The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-03-17

A New York organization of -wo-
men having at its head Mrs. Lille
Devereux Blake has solemnly declared
by resolution that the American sys-
TEN of trial by jury is unjust. The
constitutional guarantee is that the
person on trial shall be tried by jury
of twelve persons who are the peers"
Of the defendant. Mrs. Blake's society
claims that this guarantee is violated
every time a women is put on trial in
+ that women are not permitted to serve
on the jury. Peer" as 1t is used in
/ the constitution, clearly means one of
the same rank, quality. etc, an equal.
Mrs. Blake holds that men are not the
peers" of women, hence she has had
her organization adopt resolutions de-
handing that when women are on trial
before a court the jury shall be COM
posed wholly or in part OF women"
The organization promises that it will
use its best endeavors to have the laws
changed in accordance with the de-
mands of the resolution; that is. to put
women on the jury to try women.
Speaking of the resolution, one of the
woman reformers who voted for it said:
IN warrant the women criminals will
take it hard. They won't get off as
easily from the women as they do from
the men" The conclusion to be drawn
is that this peer" would make it in
teresting for any erring sister on whose
jury she might be selected, and that
she believes the other peers" are also
of her way of thinking. 1t has many
times been said. and no doubt with a
good deal of reason, that men are more
prone to temper justice with mercy in
the case of a woman than women are
themselves. Do the women reformers
wish TO get on the jury in order 10
counterfeit the chivalric weaknesses of
the sterner sex and sock it to" the
women defendants whenever there is
an opportunity for so doing? There are
no critics of women so severe as wo-
men; none so ready to condemn and
10th TO forgive. BY nature the good
woman is so prejudiced against evil
that the mere suggestion of it is abhor-
rent to her. In her eye even a breath
of scandal is sufficient to faint that
which it has been blown upon, notwith-
standing the victim may be wholly in
| nocent of wrong doing. To the ma
jority of women the accused is guilty
until proved innocent; and it requires
a mountain of proof to establish inno-
cence. Thus with jury of women,
the defense would al once be confront
ed with wall of prejudice that would
have to be broken down before an ac-
quittal could be secured, notwithstand-
ing the genius Of our judicial system
presumes every person accused to be
| innocent until proven guilty.
The jury box might well enough suit
some of the masculine women of the
advanced" sort, but it is no place for
the average wife, mother and daugh-
ter of America. Jury duty brings the
juror into close communication with
the lowest phases of human life. 1t re-
veals crime. vice and degeneracy in
| their hideous nakedness. 1t tends to
inform the juror with respect to those
moral deformities which are infinitely
better concealed from the gentler side
! of the household. Under our present
system, justice is administered by the
less impressionable sex, and it is far
better that that system should be con-
tinued.