The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, January 27, 1916, Page 15

THE NONPARTISAN LEADER FIFTEEN - An Interesting Page for Our Women Readers A SUCCESSFUL WOMAN JUDGE Miss Leah M. Whitehead holds the distinction of being the only woman judie in the city of Seattle, Wash. . She was elected one of the five justices of the peace. in November, 1914, but, since her work is both of a' civil and a criminal nature, it is more correct to speak of her as judge than as justice of the peace. From a list of fourteerf candidates she received the second, highest vote and her work has proven that the confidence of the voters was not mis- glaced. They, say of her court that usiness moves more promptly there than ‘in the others, that she reaches a decision more quickly because she uts more time into studying the case eforehand. And they say also that she knows more about the details of ~a case than the attorney who is try- it, because' “she can get people to talk to her as they never would to a man.” Womanly Sedfrespect But the thing that makes her work unique and of great promise in secur- ing justice for "women is expressed thus by Mable Abbott in the ‘Ameri- can Magazine’’: » “She knows from her years in the prosecutor’s office the importance of preserving every shred. of womanly selfrespect in those whose feet have slippe i . . Take the young girl brought into court for her first offense, herded " with the low, the.criminal, the vile; rosecuted. by a prosecutor whose Eusiness is to get convictions; before a judge who, . however 'just. and hu- mane he may be, cannot have the sympathy and understanding that should enter into the decision of her case. Every infivence in that court would tend either to crush or to harden the finer feelings that yet remained. Many Women Litigants -But, if tried before a woman judge and defended by a woman lawyer, she would, be spared the torture of em- barrasment, her higher instincts might be aroused, and with many of these unfortunate girls the first of- fence would be the last. Miss Leah M. Whitehead, Miss Whitehead, in writing of her work to'the “Woman’s Journal,” says: “In keeping a record of civil ‘cases tried before me I have found there is a large number of cases in which women appear. as ’Flaintifi's, or de- fendants, or both. There is an equal- ly large, or larger, number of cases where women appear as witnesses and to a very surprising extent women are concerned directly or in- . directly in the outcome of ‘general litigation. Women Tried Before Women “I firmly believe that women judges. should deal with certain classes of cases in which women and girls are . concerned, not because- they may be more merciful or just in their treat- ment of such offenders, but because such women and girls should be brought before and- dealt with by women, 3 “I believe, of course, that women should have a hand in making the laws and interpreting them. here is no man’s world and no woman's world as separate planets;. We are all living: in tgis same world. But the point of view of men differ from that of women.” ; Yegdl _A news item states that cotton mill operators are fighting the child labor law now before congress. What: is wrong with a nation in which it is profitable-for. men: to. exploit. little children? ‘Motherz, that-"is* your problem. : ; The National Council of Women held, a three day session in Washing- “ton, D: C.,_begipning Jan. 12, S ! ticity of these names. Edited by Audrey A. Harris 3 A Fascinating For Your Tea __Tdblé A HINT FOR CHRISTMAS. 0000000000000 Cozy L o T Tt s charming Chinese legend of an eloping daughter pursued by her irate THIS quaint cozy is of creamy linen embroidered in shades of old blue, the father, while the benign gods crisp braid finishes the edges. turn the lovers into a pair of doves. A This design may also he used for a sofa pillow in the window seat adjacent to your tea table. e e e T CANADIAN WOMEN PROGRESS The government of Manitoba had promised its support of the woman’s suffrage measure as soon as a petition was filed representing the names of 15 per cent as many women as there were votes cast at the previous election. At a recent hearing before the cabinet a delegation from the Polit- ical Equality League presented a.pe- titnon representing more than twice the required 15 per cent. Premier Norris received the dele- gation very cordially and said, in part: “You have more than complied with what we asked you to do. e said we would undertake to pass legisla- tion when you had secured a certain gercentage of bonafide signatures. here is no questioning the authen- They are all certified. You, have done your part and the government has no idea of shrinking away from what it prom- ised, to do. ““We accept the responsibility of our statements and are prepared to try and carry out our platform. as far as we honestly can. equal franchise bill is prepared and is almost ready for the printers. It will be presented at the opening of the house, and we expect it to pass be- fore the session is far advanced.” KEATING-OWEN BILL Meyer Bloomfield of the Vocation Bureau, Boston, has just-sent to the National Child Labor Committee a strong endorsement of the Keating- Owen Federal child labor bill before Congress. “The Federal bill is the first intelli- gent attempt in our country at the right = sort ' of . conscription,” cays Bloomfield, “educational conscription, which looks forward to enlisting all future citizens in activities that make - for health, intelligence, civic loyalty and industrial efficiency. The whole 'scheme of preparedness is hollow ex- cept as we see it in terms of the growing child and its future, to pro- tect which all preparation is presum- ably directed. It is elementary self- preservation to free children from sapping toil and give them the day- light hours. for growth and fitness.” The bill which Bloomfield advocates has been introduced in both House and Senate:and is similar in form to the Palmer bill - which passed the House last year. It has the support of many organizations all over. the .country, but the National €hild Labor Committee feels that it will pass only - if the the popular demand,-for: it: is’ -strong enough. - They