AGE OF LEGAL CONSENT:  18. (Trials may be held privately, and it is almost impossible to secure a conviction.)

POPULATION:  Male 3,614,780; female 3,654,114.

HUSBAND AND WIFE:  Wife controls own earnings.  Dower and curtesy prevail.  Wife holds separate property free from control of husband.  Both husband and wife can make wills without knowledge or consent of other.  Wife can mortgage or convey her whole estate without husband’s consent; he can do this with his personal property; but not with his real estate.  Husband and wife are equal guardians of the children.  Husband must provide.

DIVORCE:  Absolute for adultery only.

Limited for cruelty, conduct rendering cohabitation unsafe or improper, desertion, neglect to provide.

Court refuses to allow party guilty of adultery to marry again, but may modify this after five years if conduct of defendant has been uniformly good.  Adultery is now a crime in New York.

LABOUR LAWS:  No child under 16 may take part in any acrobatic, mendicant, theatrical, wandering, dangerous, or immoral occupation.  Children must attend school between 8 and 16.  No child under 14 may be employed in any occupation during school term.  Eight hours a day’s work.  Seats must be provided for female employees.  No child under 14 may work in a factory.  Female labour is confined between 6 A.M. and 9 P.M., and must not exceed 10 hours.  No girl under 16 shall sell papers or periodicals in any public place.  Female employment agencies may not send applicant to any place of bad repute.

SUFFRAGE, POLITICAL CONDITION, INDUSTRIAL AND PROFESSIONAL STATUS:  Tax-paying women in towns and villages may vote on questions of local taxation.  Parents and widows with children have school suffrage in towns and villages.  Women may be notaries public. 511 women in ministry, 108 dentists, 365 journalists, 124 lawyers, 103 commercial travellers, 925 doctors, 49 professors, 348 saloon keepers, 81 bankers, 84 carpenters, etc.

North Carolina

AGE OF LEGAL CONSENT:  14.

POPULATION:  Male 938,677; female 955,133.

HUSBAND AND WIFE:  Wife controls own earnings.  Dower and curtesy prevail.  Wife controls separate property.  Wife is not bound by a contract unless husband joins in writing.  In actions against her he must be served with the suit.  Wife cannot be sole trader without husband’s written consent.  Husband is legal guardian of children, and must provide.

DIVORCE:  Absolute for adultery, impotence, pregnancy of wife at time of marriage unknown to husband.

Limited for desertion, turning partner maliciously out of doors, cruel treatment endangering life, intolerable indignities, habitual drunkenness.

Wife has an action for separate maintenance if husband neglects to provide or is a drunkard or spendthrift.

LABOUR LAWS:  No Sunday labour.  No child under 12 may be employed in factory, except oyster canning concerns which pay for opening oysters by the bushel.  No person under 18 shall be required to labour more than 66 hours per week.  No child under 12 shall work in a mine.  No boy or girl under 14 shall work in a factory between 8 P.M. and 5 A.M.