The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1922-07-13
Annn &tupr Glartrr
ARTHUR d. MOE. Publisher.
JOE ID. THOMSON. Editor
Subscription, $500 Per Year.
WOMEN ON .JIJRIES

After an effort Of practical applica-
tion of Oregon's new jury laws-an
effort that apparently is impossible-it
will not be difficult, we believe, to
effect repeals and amendments that
will enable the courts to proceed with
trials wherein women may sit in jury
service on the same plane with men.
We saw some of the results of the new
women's jury law, which permits the
fairer sex to serve or not, just as the
whim or fancy may strike, in circuit
court here last week. The operation of
the law will cost Hood River county
some. $780, We had case. which un-
der the new law demanded that at
least six Of the Jurors be women. Be-
cause women we're permitted to exer-
else the prerogative of not serving, if
they so willed, we beheld the sheriff
and his deputies in the position of ap-
peeling 10 housewives to come to their
aid and hasten the operation of ex
pensive judicial machinery. We be-
held the court entirely imperative one
whole day while the sheriff and deputy
sneriffs, busy at the telephone or by
personal summons, sought out female
citizens and said to them in effect this
"You have been drawn on the jury
in a case that requires six women
Will you serve or will you not server"
Understand, the law requires that
the sheriff notify the women citizens
that they may serve or not, as they
will. Apparently, the majority of
women do not wish to serve on juries
Apparently, members of women's
clubs and organizations. which ostens
IDLY supported the women's jury law |
as vehicle Of greater women's rights,
do not want to serve on juries. We
are told, indeed, that some of the club
women of Hood River. although they
declined to act as jurors last week,
came as spectators to the
court room while the trial, on which
they would have been called, was in
All of this leads US to won
der whether the woman really want
the jury law.
We have been proneEtos criticize the
judiciary committee of the legislature
for its failure to heed the appeal of at
torneys and repeal the law at a special
session of the Legislature. On more
analysis, however, it appears
that the action of.allowing the counter
appeal of the proponents of the jury
measure, women, themselves, to sway
hem in letting the statute remain,
ust as originally adopted, law of the
and, will in the end result in a more
thorough understanding of the law and
ome real conception of its weakness
Is. If the judiciary committee had {
a repeal. the women
would have scored its members as arbi-
trary males of the species, and we
would have witnessed the waging Of
for the attainment of the
tights of women sought under there
lealed sections. Perhaps the commit
zee sensed just this thing and said to
"Let the people of the 4
tate of Oregon, including the women /
themselves, get their fill of this impos- I
ible measure. Let learning be gained
" actual experience. :
We are gaining experience in Oregon
ourts this year, and it is costly exper- a
ence. 1t will probably reach into y
undreds of thousands of dollars before h
is over with, but it will put the peo- Ii
lie of the state in a frame Of mind
here they will say. "Amen, when
he law is amended, repealed or made .,
by.judicial decision. y
We believe that Mrs. Alma l.. Howe, il
tho. however, did not shmk jury SER 81
ice when called recently, was correct l'
'hen she declared it as her belief that i
'omen could better serve society and h
heir state by remaining Off juries. n
'et, our observations of the actual v
resence of women on juries leads us "
D believe that they conduct them H
elves as admirably in their trial of Il
ases as do men. But women. If they y
re going to serve on juries. must have +,
pplied 70 them the same rules that Ii
pply to men. They must not be pi
iven the privilege Of sidestepping the o.
uty for some trivial social reason or -
ecause Of their personal inclinations. Il
the law permitted men to decline Il
lry service at will we wonder If
sssion Of court would ever be finished.
erving on jury is a duty, not a
lere privilege. Il is.a duty that wom- p
%, if they are going TO participate to o.
lis extent in the operation Of the ~
)urts Of our land, must meet just as I'd
len. No man is ever made to serve r
. a jury, where he can offer the court nss
good excuse. No housewife, with =,
nail children 20 care for or other Ca
lties that cannot well be delegated,
i'll ever be forced TO serve on a Jury. te
s- r.
This is the season Of fires. Comply