The Detroit times., 1912-09-23
1--WE NEED WOMEN
| JUDGES" /" SAYS ONE
| NAMED FOR BENCH
Lucy Goode White Tells Why
They Are Needed in Ju-
dicial Positions
EXPENSES
AMOUNTED TO $1.35
.-nl'l
comes From Family of Law
yers, Her Granduncle Be-
ing John Marshall

SAN FRANCISCO. Cal. Sept. ga
5even thousand and two men and
women, or about one-ninth OF the vot-
brs at the late primaries, voted TO
place Lucy Goode Whites name on
he ticket as superior Judge OF San
Francisco. Miss White thinks this is
bn Indication what many people be-
|ieve a woman on the supreme bench
hills q real want. She spent $1.35 on
her campaign-carfare used when
bhe addressed acfew clubs. Without
backers, a wage-earner herself, she
had no money for a campaign" In
The accepted sense.
II believe that 1000 people believe
with me that a woman on the bench
would do much good for a certain
class Of cases that crowd our courts.
1 don't mean that would wish to be
h woman's partisan. l do mean that
D could be fair to women. l really be-
|ieve, in spite OF the fact that men
contradict this, that women have a
greater sense OF responsibility than
men. II Is the responsibility that
comes from suffering. All women
have suffered-and in ways that the
average man cannot understand.
1T Is because OF this that women
lean visualize the suffering of others
$50 keenly. | do not think that a
woman judge would ever send man
|or woman to prison without looking
before and after-weighing the results
that produced that man or woman;
fixing an eye on the prison walls that
were TO shut in that life, and their eff
fleet not only on the character Of the
|'criminal inside. but on those left
|outside.
II believe all women see in flashes.
They have a tact, a subtlety, a mas
terry OF detail, a delicacy that should
be used by the state for the thousands
OF women who pass through the
courts.
II say women have these qualities
all women. II /, the first woman to
be named by the people of San Fran
cisco, do not succeed In gaining the
confidence of the people. other wom-
an will | know this. Women will
hnally have to be represented in our
courts. Our laws at present are made
by men, from the standpoint Of men,
and administered by men. | do not
say that there is any wilful injustice.
do say that the powers of the in
telligent woman must finally be used
for the benefit OF society.
why do I want to be Judge OF the
superior court? It's long story Law
has been as much In my life as my
bread and butter. Ny granduncle was
John Marshall, United States justice.
| heard as child OF his condemna-
tion of the domination OF our courts
by the dead hand Of precedent The
,phrase has stuck in my mind evei
since. II Ia one Of the strongest feel.
ings I have In regard to modern law:
that no Judge has right TO let the
clutch OF that dead hand drag him
away from the realization that the
law was made for man, not man for
the law.
been lawyers. Ny uncles were law
yers. My father was a lawyer. AS
a child he said, when he found me
stealing his books and reading them.
that | would also be lawyer. And
a woman lawyer in Tennessee where
I'VE lived was unheard OF. He died
when I was nine. But I've never for
gotten his declaration: Jucy's going
to be a lawyer
And now they tell me that they are
going to elect me Judge. II the peo-
Pile of San Francisco feel that much
confidence In me, know 1t will be
-Aecause they too feel with old John
Marshall that the dead hand Of prece-
dent has gotten hold OF our courts and
that perhaps a woman pioneer may be
able to set them free"