CONCERNING JURY WOMEN

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 40, 15 August 1925, Page 15

CONCERNING JURY WOMEN

A distinguished Ohio lawyer recently said to me upon tha question of women serving on the jury: "The calibre of the jury "in this State has been enhanced greatly by the presence of women on the jury. They are both more intelligent and more conscientious than the men jurors whom we had before the enfranchisement of women," writes Florence. E. Allen, J.P., in the "Woman Citizen" ■• •

This statement from a man who has a great repute in our State epitomises the conclusions of men in Ohio with regard to the use of women upon the jury. From every direction I hear the same thing, that the women are intelligent ; that they do not allow their sympathies to sway them in the consideration of the evidence, and that they are extremely honest in voting upon the verdicts. One Judge, in fact, went so far as to give me a written statement, to the effect that it is far more difficult for the attorneys to pull'the wool over tha eyes of the women on the jury than of the men.

For my own part, I believe that nothing so advantageous to the administration of justice as the use of women on the jury has occurred within tha last fifty years in the State of Ohio, and the result is a great stimulus of interest in all of-our Court administration.

Every Court problem which faces us is, at the bottom, due to the ignorance and apathy of the electors with regard to the administration of justice, and in no way can -that ignorance and apathy be bo readily dissipated as by the ii.se of citizens of integrity and understanding upon the jury.

In view of the- conceded svjcccef of women as jurors in Ohio and in other States, it seems almost unbelievable that there are States in this country where women have to fight for the right to sit upon a jury, or where, if the right is conceded, administrative officials block their use.