t he can be arrested for
failure to support the children. If he have no property or is disabled
from any cause, then the wife must support him and the family out of
her property or her earnings. The husband decides what are necessaries
and may take even her personal belongings to pay for them.

In 1887 the W. C. T. U. asked to have the "age of protection" for
girls raised from 10 to 18 years, but secured only 14. In 1895 they
succeeded in having a bill passed for 18 years but it was vetoed by
Gov. James H. Budd. In 1897 they obtained one for 16 years which he
signed and it is now the law. The penalty is imprisonment in the
penitentiary for not less than five years.

SUFFRAGE: Women possess no form of suffrage.

In 1900, to make a test case, Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent brought suit
before Judge M. C. Sloss, of the Supreme Court of San Francisco, to
recover her taxes for that year, about $500. The city through its
attorney filed a demurrer which was argued March 29 by George C.
Sargent, son of the plaintiff and a member of the bar. He based his
masterly argument on the ground that a constitution which declares
that "all political power is inherent in the people" has no right to
exclude one-half of the people from the exercise of this inherent
power. He quoted the most eminent authorities to prove that taxation
and representation are inseparable; that the people of the United
States would have been slaves if they had not enjoyed the
constitutional right of granting or withholding their own money; that
it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people that no taxes
can be imposed upon them except with their consent given personally or
by their representatives. He said in closing:

If Article I of the State constitution defines inalienable rights
and Article II abrogates them, it is monarchy. The Code of Civil
Procedure says that where one of two constructions is in favor of
natural right and the other against it, the former shall be
accepted. The question is whether the Court shall grant this
right, or whether by toil and struggle it shall be wrung from the
consciences of the electors.

The court decided that the case required a mandamus before the
Registrar. Application was then made for a writ of mandate against the
Registrar of Elections to compel him to place Mrs. Sargent's name upon
the list of voters. Should this be denied she asked to have her taxes
returned. Both demands we