are urging everyone interested in child welfare to write: Reprerentatives and Sena- tors in-its behalf. = n fact, the - — ——————————————————————————————— BECAUSE SHE’S A WOMAN: Discrimination against women in professional opportunity is nowhere more clearly shown than in the ad- mission to tho:e associations which men have found necessary to advance théeir personal and professional inter- ests. The record of the admission of women physicians to the medical so- cieties is a noteworthy example. It took years of presistent appli- cation on the part of a few progres- sive woman yhysicians from without and a few liberal minded men within to finally let down the bars and ad- mit equally equipped women physi- cians to membership. ; The engineering profession has not yet been invaded very generally. by “lady members,” but the same per- sistent prejudices against women await the pioneers in that avenue of professional life. Nora Stanton Blatch, granddaugh- ter of Elizabsth Cady Stanton, the pioneer suffragist, a C%rnell engineer of distinction, has been refused ad- mission to the American Society of Civil Engineers. ‘Mrs.: Blaich has filed a writ of mandamus before the supreme . court of the-United States to- admit her to membership, on the ground “that her rejection was not because she was not. professionally fitted, but because she is a woman.” ANTI-FIRE CAMPAIGN “A study in fire prevention,” design- ed to lessen “the appalling fire risks in our own factories, many of them crowded as never before on account of war orders,” is the gift to Pennsyl- vania onnounced last week by Bryn Mawr College alumnae of the classes of 1889 to ’92. One purpose of the study is to rouse the publi¢ and: win its cooperation for a nation-wide campaign “to. minimize or even to eliminate the fire danger whieh hour- ly imperils the lives of thousands of young girls and women in industry.” Rather -than present the coliege with-a Greek theatre or some: such gift, the class of ’89 decided ‘to make this study as a “token of learning’s new birth unto democraey.” - . The Pennsylvania - department of labor and industry aeccepted the: gift. Miss Fanny Travis .and Miss Florence Lucas Sanville; whose: -joint social rerearch work is widely: known. will conduct the work. ; Dr. Clara Shetter-Keiser has: been elected president of the Reading, Pa. medical society..‘She is'the firat: an to hold tory of the f associations : tBe has announced that the. annual "in_Asheville, N.. PAYING FOR BABIES. The province of Saskatchewan pays . a_woman $25 every time she gives birth to a child, and pays the physi- cian $13. In this, as in many other matters, Canada’is ahead of -the Unit- ed States. Eventually every civilized country will probably decide to pay mothers for gabies—not as “bounty money,” but as a natural and proper expense to be borne by the state. There are European: countries that do so now., The practice is pretty sure to become: general among the belligerent powers, after the war, in their efforts to repair their losses from slaughter. - Hard On Married Men The present Style is undeniably un- fair. Men and..women are taught that it is their duty, as good, citizens, to rear families.for the state, and then the state penalizes them for do- ing so. The more parents do for the community in producing healthy and well-reared children, the harder time they have of it. The community pats them on the back, and then looks on complacently while they shoulder the ever-increasing burden. While they are contributing the commun- ity’s greatest asset, the community’s taxes press upon them more and more heavily. Every phase of our taxation si;stem is harder on the married man than the single ‘man, and harder on parents than onchildless couples. . An Act of Justice Even our federal income tax falls short of justice in this respect. It exempts $4,000 a year in the case of married citizens, instead of $3,000 a year for single ‘citizens, but it makes no distinction between childless fam- ilies and families with many children. Most governments abroad allow an added exemption for every child. As for the money paid to women bearing children, it is not merecly an act of justice to them, especially when they are roor, but an act of communal common sense. It in:ures that the mother will have decent medical attention, and that in the first critical weeks of the child’s life, at least, it will have proper care and nourishment. Surely a truly enlight- ened state can do no less. CLARE GREACEN It is a little unusual for a woman to be legal advisor to the federal comptroller of the treasury. And she’s one of the cleverest women Jaw- L1111 000102 § N 3 3 N N % N 3 N N N N 3 N N N R N R UL LRI IS 1ON00 210212109001 200 11010100 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\“\\\\\\\\\\\M 2 Clare Greacen. yers in the United States, is Miss Miss Clare Greacen, according to Comptroller W. W. Warrick, She’s a veritable Portia. Day after day she untangles the legal puzzles in all the affairs which come up to the treas- -ury department for selution.- " gassing an examination as a sten- ographer, she was assigned, to .the - treasury department, studied law nights, and was finally admitted to the bar. Now she holds the most im- portant position in the legal advis- ory corps of the treasury department. WOMEN FOR DRY STATE A petition filed with the Secretary of State of California Dec. 30 insures the submission next fall to the peo- .ple of the State of a proposition for absolute prohibition in California. If carried, the prohibition law would go into effect January 1, 1920. The petitions for the prohibition initiative show at least 75 per cent of the names those of women. Two Superior California petitions— Tehama and Siskiyou. counties—show- ed that a majority of the names esti- mated at close to 80 per cent are of women, and married, women predom- .gxafe,. according to the Sacremento ee; ; "Senator Kenyon of Towa has intro- duced a bill in congress to prevent the employment of women .in mills, * factories or manufacturing establish- .ments. for a longer period than eight -hours a day. ~ 3 ; The. National Child Labor. commit- Iabor: conference will: b held: ..C., Feb. 3 to 6.