History of Woman Suffrage/Volume 6/Chapter 34
CHAPTER XXXIV.
OHIO.[1]
The history of woman suffrage in Ohio is a long one, for the second woman's rights convention ever held took place at Salem, in April, 1850, and the work never entirely ceased. Looking back over it since 1900, when the Ohio chapter for Volume IV ended, one is conscious of the wonderful spirit manifested in the State association. Other States did more spectacular work and had larger organizations but none finished its tasks with a stronger spirit of loyalty and love for the work and the workers.
The State Woman Suffrage Association was organized in 1885 and held annual conventions for the next thirty-five years, at which capable officers were elected who were consecrated to their duties. From 1899 to 1920 Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton was president, with the exception of the three years 1908-1911, when the office was filled by Mrs. Pauline Steinem of Toledo. During the first twenty years of the present century but one year, that of 1911, passed without a State convention.[2] For over twenty years the State headquarters were in Warren, the home of Mrs. Upton.
On May 4, 5, 1920, the final convention of the Woman Suffrage Association was held in Columbus and with its work finished the State League of Women Voters was organized, with Miss Amy G. Maher as chairman.
The devotion, the efficiency, the self-sacrifice of the suffrage workers in Ohio will never be known. Their strength lay in their cooperation. To give their names and their work would fill all the space allowed for this chapter but one exception should in justice be made. Elizabeth J. Hauser from her childhood days until the Federal Amendment was ratified gave her life to woman’s enfranchisement. Painstaking, fearless, unselfish and able, she labored cheerfully, not caring for praise or credit for the things she accomplished. A good executive, organizer, legislative worker, speaker and writer, she was a power in the counsels of the suffragists. To her more than to any other woman do Ohio women owe a debt of gratitude.[3]
From the first gathering of Ohio suffragists in 1850 until Tennessee spoke the last word in 1920, few years passed when some suffrage measure was not asked for and few Legislatures went out of existence without having considered some legislation referring to women. In 1894 a law gave them the right to vote for members of the boards of education. In 1904 and 1905, the Legislature was asked to submit to the voters an amendment to the State constitution giving full suffrage to women but the resolution was not reported out of the committees. In 1908 it was reported but no vote was taken. In 1910 it was defeated on the floor. This was the experience for years.
Periodically attempts had been made to revise the State constitution of 1851 without success but the Legislature of 1910 provided for submitting to the voters the question of calling a convention, which was carried in the fall of that year. The convention was to be non-partisan. The suffragists interviewed the delegates on putting woman suffrage in the new constitution and the poll was complete when the convention opened. The moment the president was chosen, the suffrage leaders asked for a friendly committee and from that time to the very last moment they were at work. The proposition for a woman suffrage clause was introduced Jan. 22, 1912; a pro-hearing was held February 8; an anti-hearing followed by a public meeting was had February 14 and the following day it was favorably reported out of committee by a vote of 20 to 1.
Interests, vicious and commercial, fought the suffrage amendment from every possible angle but on March 7 the convention adopted it by a vote of 76 to 34. If accepted by the voters it would eliminate the words "white male" from Section i, Article V, of the present constitution. The enemies secured the submission of a separate amendment eliminating the word "white." This was done to alienate the negro vote from the suffrage amendment and the negroes were told that it was a shame they should be "tied to the women's apron strings."
The new constitution was made by adding amendments to the old one and the suffrage amendment went in with the rest. William B. Kirkpatrick, chairman of the Equal Suffrage Committee of the convention, more than any one was responsible for the acceptance of the amendment. Through the whole convention he fought for it, sacrificing many things near his heart they could wait, this was the chance for woman suffrage.
The amendment was numbered "23" and at that time this number was considered unlucky. The most illiterate could remember to vote against that "23." The constitution was ready on May 31 and the special election was set for Sept. 3, 1912. Three months of vigorous campaign for the amendment followed. The German-American Alliance and the Personal Liberty League, two associations representing the brewers' interests, fought it in the field as they had done in the convention. It was estimated that the suffragists spent $40,000 and it was learned that the liquor forces first appropriated $500,000 and later added $120,000 to defeat the suffrage amendment. The chief work of the suffragists was done in the cities, although women spoke at picnics, county fairs, family reunions, circuses, beaches, institutes, labor meetings, at country stores, school houses and cross roads. More than fifty workers came into Ohio from all directions to assist, the larger number from the eastern States. They received no financial recompense and gave splendid service. In August an impressive suffrage parade of 5,000 took place in Columbus.
