be
found in connection with each State in the following chapters, and
they represent a complete legal revolution during the past half
century.

Fathers and mothers are given equal guardianship of children in the
District of Columbia and nine States--Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois,
Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York and Washington. (See
Pennsylvania.) In all others the father has the sole custody and
control of the persons, education, earnings and estates of minor
children. Where this right is abused the mother can obtain custody
only by applying for separation or divorce or proving in court the
unfitness of the father. In a number of States the father may by will
appoint a guardian even of a child unborn, to the exclusion of the
mother. In others the widow is legally entitled to the guardianship
but forfeits it by marrying again. Others do not permit a widow to
appoint by will a guardian for her children. Tennessee and Louisiana
offer examples of the English and French codes in this respect.

Although the father is the sole guardian and entitled to the services
of the children, and although the joint earnings of the marriage
belong exclusively to him, and in a number of States he is declared in
the statutes to be the "head of the family," in many of them the
mother is held to be equally liable for its support. Her separate
property may be taken for this purpose and she is also required to
contribute by her labor. In such cases the husband decides what
constitutes "necessities" and the wife must pay for what he orders. A
recent decision of the Illinois courts compelled a wife to pay for the
clothes of an able-bodied husband. In most but not all of the States
the husband, if competent, is punished for failure to support his
family. The punishment consists in a fine, the State thus taking from
the family what money he may possess; or confinement in prison, where
he is boarded and lodged while the family is in nowise relieved.

It has not been deemed necessary to consider at length the subject of
divorce, except to mention the laws of the few States which
discriminate against women. South Carolina is the only one which does
not grant divorce; New York the only one which makes adultery the sole
cause. In the remainder the causes have a wider range, but in all the
records show that the vast majority of divorces are granted to wives.
The following list is taken from the New York _Sun_ (1902) and
corresponds