The Mahoning Dispatch, (Canfield), October 15, 1915

For the full article, see Chronicling America

WILL MAKE AN INDIRECT APPEAL

Woman Are Urged to Vote This Fall So As to Show They Are Interested.

HOPE TO BOOST CAUSE OF SUFFRAGE

The Question Not Likely to Come Before Voters for Years Unless the Four Eastern States Should Go for Suffrage.

Special Columbus Correspondent.
     Columbus, Oct. 14. – Women of Ohio, having no campaign for equal suffrage under way, are trying this fall to make an indirect appeal to the male electorate. The indirect appeal is the very unusual one of just voting. The point is that the women can vote for members of boards of education and nothing else. And the notion of the suffragists is that if their sex turns out in large numbers to exercise the very limited franchise they now have, that fact in itself will make another argument for suffrage when the next campaign comes around. So the word is being sent out from the headquarters of the women workers that it will be expedient and wise for all women voters to cast their ballots this fall. As a matter of fact and precedent, however, most political observers do not believe there is much of an appeal in the idea of having the feminine contingent exercise the privilege it now has. These observers aver that the argument that women do not care for the ballot is not one that makes much of an impression with the male electorate anyway, and that even if every woman voted for school board members every two years that wouldn’t hasten equal suffrage so very much. In a word, the argument these people put up is that men who are set against suffrage have some other reason than the notion that women do not want it. Meantime suffrage is not likely to be put up to the voters of Ohio for some years unless the campaigns now in progress in four eastern states pan out well for the suffrage advocates. But if the four eastern states, or say a majority of them, should go for suffrage this fall, it would not be surprising to see the Ohio contingent again cast their hats into the ring next fall.

The Mahoning Dispatch, 1877-1968, was an independent, family run, non-partisan newspaper in Canfield county near Youngstown, Ohio. This particular article discusses female suffragists’ appeal to women voters to utilize their limited franchise in order to disprove the theory that women did not care to vote. Beginning in the 1890s, women in Ohio were given the right to vote in school board elections by the state legislature. This being the only voting right afforded women of said state, many women believed if they utilize their right to vote in school board elections, it would make an argument for their desire and ability to have full suffrage. 

Though only mentioned as “the headquarters of the women workers” within the passage, it can be assumed that the said “headquarters” leading this appeal was the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association. In May of 1855, the Association turned their focus from gaining a constitutional amendment for female suffrage to changing local and state level laws regarding its illegality within the state. The Association, along with all female suffragists in Ohio, were also working against the notion that if given full franchise, all women would vote for prohibition. As these two issues were closely tied during this period, it is quite likely that men disliked female suffrage due to the fear of national or statewide prohibition. It was also believed that the granting of female suffrage in Ohio hinged on the suffrage campaigns of the four eastern states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania). This was due to the fact that these four states held a fifth of the nation’s population, providing them with the potential to jump start the female voting pool in the United States allowing for a larger chance of change at the national level.