HUSBAND AND WIFE:  Wife controls own earnings and has control of her separate property subject only to the husband’s interests.  She can be executor, make contracts, etc., as if unmarried.  The husband is legal guardian of minor children; he may dispose of them and may appoint a guardian at his death.  Husband must support family.  In distributing the estate, no distinction is made between real and personal property.  The surviving husband or wife takes one third, if deceased leaves children or their descendants; 5000 dollars and one half of the remaining estate if the deceased leaves no issue; and the whole, if deceased leaves no kin.  This is taken absolutely and not for life.  Curtesy and dower exist; but the old-time curtesy is cut down to a life-interest in one third, the same as dower; and in order to be entitled to dower or curtesy, the surviving husband or wife must elect to take it in preference to the above provisions.

DIVORCE:  Absolute for adultery, impotency, utter desertion for three years, gross and confirmed habits of intoxication, cruel and abusive treatment, wilful neglect to provide, sentence to imprisonment for five years.

No limited divorce.

LABOUR LAWS:  No Sunday labour.  Ten hours a legal day’s work.  No woman to labour between 10 P.M. and 6 A.M. in any manufacturing establishment, nor between 6 P.M. and 6 A.M. in any textile works.  No child under 14 and no illiterate under 16 and over 14 may be employed in any factory or mercantile establishment.  No child under 14 may be employed between 7 P.M. and 6 A.M., or during the time when the public schools are in session.  Seats must be provided for females.  No woman or young person shall be required to work more than six hours without thirty minutes for lunch.  No child under 15 may engage in any gymnastic or theatrical exhibition.

SUFFRAGE, POLITICAL CONDITION, INDUSTRIAL AND PROFESSIONAL STATUS:  Women have school suffrage.  They may be justices of the peace. 188 women in ministry, 38 dentists, 180 journalists, 47 lawyers, 729 doctors, 38 professors, 8 saloon keepers, 3 bankers, 73 commercial travellers, 31 carpenters, etc.

Michigan

AGE OF LEGAL CONSENT:  16.

POPULATION:  Male 1,248,905; female 1,172,077.

HUSBAND AND WIFE:  Husband controls wife’s earnings.  Dower prevails, but not curtesy.  When the wife has separate real estate, she controls it as if single.  The husband cannot give full title to his real estate unless the wife joins so as to cut off her dower.  Father is guardian of the children.  Husband must support.

DIVORCE:  Absolute for adultery, impotence, imprisonment for three years, desertion for two years, habitual drunkenness, if husband or wife has obtained a divorce in another State.

Limited or absolute divorce at the discretion of the court for extreme cruelty, desertion for two years, neglect to provide.