The Washington herald., 1918-01-09

about at large who would be behind
prison bars IL she had been tried by a
woman jury instead of a man jury,
because the woman jury would have
looked the facts of the case in the
/ face instead of looking the woman in
the face.
The woman's beauty would have
made no appeal to them, nor would
any hardened old vampire have hood
winked them into believing that she
was a young and innocent girl be-
cause she had painted a 16-year-old
complexion on her countenance, dyed
her hair and dressed herself UP like
| fiapper.
Nor would they have dissolved like
mush in a rain in the accused ones
tears. because they also had wept to
gain point and were therefore quail
fed as experts TO distinguish between
the tears that are wrung out of
broken heart and those that are turned
on like water from tap for stage
effect. There wouldn't be an infection
Of woman's voice in telling her story
that the women jurors couldn't assay
for truth or falsehood. Between them
would be the freemasonry of sex.
Their own natures would give them
know how to judge her.
Undoubtedly murder will be far
less safe pastime than it Is now for
high-tempered. jealous ladies' when
women sit on juries Neither will
there be so many breach-of-promise
case as at present clutter up our
courts, for the fair plaintiff will hesi-
tate a long time before she asks a
woman jury to assess the injuries
done to her young affections at twenty
or thirty thousand dollars. She knows
that they know all the ins and outs
of the devious paths by which men
are stalked and the traps that are laid
for them. and 1t will take pretty con-
vicing evidence to make twelve good
women and true believe that a woman
isn't accessory before the crime of a
proposal of marriage.
Their Judgment, based on expert
ence and observation is that there are
mighty few women who cannot hold a
hand with man in the love game. No.
Blackmail isn't going to be a bit prof
table as an occupation when we get
women jurors.
OF course, it goes without saying
that in all cases involving relations
between the sexes there should be
mixed juries, for women are as utter
ly unable to understand the psychol-
ogy of men as men are to understand
that of women.
The objection TO woman Jurors is
that it is claimed that women are
emotional and sympathetic and that
they decide questions with their
hearts instead of with their heads.
DO not think this is true. Deep
down at bottom women have a pas
sion for Justice, and they have in
growing consciences that would make
them take jury duty very seriously
and try very hard to reach a right
decision in every case committed TO
them.
Besides. there are times when mere.
is a higher Justice than that of the
statute books. 1t is the realization of
this that has given us what we call
the unwritten law and caused one or
our greatest judges to declare that
the province of the jury Is to human
ize the cold abstraction of the law.
Another qualification that women
have for being Jurors is that the
,, feminine mind has a curious faculty
Of divesting itself of externals and
going straight to the heart of a mat
ter. If you've ever argued a matter
with a woman you will recall the dog
like tenacity with which she came
back to the original point and refused
to be sideracked by anything that
you could say or do on the outside.
This faculty will enable the woman
jury to slough off all the subtIeties
and technicalities with which lawyers
often purposely obscure the real issue
in n case and to deal with it with a
simplicity and directness that few
men can achieve.
Also women have an intuition
that almost amounts to another
sense. and this should be mos
valuable in the jury room when
they come to weigh evidence and
determine it's credibility-a task
often too delicate for the clumsy
legal hand to do. For in many
cases there are vital issues that
must be really determined by the
spirit instead of the brain, as, for
instance, in the matter of truth.
Nine times out of ten we cannot
tell why we know when a person
is lying, or when a person is SIN
cere or insincere, but we do. We
are seldom mistaken, and women's
intuition in these matters, being
far subtiler than mans, will be of
inestimable value in the jury room.
Furthermore, the employment of
women as jurors opens up a field
of civic usefulness for a very val
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