[679] AARON M. POWELL, editor of the _Philanthropist_, in the _Arena_ (1895), XI, 192-94. The _Arena_ was the principal medium of publication for the reformers: see the symposium by POWELL, GARDENER, and others, "The Shame of America," _Arena_, XI, 192-215; the symposium by GARDENER, ROBINSON, and others, _ibid._, XIII, 209-25; the symposium by LEACH and CAMPBELL, _ibid._, XII, 282-88; SMITH, "Age of Consent in Canada," _ibid._, XIII, 81-91; and especially GARDENER, "A Battle for Sound Morality," _ibid._, XIII, 353-71; XIV, 1-32, 205-20, 401-19. _Cf._ FLOWER, "Wellsprings of Immorality," _ibid._, XII, 337-52. [680] GARDENER, "A Battle for Sound Morality," _Arena_, XIII, 354, 355. [681] POWELL, in _Arena_, XI, 195; _cf._ GARDENER, _ibid._, XIII, 358. Encouraging progress has been made in New England, although, in comparison with some of the new commonwealths of the West, the facts are not very creditable. By the Rhode Island statute the age of consent is sixteen.[682] In New Hampshire it was raised from thirteen to sixteen in 1897;[683] in Vermont, from fourteen to sixteen in 1898;[684] and in Connecticut, from fourteen to sixteen in 1895, while in 1901 the maximum term of imprisonment for abusing a girl under sixteen was increased from three to thirty years.[685] The age limit was only ten in Maine until 1887. It was then raised to thirteen, and in 1889 to fourteen years.[686] In Massachusetts likewise the disgracefully low age of ten years for a girl was sanctioned by statute from 1852 until 1886, when thirteen was substituted. Two years later it was increased to fourteen; and by an act of 1893 an offense against a female under sixteen may be punished by imprisonment for life or for any shorter term of years.[687] The results are even less satisfactory in the southern and southwestern group of states. Florida now heads the list, but with a rather inadequate penalty, the age of consent being raised from sixteen to eighteen years in 1901.[688] Missouri in 1889 increased the age from twelve to fourteen, and in 1895 advanced it nominally to eighteen; but the provisions of the law are such as practically to leave the limit of protection at fourteen years.[689] Previous to 1895 in Arizona the age of consent was fourteen. In that year it was raised to eighteen; but unfortunately it was reduced to seventeen in 1899.[690] In Arkansas[691] it was raised from twelve to sixteen years in 1893; in Louisiana,[692] from twelve to sixteen in 1896; in the District of Columbia[693] and in Indian Territory[694] it has been sixteen since 1889; in Oklahoma[695] it was increased from fourteen to sixteen in 1895; in Maryland,[696] from ten to fourteen in 1890, and to sixteen in 1898; in Tennessee,[697] from ten to sixteen years and one day in 1893; but the statutes of the three states last named are so lax as really to leave the age of consent at twelve in Tennessee and at fourteen in Maryland and Oklahoma.