The president of the German-American Alliance at a meeting in Youngstown boasted openly that it defeated the amendment. It advertised everywhere, by posters and in street cars, and had no voluntary workers. It was evident that huge sums were being spent. The amendment was lost by a majority of 87,455—ayes, 249,420; noes, 336,875. Only 24 out of 88 counties were carried and but one Congressional district, the Eighteenth.
There was never any state-wide anti-suffrage association of women but only small groups in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus. Most of them were rich, well situated, not familiar with organized reform work and not knowing the viciousness of their associates. The real foe was the associated liquor men, calling themselves at first the Personal Liberty League, later the Home Rule Association, appearing under different names in different campaigns and they had in their employ a few women who were connected with the Anti-Suffrage Association. The amendment was lost in 1912 because of the activity of the liquor interests and the indifference of the so-called good people. More men voted on this question, pro and con, than had ever voted on woman suffrage before in any State.
The amendment eliminating the word "white," left over from ante bellum days, also was defeated and the new constitution retained a clause which had been nullified by the 15th Amendment to the National Constitution forty years before! The initiative and referendum amendment was carried. The State Suffrage Association, therefore, early in 1913, decided to circulate a petition initiating a woman suffrage amendment to the constitution, as there was no hope that the Legislature would submit one. It required the signatures of ten per cent. of the voters at the last election, in this instance 130,000 names. It was drawn by an Ohio member of Congress, received at State headquarters April 15, submitted to the Attorney General and held many weeks. When returned, instructions were carefully followed. On September 15 the first petition heads were received from the printer.
It was a new law and lawyers and laymen were uncertain about it. The question of the validity of the petitions if circulated by women was raised and a ruling was asked for. The Secretary of State decided that women could circulate them and the Attorney General agreed. It was feared by some that the petition head was faulty because it did not contain a repeal clause and after three weeks of anxious waiting the opinion was given that this was not necessary. Then arose another point, that the names of the committee standing for the petition must be on it. This constant objecting and obstructing led the suffrage leaders, upon advice of their attorney, to withdraw the petition and await the action of the special session of the Legislature. It passed the initiative and referendum safeguarding measure, which the Governor signed Feb. 17, 1914, and all uncertainties seemed over.
Determined to have a perfect copy for the petition head the suffragists had it prepared by the State Legislative Reference Department and the Secretary of State orally approved it. At the headquarters it was noticed that the words, "Be it resolved by the people of Ohio," which the constitution specifically provided must be on petition heads and which had been on the first one, had been omitted. They asked the Secretary of State whether this jeopardized the petition and it was his opinion that it did, although he had approved it. The Attorney General finally gave it official sanction and the first petitions were put out in March, 1914, after one year's continuous effort to get them into circulation. Who but women fighting for their freedom could ever have had the courage to keep on? They had no money to pay circulators and all was volunteer work. Over 2,000 women circulated these petitions. To have more than 130,000 men write their names and addresses on a petition and the circulator see them do it and swear that she did was no light task but it was accomplished. On July 30 petitions bearing 131,271 names were filed with the Secretary of State. A petition was secured in every county, although the law requires them from a majority only, and each was presented by a worker from that county. The sight of scores of men and women with arms laden with petitions marching up to the State House to deposit them brought tears to the eyes of some of the onlookers.
The campaign opened in Toledo, April 14, 15, was hectic. Everything possible was done to bring the amendment to the attention of the voters. Cleveland suffragists put on a beautiful pageant, A Dream of Freedom. A pilgrimage was made to the Friends' Meeting House in Salem where the suffrage convention of 1850 was held and the resolutions of those pioneers were re-adopted by a large, enthusiastic audience. Women followed party speakers, taking their audiences before and after the political meeting. State conventions of all sorts were appealed to and many gave endorsement, those of the Republicans and the Democrats refusing. Groups of workers would visit a county, separate and canvass all the towns and then keep up their courage by returning to the county seat at night and comparing notes. Street meetings and noon meetings for working people were held. Everything which had been tried out in any campaign was done.
From the beginning of 1913 to the election in November, 1914, there was constant work done for the amendment. The total number of votes cast on it was 853,685; against, 518,295; for 335,390; lost by 182,905 votes. There were gains in every county but only 14 were carried, where there had been 24 in 1912.
That the liquor interests and the anti-suffragists worked together was clearly established. The Saturday preceding the election the president of the State Suffrage association saw in her own city of Warren a man distributing literature from door to door and accompanied by a witness she followed him and picked up several packages in different parts of the city. They contained two leaflets, one giving information on how to vote on the Home Rule or "wet"? amendment, the other giving instructions how to vote against the suffrage amendment. The latter had a facsimile ballot marked against it and was signed by five women. The Liberal Advocate of Oct. 21, 1914, (official organ of the liquor interests), published at Columbus, had a picture and a write-up of Mrs. A. J. George of Brookline, a speaker from the Massachusetts Anti-Suffrage Association, with a headline saying that she would be present at a luncheon of anti-suffragists on the 27th in that city and also speak elsewhere in the State.
