Page:Women of the West.djvu/177

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Women of The West
New Mexico

County Superintendents are women, as well as a number of other county officers, especially the clerks. Many of the county Boards of Education have women as members.

Most of the interest taken by women in the affairs of State is from the standpoint of economy and efficiency. One matter of congratulation is that in none of the above departments or institutions which the women have had a special part in creating, has partisan politics had any share or influence at any time.

Every town of any size has managed to secure a library—usually through the efforts of a group of women in the beginning—and even some places that are scarcely a dot on the map have a fair library started, in connection with which many a story of human interest might be told. Hand in hand with the other lines of work are the Scholarship Loan Funds which practically every club of every organization maintains, by which many girls have been enabled to continue their education.


Woman Suffrage and Jury Service in New Mexico
By Jennie Fortune
(Secretary of State)

The passage of the Nineteenth Amendment formally crystallized the high hopes of the nation's womanhood in their fight for the right to hold political office. Incidentally, the extension of the vote to women wrought a most marvelous and revolutionary change in the politics of New Mexico. In this State where the general tendency is to accept any modern change with caution, women are now appointed and elected to office in a manner hardly dreamed of a few years ago. That these women have made good, is neither unusual nor remarkably surprising. That some have made mistakes or are not especially qualified is also neither unusual nor need it be surprising. Especially since rarely, if ever, does merit enter as a prime prerequsite of a political aspirant, be that man or woman. The only astonishing thing is that woman should be expected to act any different from her male contemporary.

New Mexico has not yet recognized the right of women to sit on juries. It is a duty that undeniably should go with citizenship. Like men, however, she should have accorded to her the right of jury exemption, in the event that release from such service fills a more important or greater need.

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