Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/821

748 tling disputes and administering justice in our courts, every one will admit that a great improvement in the character of the jurors must be speedily found. At present, a jury trial is generally regarded as a farce, or something worse. The proof of this is seen in the fact that in most of our courts the judges are required to try all cases without a jury, where the parties to the action consent, and that in a great portion of the cases the parties do consent.

Another notable observation is the rapid growth of opinion in favor of woman suffrage among our people, after its first adoption; but more particularly the change effected in the minds of the new settlers, who come to the territory with old prejudices and fixed notions against it. Neither early education, nor personal bias, nor party rancor, has been able to withstand the overwhelming evidence of its good effects, and of its elevating and purifying influence in our political and social organization.

I must add, in conclusion, that the seventh legislature of our territory has just closed its session of sixty days. It was composed of more members than the earlier legislatures were, there being thirteen in the Council and twenty-six in the House. Many important questions came up for consideration, and a wide field of discussion was traveled over, but not one word was at any time spoken by any member against woman suffrage.

Hon. M. C. Brown, district-attorney for the territory, confirms the testimony given by the judges and Governor Campbell, in a letter to the National Suffrage Convention held in Washington in 1884, which will be found in the pamphlet report of that year.