A decision was rendered October 24, the mandamus denied and the injunction granted, all the judges concurring, on the ground that the Legislature had no authority to create a new class of voters. Those who gave this decision were Chief Justice John W. McGrath and Justices Frank A. Hooker, John D. Long, Claudius B. Grant and Robert M. Montgomery.[337]
In spite of this Waterloo, the names of those men who, through the ten years' struggle, in the various sessions of the Legislature, stood as champions of the political rights of women, are cherished in memory. Besides those already given are Lieut-Gov. Archibald Butters, Senators Edwin G. Fox, James D. Turnbull, Charles H. McGinley and C. J. Brundage, and Representative Fremont G. Chamberlain. In both Houses, session after session, there were many eloquent advocates of woman's equality.
No further efforts have been made by women to secure the suffrage; but in 1895 George H. Waldo, without solicitation, introduced into the House a joint resolution to amend the constitution by striking out the word "male." This was done in fulfilment of a promise to his mother and his wife, when nominated, to do all that he could to secure the enfranchisement of women if elected. Although the officers of the State association did not believe the time to be ripe for the submission of such an amendment, they could not withhold a friendly hand from so ardent and sincere a champion. The resolution was lost by one vote.
This Legislature passed what was known as "the blanket charter act," in which the substitution of "and" for "or" seemed so to affect the right of women to the school ballot in cities of the fourth class as to create a general disturbance. It resulted in an appeal to Attorney-General Fred A. Maynard, who rendered an opinion sustaining the suffrage of women in those cities.
In 1897 the main efforts of the association were directed toward securing a bill to place women on boards of control of the State Asylums for the Insane, and one to make mandatory the appointment of women physicians to take charge of women patients in these asylums and in the Home for the Feeble-Minded. These measures were both lost; but on April 15 Governor Pingree appointed Jane M. Kinney to the Board of Control of the Eastern Michigan Asylum for the Insane at Pontiac for a term of six years, and after twenty days' delay the Senate confirmed the appointment.
Interest was taken also in a bill requiring a police matron in towns of 10,000 inhabitants or more, which this year became law.
In 1899 a bill was again introduced into the Legislature to make mandatory the appointment of women physicians in asylums for the insane, the Industrial Home for Girls, the Home for the Feeble-Minded, the School for Deaf Mutes and the School for the Blind. This measure had now enlisted the interest of the State Federation of Women's Clubs and many other organizations of women, and thousands of petitions were presented. Emma J. Rose led the work of the women's clubs in its behalf. It passed the Legislature and became a law.
Laws: In 1885 a law was enacted that manufacturers who employ women must furnish seats for them; in 1889 that no girl under fifteen years of age should be employed in factories or stores for a longer period than fifty-four hours in a single week; in 1893 that no woman under twenty-one should be employed in any manufacturing establishment longer than sixty hours in any one week; in 1895 that no woman under twenty-one should be allowed to clean machinery while in motion.[338]
A law enacted in 1897 prohibits the use of indecent, immoral, obscene or insulting language in the presence of any woman or child, with a penalty for its violation.
Dower but not curtesy obtains. The widow is entitled to the life use of one-third of the real estate, and to one-third of the rents, issues and profits of property not conveniently divisible, owned by her husband. She may stay in the dwelling of her husband and receive reasonable support for one year. She is entitled to her apparel and ornaments and those of her husband, $250 worth of his household furniture and $200 worth of his other personal property, which she may select. If he die without a will and there are no children she inherits one-half, and if there are no other heirs the whole of her husband's real estate, and personal property, if the latter, after all debts are paid, does not exceed $1,000. If there is excess of this it is distributed like real estate. This reservation is not made for the widower, but "no individual, under any circumstances, takes any larger interest than the husband in the personal property of his deceased wife."