Pueblo chieftain., 1921-01-17
By Frederic j. Haskin

We" Orh city, Jan. l4.-lmpfeSSed
by the ability of women juries in New
Jersey. New York is now considering
the advisability OF introducing women
Jurors into its courts. A bill amend
ing the present jury law to include
female citizens of the United States"
as well as male ones. is to be submit
ted to the New York legislature this
month, and. as the legislature is known
to be favorably disposed on the Ques-
ton, it is believed that It will be only
a short time before Ladies and Cen
tlemen of the Jury vii be an estab-
lished form in the courts.
With the change in the law. jury
service will become an obligation on
tho part of women just as much as
1t Is today with the men. and they will
be subjected to the same strict rules.
The present law provides that any per-
son subpoenaed for jury duty who fails
to respond is subject to punishment for
contempt of court. and may be fined
to the extent of 800. 1t is doubtful
whether this compulsory feature OF
the law will prove any more popular
with women than with men, after the
novelty of jury duty wears off, but
for the FIRST few years there will pro-
badly be few attempts at evasions.
Under present conditions, the courts
are having more and moro difficulty
in obtaining competent jufies of men.
No man. 1t seems, will serve on n jury
IL he can possibly avoid 1t. Already
masculine ingenuity has been strained
in inventng IA large assortment of ex-
cuses from jury service. and it may be
that in the future a long list of femi-
nine excuses will be offered. headed
by necessary shopping" and bridge
club meetings."
But. so far. women have shown
themselves much more interested in
jury duty than men.
1t was Judge Daniel A. Dugan. of
the Essex County Court, Orange. n. j.,
who first tried the experiment in this
part of the country. In November.
the Judge suddenly found his panel of
800 men jurors drawn for his court at
the beginning of the year running out,
all OF the men finding excuses OF one
kind or another to relieve them OF
the work. So. being more annoyed than
usual. he took the radical alternative
Of drafting the newly enfranchised
New Jersey women.
AN ARIsToCRATIC JURY
The women chosen weTe carefully
picked. and represented some OF the
surprise of the court they appeared
promptly in answer to the summons,
and none offered an excuse to avoid
serving. AT the last moment, 1t Is
true, Mrs. Thomas A Edison tele-
phoned the judge and asked to be ex-
cused because her husband was i'll. but
she said that she would find some way
to come IL he cound not find someone
else to take her place.
According to Mrs. Everett Colby
who was appointed forewoman of the
jury, the women talked the matter
over and decided that since they had
gained the ballot after such a long
hard fight. they ought not to object
to fulfilling its responsibilities; when
the call to jury duty came they would
accept 1t without complaint.
1T was the most interesting exper-
ience." Mrs. Colby declared when the
trial was over, and the ladies were dis
cussing its features in the domestic
atmosphere of an orange tearoom.
1T was the first time l had ever had
the chance to watch the operations
OF a court, and there were lots OF
things We didn't understand, but of
course we couldn't interrupt to ask
questions.
THE most astounding thing to me
was when two witnesses swore to ex-
actly the opposite thing on the same
point. We had to decide between
them as to which was telling the
truth, and we had notholng at all to
go upon. We knew nothing about
their history or what kind of people