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 were refused by Judge Sloss in the Superior Court. He took the ground that if Mr. Sargent's argument should be carried to its logical conclusion it would enfranchise idiots, lunatics and criminals; that if there is a conflict between the two sections of the constitution cited it should be settled in favor of limiting the suffrage to males, as where a general and a particular provision are inconsistent the latter is paramount to the former. He quoted various State Supreme Court decisions and declared that he decided the case according to the law.186
As Mrs. Sargent had every assurance that this judgment would be sustained by the Supreme Court she did not carry the case further. It attracted attention and comment in all parts of the country and she received encouragement and wishes for her success from all classes of society.
Office Holding: The Legislature of 1873 made women eligible to all School offices. None ever has been elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction but there is scarcely a county where women have not served as superintendents. At present seventeen are acting in this capacity. They have frequently been elected School Trustees and a woman is now president of the San Francisco school board at a salary of $3,000 per annum.
The constitution is interpreted to prohibit women from holding any other office. It is claimed by some that this does not include the boards of State institutions, but out of twenty-six such boards and commissions only one ever has had a woman member—Mrs. Phœbe A. Hearst, who is on the Board of Regents of the State University.
There are women on local library boards. A woman has been assistant State Librarian, and there have been women deputies and clerks in county and city offices. At present in the offices of the Attorney-General, Board of Examiners, State Department of Highways and Debris Committee women hold positions as clerks at salaries of from $1,200 to $1,800. They may serve as notaries public.
In the autumn of 1899 the California Woman's Club resurrected an old law which never had been enforced, providing for the appointment of assistant women physicians at the hospitals for the insane "provided there are already three assistant male physicians." They petitioned the proper authorities and the matter was presented to the State Lunacy Commission by Gov. Henry T. Gage with his earnest indorsement. From highly qualified candidates, whom the club had in readiness, two were appointed, and the promise was made that others should be at an early date. In a short time the superintendent of one hospital wrote that he did not see how they ever had managed without a woman physician.
A woman physician is on the Board of Health in Oakland.
In 1891 a law was passed providing for jail matrons in cities of 100,000 and over. This included only San Francisco and was not mandatory. In 1901 a law was secured requiring all cities of over 15,000 to have a matron at jails and city prisons, to be appointed for two years at a salary of $50, $65 or $75 a month, according to the size of the city.
Occupations: After the hard struggle to obtain a law admitting women to the bar in 1877, a long contest followed to secure their admission to the Hastings College of Law, a branch of the State University, which ended in a favorable decision of the Supreme Court.187 As a result of these efforts the constitutional convention of 1879 incorporated a provision that "No person shall, on account of sex, be disqualified from entering upon or pursuing any lawful business, vocation or profession." This does not, however, include appointive or elective offices.
Education: This same constitution of 1879 provided also that "No person shall be debarred admission to any of the collegiate departments of the State University on account of sex." Most of the smaller colleges are co-educational.
The assertion will hardly be questioned that the gifts of women for educational purposes in all parts of the Union, in all time, do not equal those made by the women of California within the last decade. As a memorial to their son, U. S. Senator and Mrs. Leland Stanford erected the Leland Stanford, Jr., University at Palo Alto in 1890 and endowed it with many millions of dollars. Mr. Stanford's death before it was fully completed threw the estate into litigation for a number of years, the legality of even some portion of the university endowment being in doubt. He left the bulk of his great fortune to his wife, and, after the estate was settled and free from all encumbrances, she reaffirmed the titles of all previous gifts and added the largest part of her own property. The endowment is now about $30,000,000, all but $4,000,000 of this having been given by Mrs. Jane Lathrop Stanford. This is the largest endowment ever made by any one person for one institution, and places Stanford at the head of the endowed universities of the world. It has been co-educational in all departments from the beginning and the tuition is practically free.
In 1894 Mrs. Miranda Lux of San Francisco left a bequest of $750,000 for a school of manual training for both sexes. In 1898 Miss Cora Jane Flood of San Francisco conveyed to the University of California her magnificent estate at Menlo Park and 4,000 shares of stocks, valued at not far from $1,000,000. The request was made that the income should be devoted to some branch of commercial education. Mrs. Jane Krom Sather of Oakland has given about $200,000 to the University. The donations of Mrs. Phœbe A. Hearst have been thus far about $300,000, but this is merely preliminary to the great endowment of millions for which she has arranged. It is exclusive also of $30,000 a year for several archæological expeditions. Liberal gifts have been made by other women.
In the public schools there are 1,722 men and 6,425 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $81.08; of the women $64.76. As a law of 1873 requires equal pay of teachers for equal work, these figures show that the highly salaried positions are largely occupied by men.
Women's clubs play a very prominent part in the social life. Of these, 111 with a membership of over 7,000 belong to the State Federation. The oldest in the State is the Ebell of Oakland, organized over twenty-five years ago, and having now a handsome club house and a membership of 500. It raised $20,000 to purchase a site for the new Carnegie Library. The Century Club of San Francisco with 275 members is one of the oldest and most influential; the California Club has an active membership of 400; and there are a number of other flourishing clubs in that city, Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda and Sacramento, of from 175 to 250 members. The Friday Morning Club of Los Angeles, with a membership of 500, owns a beautiful club house. The Ebell of that city has 300 members, and clubs of from 150 to 200 are found in various places in Southern California.
162 The History is indebted for most of the material in this chapter to Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent of San Francisco, honorary president, and Miss Carrie A. Whelan of Oakland, corresponding secretary, of the State Woman Suffrage Association.