After the defeats of 1912 and 1914 the suffragists abandoned the idea of carrying an amendment. The revised constitution provided for "home rule" for cities, which allowed them to adopt their own charters instead of going to the Legislature. Suffragists believed that these charters could provide for woman suffrage in municipal affairs. In 1916 East Cleveland decided to frame a charter and they saw a chance to make a test. This campaign was the work of the Woman Suffrage Party of Greater Cleveland. On June 6a city charter was submitted to the voters and adopted including woman suffrage. A suit was brought to test its constitutionality and it was argued in the Supreme Court, one of the lawyers being a woman, Miss Florence E. Allen.[4] By agreement between the court and election officials women voted at the regular municipal election in November. The court upheld its validity April 3, 1917, and the constitutionality of Municipal woman suffrage in charter cities was established.
In the fall of 1917 the women of Lakewood, a city adjoining Cleveland on the west, gave municipal suffrage to its women by charter after a vigorous campaign. Columbus undertook to put this in its charter and a bitter campaign took place. It was the house to house canvass and the courageous work of the Columbus women and State suffrage officers which brought the victory when it was voted on at the election in August, 1917. Sandusky was not successful.
A partial poll of the Legislature on the subject of Presidential suffrage for women in 1915 had shown that it would be futile to attempt it but after endorsements of woman suffrage by the national party conventions in 1916 it was determined to try.
The Legislature of 1917 was Democratic and Representative James A. Reynolds (Cleveland) met the State suffrage workers upon their arrival in Columbus for the opening of the session and informed them that he was going to sponsor their bill. On January 16 Representative Pratt, Republican, of Ashtabula and Mr. Reynolds, Democrat, each introduced a measure for Presidential suffrage. By agreement the Reynolds bill was chosen and he fought the battle for it against great odds. He was the one anti-prohibitionist who worked for it, considering it his duty and his privilege, and, because of his standing and because his party was in power, he was the only one perhaps who could have carried it through. He stood by the suffragists until Tennessee had ratified and the contest was over.
On Jan. 30, 1917, the bill to give women a vote for Presidential electors was reported favorably from the House Committee on Elections, and on February 1 it passed the House by 72 ayes, 50 noes, fifty-five per cent. of the Democratic members voting for it and sixty-nine per cent of the Republicans. In the Senate the leader of the “wets” introduced a resolution for the submission of a full suffrage amendment in the hope of sidetracking the Reynolds bill but the latter reached the Senate February 2, before the Holden bill could be considered. The suffragists, wishing to expedite matters, did not ask for a hearing but the “antis” did and at Mr. Reynolds’ request the former were present. At this hearing the women leaders of the “‘antis” and the liquor men occupied seats together on the floor of the Senate. The next morning the bill was reported favorably from the Federal Relations Committee and passed on February 14, by 19 ayes, 17 noes. Immediately the leader of the opposition changed his vote to yes in order to move a reconsideration. This he was not permitted to do because a friend of the measure forced the reconsideration the next day, and as this was lost by a vote of 24 to 10, the bill itself went on record as having received the vote of the “wet” leader and having passed by 20 to 16. Governor James M. Cox signed it Feb. 21.
Very soon the opponents opened headquarters in Columbus and circulated petitions to have the Presidential suffrage bill referred to the voters for repeal. The story of these petitions is a disgraceful one. Four-fifths of the signatures were gathered in saloons, the petitions kept on the back and front bars. Hundreds of names were certified to by men who declared they saw them signed, an impossibility unless they stood by the bar eighteen hours each day for some weeks and watched every signature. Some petitions, according to the dates they bore, were circulated by the same men in different counties on the same day. Some of them had whole pages of signatures written in the same hand and some had names only, no addresses. The suffragists copied some of these petitions after they were filed in Columbus and although the time was short brought suit to prove them fraudulent in six counties. In four the court ordered all but a few names thrown out. In Scioto all the names were rejected and in Cuyahoga county (Cleveland), 7,000 names were thrown out. The petitions in Franklin county (Columbus), Lucas (Toledo) and Montgomery (Dayton) were unquestionably fraudulent but the election boards were hostile to woman suffrage and powerful with the courts and refused to bring cases. When suffrage leaders attempted to intervene the courts declared they had no jurisdiction.
