h Hazlett, of Colorado, held meetings for two
months in counties away from the railroads and did effective work
among the voters of the border. Miss Lena Morrow, of Illinois, also
did good service for some time preceding election, in visiting the
various fraternal associations of men in the city of Portland, by whom
she was generally accorded a gracious hearing. These ladies
represented the National Association.[411]

All went well until about two weeks before election day, June 6, 1900,
and the measure in all probability would have carried had it not been
for the slum vote of Portland and Astoria, which was stirred up and
called out by the _Oregonian_, edited by H. W. Scott, the most
influential newspaper in the State. It was the only paper, out of 229,
which opposed the amendment. But notwithstanding its terrible
onslaught, over 48 per cent. of all the votes which were cast upon the
amendment were in its favor. Twenty-one out of the thirty-three
counties gave handsome majorities; one county was lost by one vote,
one by 23 and one by 31.

The vote on the amendment in 1884 was 11,223 ayes; 28,176 noes. In
1900 it stood 26,265 ayes; 28,402 noes. Although the population had
more than doubled in the cities, where the slum vote is naturally the
heaviest and is always against woman suffrage, the total increase of
the "noes" of the State was only 226, while in the same time the
"ayes" had been augmented by 15,042.

LAWS: If either husband or wife die without a will and there are no
descendants living, all the real estate and personal property go to
the survivor. If there is issue living, the widow receives one-half of
the husband's real estate and one-half of his personal property. The
widower takes a life interest in all the wife's real estate, whether
there are children or not, and all of her personal property absolutely
if there are no living descendants, half of it if there are any.

All laws have been repealed that recognize civil disabilities of the
wife which are not recognized as existing against the husband, except
as to voting and holding office.

By registering as a sole trader a married woman can carry on business
in her own name.

In 1880 the Legislature enacted that "henceforth the rights and
responsibilities of the parents, in the absence of misconduct, shall
be equal, and the mother shall be as fully entitled to the custody and
control of the children and their earnings as the father, and in case
of th