Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1916-05-25
HOW women Stand
. BEFORE THELAW
Has No Vote Yet Her Properly
Rights Are Determined
ONLY BALLOT KNOWS SEX
Her Responsibility TO the Laws 10
Just as Great as Is Mans While
Her Voice Is SlIenced
In Their Making.

It is often said by opponents Of
women's suffrage that women DO not
need the vote in order to protect
their interests before the law. In
support of this view 1t is contended
that they are already specially priv
ileged under the laws OF West VIZ
ginia. That this is untrue IS known
to all who have given even super
fetal study of conditions. Sex dis
ordinations in the laws OF this state
are so frequent that the only diff
Guilty in meeting this objection is IN
picking out the most glaring in
stances.
There are three ways in which 1t
is admitted that the law strikes hard
at voteless women. A woman's prop
erty is taken for public purposes pre-
cisely the same as is a mans, yet
the woman has no vote in determin-
Ing whether the public necessity eX-
listed for the taking Of the property
The woman is held precisely to the
same measure Of responsibility for
the violation Of contract as is the
man. yet she has no vote in deter
mining the conditions which make
contract enforceable or void and OF
no effect.
Property Rights.
The woman has no vote in deter
mining the machinery of the law by
which her property rights or her per-
sonal rights are determined.
No concessions, such as the right
to make contracts, and own property
and conduct business, can make up to
women the loss they have sustained
In depriving them of these great fun
damental rights. Indeed, the right to
make contracts, to own property, and
to conduct business, which the oppo-
nents of equal suffrage point to with
such pride in "our married womsn's
acts" carry with them as q necessary
conclusion that women must also
have the suffrage. You can deny that
a woman has any identity. separate
from her husband, as the common
la does. You can sustain this posi-
ton by force If not by arguments,
but you cannot admit that the wom-
an as a person has the right to make
contracts, own property, and conduct
business, and then exclude her from
the right to determine how that bust.
ness should be conducted, how the
contracts should be made, and how
the property may be disposed OF.
The law exacts from women the
same penalty as from men for the
commission Of crime, yet the WON.
an has no vote in determining what
constitutes crime or what excuses or
mitigates II.
No woman sits on the grand jury
that finds the indictments, or on the
petit jury whose magic words Of
guilty" or not guilty" make all the
difference between shame or honor,
and life or death. II a grand jury
were to be drawn in this State from
which all negroes or all people Of any
particular race or nationality were
arbitrarily excluded, that grand jury
would be an illegal body. In the last
analysis the wholesome principle of
constitutional law, which discrimin-
ates against women, rests upon the
proposition that all classes Of our
people have something of value to
contribute to the making of laws. It
is only when we come to women that
we suspend these principles and as
sert that they do not apply.