Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-10-18
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WHAT A WOMAN WANTS.

Mrs. James Bennett of Richmond, KY,
sends the TRIBUNE a printed letter
which, she says, she has sent to editors
of newspapers all over the United
States. She asks that the letter be pub
liehed, and while the TRIBUNE regrets
that its length prevents a compliance
with her request, a review of the sub
ject upon which she writes, will be inter-
estlng. OF her identity, the TRIBUNE is
unaware, except, as is evident from the
tenor Of her remarks, she is a woman
s%utflagistof u%ndoubted earnestness, who
is endeavoring to bring the majority to
her opinion Of the suffrage question.
She takes, as a basis for her argument,
the Marie Barberi case, and begins her
letter as follows:
a woman by the name of Marie Barberi
has lately been condemned to be put to
death in New York by a body of men who
dld not occupy the same legal status in
society as that which she held in it. And
this fact induces me to write to you and to
editors OF papers IN every state in the
Union IN order to try and make the people
Of this country realize that the judges of
supreme court OF the United States held in
their Strander decision of 1879, that a jury
Is a body OF men who nave the same legal
status in society that the person whose
rights they are summoned to determine
holds in it. And that women, therefore, are
noW being put to death without a trial by
jury in every state IF the union except
wyoming and Colorado, since women do
not occupy the same legal status in society
III any OF the other states.
write to you editors to try and make
the people OF this country realize these
facts. because | believe that God indi-
rectly commanded women to help men in
all things Whatsoever, when He said be-
fore He created Eve, ut is not good for the
man to be alone; | will make an help meet
tor him." And l, therefore, think thai
american Women ought not to keep silence
when American men are putting women
TO death without a trial by jury, as a
majority of them are doing, but should
Try TO elevate women to the same legal
status as men IN society. by Joining with
me members OF the National American
.Woman's Suffrage association in petition
ing congress "to secure to the women of
thls republic by appropriate legislation
me full rights of citizenship guaranteed to
lhem under the constitution"
The Marie Barbara case is familiar to
every newspaper in the country. An
Ignorant and passionate Italian girl,
maddened at her betrayal by her lover,
Killed him upon his refusal to right the
wrong he had done, as far as was in his
power. She was tried, found guilty and
sentenced to death for the crime. The
case is made the foundation an argu-
ment by the writer Of the letter, for the
granting of suffrage to women. How
his would help matters is not quite
clear, and it is probable that the writer
OF the letter does not care particularly
whether it would help matters or not.
She wishes to use the case as a lever to
pry up the present suffrage system, and
put the block of woman. suffrage under
1t. 1t is employed as Il sort of vehicle in
which she would ride on to a political
equality with man. She would be al
lowed to sit as a juror.
1t is not claimed that the different
women who have been tried for crime
have not received fair trials. It is not
CLAIMED, either, that men are incapable
of according impartial trials to women.
Inc only argument advanced is that
women are not allowed to enjoy the
same political privileges which are &C.
corded to men, and that, therefore. men
who sit on a jury and condemn women
to death, "are SHINING against their own
souls, as the Jews slnned against theirs,
when they crucifed their King Jesus
OF Nazereth," in the words Of the author
of the letter.
Practically the same injustice, to ad-
nit the term which is applied by Mrs.
Bennett, is done when a minor male
person is tried for crimes by jury. He
is not a political equal of the men who
hear his case. Therefore, they sin when
hey lind him guilty of crime. The cases
are parallel, and the argument, in each
is weak.
Persons of sound mind and a clear
conception Of moral obligation are equal
before the law. The jury is but the
scale upon which evidence of crime ia
weighed. Jurles are composed of men,
because the jury system is one of the
integral parts of self-government, and
self-government as practiced in the
greater part of this nation, is a govern
ment of the male sex, so far as the
political part is concerned. Men have
assumed the enactment, Interpretation
and enforcement Of laws, because these
are stern duties, and it was thought
best to place them upon the shoulders
of the sterner sex. There is nothing
pleasant about jury service. There is
nothing about it, in which the element
OF ~fenininity could effect any radical I'M