teachers to stand an examination on the subject.[227]
Since 1857, when the law which gave a husband the right to whip his wife was amended, there have been some favorable changes. In 1866 a law was enacted allowing a married woman to own property, but not including any wages she might earn.
In 1891, when a married woman was suing for personal injury in a railroad accident, Chief Justice Logan E. Bleckley decided that the amount of a wife's recovery for physical damages "is not to be measured by pecuniary earnings, for such earnings 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.