Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-16
WOMEN MAKING FIGHT
FOR JURY SERVICE RIGHTS
Old Suffrage Issue Is Revived in
Struggle for Recognition in
Various States.

county commissioners she has checked
up on the operation of the new jury
law. In 1927 1t was discovered that Al
out of IS counties were diSregarding the
law and not summoning women. In
1928 the number of counties not in
Guiding women was reduced to 10. A
| letter was addressed to the county at
torneys and commissioners in these
counties calling their attention to the
situation and reminding them that fail
ure to include women in Jury lists laid
the entire panel open to challenge.
To give point to the reminder. Su-
preme Court decision Of the State was
quoted stating that Gin the selection of
! jurors to pass upon the liberty and
property Of women as we'll as men there
must be no discrimination against
women" The letter went on to cite
recent case in a rural county where the
| judge in a case in which woman was
the plaintiff had sustained the motion
of her attorney to quash the. whole jury
panel because of failure to include
women.
So women are learning an old les
son-that 1t is not enough to fight to
secure rights, but it is necessary to be
vigilant to maintain them.
Are women in the jury box too much
Swayed by emotion? In the recent trial
of former Secretary Fall, the defendant,
sick and failing old man. was brought
into the court room day after day in
wheel chair, attended by his nurse and
members of the family. When the de-
tense attorney finally addressed the
jury in a speech charged with emotion
and appeals to sympathy, newspapers
4 made much Of the fact that one of the
four women on the jury wept. Yet in
all the long series of criminal trials
Lee - I'll al
this mixed Jury was the only one to
return a verdict Of guilty.
Some Judges Prefer Mixed Juries.
A QUESTIONABLE sent some years ago
to judges and attorneys in States where
women serve brought back very en-
phatic response to query on this point.
1t did not acquit women of emotion and
prejudice, but it showed that judges f1nd
that these weaknesses are common to
both sexes and that the administration
Of justice has not suffered by admitting
women to the jury box. Some judges
show marked preference for mixed
juries.
Some comments on definite advan-
tages of having women as jurors recur
over and over again in the statements
of the judges:
/. The presence of women on juries
raises the decorum Of court proceedings,
eliminates jury-room loaf1ng and brings
prompter verdictS
2. Women are better Judges than men
Of the credibility of women witnesses.
3. Many women show willingness to
serve on jurieS as matter of public
! service and q conscientious attitude to
their duties, which is a distinct advan-
tage in the administration of justice.
4. More women of education and high
II personal qualifications are available for
jury service than is the case with men,
who are more bound by business ties.
Some judges, who have had their
troubles getting jurieS of SUFFICIENT cali
, Der, have long wanted to draw upon the
. untapped resources which women offer.
Recently Judge John r. Dillon of Clark
son. Ca, defied the State statute which
uses the words male" and men in
prescribing the selection of jurors and
summoned q mixed jury-the first in
the State. -Four women were called.
Three were eliminated by challenge of
counsel; one served; but the other
three fingered in court to observe the
proceedings.
I Southern Background Is Important.
This anecdote gains in interest from
its Southern background. The territory
in which women do not contribute as
jurors stretches unbroken from Virginia
to Arizona-11 States along the South
ern coast. in which are included 8 of
the States In which suffrage itself was
! never won, and where the nineteenth
amendment has never yet been ratified.
Naturally the securing of statutes spe-
officially providing for jury service of
women is more difflcult in these States
than in others, yet many women are
actively working in that region for just
such legislation.
The increasing number of women
lawyers and judges makes the exclusion
OF women from the jury box all the
more marked. Before her elevation to
the bench Of the Supreme Court of
Ohio, Judge Florence Allen presided
over q court Of general Jurisdiction in
Cuyahoga County, which embraces the
city OF Cleveland. She is a stout
: believer in jury service for women.
: For my part" says Judge Allen, IT
believe that we shall owe much to the
woman juror because Of her respect for
: law ana her conscientious demand that
society be protected and the rules of
civilized conduct upheld. believe that
! the participation of women in the courts
alone, not only as attorneys. prosecutors
J ana judges, but as jurywomen, has i'm
measurably raised the tone of the adj
ministration Of justice"
Women Stress Educational Value.
From women who have served. the
most frequent comment is on the edu-
cational value of the experience to
them as citizens. OF 81 women serving
on Juries who answered the first uues-
tionnatre sent them by the Minnesota
League OF Women Voters, SO stressed
this aspect particularly. On the other
nand, in States where women are not
allowed to serve, women ask, How can
we vote intelligently If we are debarred
from ordinary contact with the work
ings OF government"
have called this fight for fury serv-
Ice an old highland so it is. It is a
night against old forces, better known
to the women who fought the suffrage
campaign to its weary and brilliant
close than to the present generation
PerhapS 1t is good thing that the
young women of today should have a
taste OF that old fight against stub
porn, resistant forces, that they should
nave 70 test the earnestness of their
own acceptance of that citizenship
which they have assumed so LIGHTLY.
Searching Test Of Citizenship,
Jury service provides q searching test.
only an earnest citizen would work for
jury service as a right. Neither all men
nor all women take the citizenship of
women In good faith. Kentucky is one
OF the States where the liability of wom-
en- to serve as jurors was accepted after
the suffrage amendment went into eff
Iect. A year ago members Of the
League OF Women Voters were aston
1shed to learn that a bill had passed
the State Senate granting absolute ex-
empt10n to women They triad N ston