[731] Raised from twelve: _Acts of Ind._ (1893), 22; BURNS'S _Ann. Stat._ (1901), I, 790: penalty, one to twenty-one years in prison.
[732] Raised from twelve: _Laws of Wis._ (1895), c. 370, sec. 1; _Wis. Stat._ (1898), 2668: penalty, five to thirty-five years in prison.
[733] _Rev. Stat. and Codes of Porto Rico_ (1902), 532, 533: penalty, not less than five years in the penitentiary.
[734] _Penal Laws of Hawaiian Islands_ (1897), 73.
It appears, then, although in many cases the statutes are very imperfect, that of the fifty-three states and territories twelve have actually or nominally advanced the age of consent to eighteen; one to seventeen; twenty-two to sixteen; two to fifteen; thirteen to fourteen; while two still retain the low age of twelve and one that of ten years. It should everywhere be raised to eighteen or twenty-one--the age of legal majority for a woman in her business or political relations--by a statute as rigorous as that of Idaho or Kansas. A wide field for beneficent legislation therefore remains; and, although morality "can not be legislated into a people," it is precisely by wise measures of this character that the lawmaker can render powerful aid in the creation of an environment favorable to moral and social progress.