Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-07-03
Women Defenders In Time Of Peace
BY MARY SUMNER BOYD


Offices involving the law and its ex-
ecution- on both adults and minors
are among the oldest to which women
have been appointed in this country.
Today the woman police matron, the
woman probation officer, the woman
sheriff, the policeWoman, the woman
warden, the woman justice of the
peace and the, woman Judge are so
common that it has grown impossible
to keep track of them. At the most
q new election or appointment of this
kind is given an inch news note in a
local paper. ii
In the middle of the last century q
woman police matron was appointed
in New York City, largely through the
efforts Of the great woman reformer,
Josephine Shaw Lowell. Asfar as we
know she was the first woman in
the police service. Police matrons
are now found In practically all cities.
Not long after Mrs. Esther Morris
was appointed justice of the peace In
the desperate mining community Of
South Pass City, Wyoming, then a
frontier town In the midst Of Indian
tribes. The specific reason given for
appointing Mrs. Morris, and later for
making women serve on jury in Wyo-
ming, was that the men Of that ter
ritory could not be trusted to mete
out even justice, but in nine cases
out of ten let the criminal 60 free.
Mrs. Judge" Morris administered
justice without fear and with vigor-
Gus and impartial hand until the year
after the territory adopted woman
suffrage in 1869, when she resigned
on account Of old age. The local press
of that time speaks of her as win
ming the respect and admiration Of
the community" ~ f. III II
There were other women sheriffs
and Justices of the peace In the old
days, and there have been many of
late years. Among recent appoint
ments are Katharine 8. Clark, justice
Of the peace at Oak Park, Illinois;
Mrs. Rhea Whitehead, one of the six
Justices Of the peace of Seattle, Wash
ington; Mrs. John C. Duff, Of Chinook
Township, Montana, and many others.
In 1910 the first policewofnan was
appointed. This was Mrs. Alice Steb-
bins, Wells of Los Angeles, and the
experiment was so successful that the
appointment of policewomen has
spread, all over the country. In De.
cember, 1916, there were somewhere
between 1I5 and 125 policewomen
serving In American cities. Chicago
had 20, far the greatest number Of any
single city, but New. York, where
women have no political power, had
none Mrs Hannah D. Long of Tren
ton, N. J., began her duties as the first
policewonnan In New Jersey In Janu-
airy, 1916. Mrs. Long had supervision
Of dance halls, places where liquor is
sold supposedly to minors, and it was
her duty also to look after girls who
are in the street after dark. One main
duty Aof policewomen is to arrest
women under circumstances where
the police are compelled to enter their
bedrooms or otherwise intrude on
their privacy. But the duties of the
policewomen are very various. In
Cleveland some are even among the
mounted police.
Isabelle Caruthers has served as
bailiff in the Domestic Relations
Court of Chicago Women probation
officers are on duty in women's and
children's courts in all the great
cities, the first having ben appointed
In the 70's. Probably the best-known
woman serving In this capacity IL
Maud Miner of the Women's Night
Court, New York. One Of the great