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"Protection of Girlhood," October 1886
Maryland a bill raising the "age of consent" was passed by the Senate
and defeated by the House. Petitions were presented, and bills
introduced, in both branches of Congress raising the age to eighteen,
and they are still pending before the committees having them in
charge.
A new legislative season is now at hand. In a few weeks
Congress will again be in session, and also many legislatures in
different States. It is opportune, therefore, to inaugurate now the work
of securing for early use many numerously signed petitions. With less
labor, influential petitions may be made available, officially signed by
the president and other officers of Social Purity Alliances, White Cross
Leagues, Woman's Christian Temperance Unions, and other
philanthropic organizations, and from churches and other religious
bodies, officially signed by pastors and officers. All may not yet vote,
but all irrespective of sex, may use at once the petition. Candidates for
the legislatures, many of whom are about to be re-elected, may with
great fitness and usefulness be interrogated by constituents
concerning their willingness if elected, to extend more adequate legal
protection to women and young girls, and all such as hesitate or
oppose should by all means be elected to stay at home. The same
interrogation should also be extended to candidates for Congress. It is
quite time that the social purity test be applied impartially to all
candidates for legislative public service, State and national.
For the daughters of the wealthy and favored classes, shielded
from exposure and protected by good home environments, there is
relatively little need for legislative interposition. For the poor and
dependent, for the multitudes of young and greatly exposed working
girls in our large cities, the situation is very different and the need of
added legal safeguards is most urgent. The purse of the young girl, if
she had one, is guarded by the State and the nation until she shall
have reached mature womanhood. Much more important is it to her
and to society at large, that her person be as fully protected, by equally
effective legal safeguards, from the wiles or the violence of the sensual
despoiler.
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