The suffragists were on duty in Columbus from January to October,—long, weary, exciting months. It was clearly proved in the cases brought that the petitions were fraudulently circulated, signed, attested and certified. In the course of an attempt to bring a case against Franklin county a ruling of the Common Pleas Court was that the Secretary of State should be restrained from counting the signatures from seventeen counties because the Board of Elections had not properly certified them. The Secretary of State telegraphed these boards and they certified again, although there is no constitutional or statutory provision for recertification. Nevertheless when these corrected certifications were made the Judge dissolved the injunction and 17,000 names were restored to the petition. U. S. Senator Warren G. Harding in a Decoration Day speech at Columbus declared himself decidedly opposed to accepting this referendum.
Cases were brought to the Supreme Court via the Court of Appeals, one a general suit demanding that petitions from certain counties be rejected because they were fraudulent and insufficient, the other to mandamus the Secretary of State to give the suffragists a hearing to prove their charges. The first was dismissed, the Supreme Court saying it had no jurisdiction over a case which had not been finished in the court from which the appeal had been taken. They returned to the Court of Appeals and tried one case on the constitutionality of the law of 1915, which gives the Board of Elections and Common Pleas Judges the right to examine the petitions and pass upon their validity, instead of the Secretary of State. The court decided to give no decision as election was so near at hand.
The law made no provision to meet the expenses of petition suits and the suffragists had to bear the cost, no small undertaking. The election boards which were dominated by politicians who had been notorious for their opposition to suffrage, interposed every possible obstacle to the attempt of the suffragists to uncover fraud. In some counties it was impossible to bring cases. Women were absorbed in war work and thousands of them bitterly resented the fact that at such a time their right to vote should be questioned. The referendum was submitted with the proposal so worded on the ballot that it was extremely difficult to know whether to vote yes or no.
At the election in November, 1917, the majority voted in favor of taking away from women the Presidential suffrage. The vote for retaining it was 422,262; against, 568,382; the law repealed by a majority of 146,120. More votes were polled in 1917 than in 1914. The law was upheld in 15 counties, in 11 of which suffrage had then carried three times.
Ohio suffragists now turned their attention entirely towards national work. It was apparent that while the liquor interests continued their fight, women with a few thousand dollars, working for principle, could never overcome men with hundreds of thousands of dollars working for their own political and financial interests. Intensive organized congressional work was carried on henceforth for the Federal Suffrage Amendment. When the vote on it was taken in the House of Representatives Jan. 10, 1918, eight of Ohio's twenty-two Congressmen voted for it. Three years before, Jan. 12, 1915, only five had voted in favor. In the U. S. Senate, Oct. 1, 1918, Senator Atlee Pomerene voted No; Senator Warren G. Harding paired in favor. On Feb. 10, 1919, Senator Harding voted Yes; Senator Pomerene No.
The Legislature in 1919, Republican by a large majority in both Houses, endorsed the Federal Amendment by a vote of 23 to 10 in the Senate, 79 to 31 in the House. When the vote was taken in the National House of Representatives, May 21, 1919, only two Ohio members voted No, one a Democrat, Warren Gard of Hamilton, one a Republican, A. E. B. Stephens of Cincinnati. When the final vote was taken in the Senate June 4, 1919, Senator Harding voted Yes, Senator Pomerene, No.
Ratification. The Legislature was so eager to ratify that it had only recessed instead of adjourning so that it could come together for that purpose whenever the amendment was submitted. Representative Reynolds had again introduced a Presidential suffrage measure, and C. H. Fouts of Morgan county, to carry out the Republican platform, had presented a full suffrage proposal. Both were held back until the fate of the National Amendment should be known. The legislators assembled to ratify on June 16 and the House vote was 76 ayes, 6 noes. In order that the women might be sure of a vote at the next election the Presidential suffrage bill was immediately passed by a vote of 75 ayes, 5 noes. The House was in an uproar, cheering, laughing and talking. Then a committee came to the suffrage leaders who were now on the floor, always heretofore in the gallery, and escorted them to the Senate through the legislative passage way which had always before been closed to them. The Senate ratified by a vote of 27 ayes, 3 noes. The Presidential bill was read, debated and passed by the Senate late that night by 27 ayes, 3 noes.
Never was there a finer example of cooperation than in this ratification of the Federal Amendment. The adoption of the joint resolution was moved by the Republican floor leader and seconded by the Democratic floor leader. The same spirit characterized the passage of the Presidential suffrage bill. Mr. Reynolds, fearing some prejudice might attach to it if it bore his name, as he was a minority party member, proposed to the Republican leaders that the name of Speaker Kimball be substituted. The Speaker replied: 'No, you deserve to have it go through with your name attached." Mr. Reynolds then asked that the name of Mr. Fouts be added because he had introduced a full suffrage measure, and it became the Reynolds-Fouts Bill. Miss Hauser, editor of the Bulletin, official organ of the State Suffrage Association, said in it: "We had just witnessed a perfect exhibition of team work and a demonstration of loyalty to a cause and to each other by members of opposing political parties that was heart warming. We had finished the suffrage fight in Ohio as Mrs. Upton had always wanted to finish it, with love, good will and harmony in our own ranks, and, so far as we were able to judge, with nothing but good will from the men with whom we had worked since the present stage of the contest was inaugurated in 1912."
The suffragists believed the fight was over, not so the opponents. They at once secured referendum petitions on both ratification and Presidential suffrage. In 1918 the Home Rule Association (the liquor interests) had initiated and carried at the November election an amendment to the State constitution providing that Federal amendments must be approved by the voters before the ratification of the Legislature was effective. This was designed primarily to secure a reversal of prohibition in Ohio but also to prevent ratification of the suffrage amendment.[5]
In collecting their petitions the same old tactics were employed. The personnel of the workers was largely the same, with the addition of a State Senator from Cincinnati as general manager. The money to finance the campaign came principally from that city and this time members of the women's Anti-Suffrage Association were contributors. The saloons were now closed and pious instructions were given not to have the petitions circulated by saloon keepers or bar tenders. Nevertheless nearly 600 of them were circulated by men who had been connected with the saloon business, some of them now conducting soft drink establishments, and the signatures were plainly of the most illiterate elements.
The State Suffrage Association persuaded the National American Association to attack the constitutionality of this referendum in the courts and suit was accordingly brought. Eventually it was sustained by the Supreme Court of Ohio and was carried to the U. S. Supreme Court by George Hawk, a young lawyer of Cincinnati. It rendered a decision that the power to ratify a Federal Amendment rested in the Legislature and could not be passed on by the voters.
The Legislature in an adjourned session in 1920 gave women Primary suffrage in an amendment to the Presidential bill, but the final ratification of the Federal Amendment in August made all partial measures unnecessary, as it completely enfranchised women.[6] Thus after a struggle of seventy years those of Ohio received the suffrage at last from the national government, but they were deeply appreciative and grateful to those heroic men of the State who fought their battles through the years.
- ↑ The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, treasurer of the National Woman Suffrage Association 1893-1910; president of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association 1899-1908 and 1911-1920.
- ↑ These conventions were held in the following order: Athens, Springfield, Cleveland, Sandusky, London, Youngstown, Toledo, Warren, Columbus, Elyria, Lima, Columbus, Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Lima, Dayton, Columbus (last three years).
- ↑ The executive officers who finished the work of the State Association were as follows: Honorary president, Mrs. Frances M. Casement, Painceville; president, Mra. Upton, Warren; first, second and third vice-presidents, Zara du Pont, Cleveland; Dora Sandoe Bachman, Columbus; Mrs. J. C. Wallace, Cincinnati; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Kent Hughes, Lima; recording secretary, Margaret J. Brandenburg, Oxford; treasurer, Zell Hart Deming, Warren; member of the National Executive Committee, Mrs. O. F. Davisson, Dayton. Chairmen: Organization Committee, Elizabeth J. Hauser, Girard; Finance, Miss Annie McCully, Dayton; Industrial, Rose Moriarty, Cleveland; Enrollment, Mrs, C. H. Simonds, Conneaut; member Executive Committee at Large, Mrs. Malcolm McBride, Cleveland.
- ↑ Miss Allen was counsel in all court cases of the Ohio suffragists from 1916 to 1920. In 1920 she was elected Judge in the Common Pleas Court of Cuyahoga county (Cleveland), the first woman in the United States to fill such an office.
- ↑ Several years before the "wets," this time under the name of the Stability League, had initiated an amendment, which, if it had been carried, would have prohibited the submission of the same amendment oftener than once in six years, Thus the suffragists in 1916, 1917 3nd 1918 were in the courts for months each year.
- ↑ In the presidential campaign of 1920 Mrs. Upton was appointed vice-chairman of the Republican National Executive Committee, the highest political position ever held by a@ woman, and she had charge of the activities of women during that campaign. Her last work for woman suffrage was during the strenuous effort to obtain the 36th and final ratification of the Federal Amendment from the Tennessee Legislature in the summer of 1920, when she went to Nashville at the request of the National Republican Committee.—Ed.