The Marion Daily Mirror, November 23, 1911

SUFFRAGETTE VERSE WRITTEN BY MARION LADY

      The following verse written by Mrs. J. W. Freeland, of this city, was read before the Woman’s Press club at Cleveland, November 3, and published in the Columbus Dispatch, November 6. Mrs. Freeland has written other suffragette verses, one of which will appear in the suffragette official organ, “The Women Voter,” during the year.

Votes for Woman.
Votes for woman! That’s the slogan now.
Shout it loud and clear and plain.
Words of scorn for woman’s votes
Will never be hear again.

Votes for woman! Throughout the land.                             

Injustice wrongs the weak,
And woman’s heart and woman’s voice
And woman’s vote must speak.

Votes for woman! All manly men
Ask mother, sister, wife,
To pledge their strength, to give their aid
To win, in each great strife.

Votes for woman! ‘Tis only when
The woman’s vote is cast,
Oppression, vice, and ignorance,
Shall number with the past.

Votes for woman! It is coming sure.
Make haste and join the band.
The watchword if “Equality,”
Home and native land.

Suffragette verses were poems written by suffragist women who wanted to shed light on the cause. Charlotte Perkins Gillman, a more radical member of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association, published a book in 1911 titled Suffrage Songs and Verses in which she published her suffragette poetry from as early as 1898. She and many other women wrote these verses.

Mrs. John W. Freeland was born Isabella McMurray. During her lifetime, she was prominent member of the Ohio Women’s Press Club of Cleveland, Ohio, and at one point the president of the Ohio Newspaper Women’s Association. She was well-known for her poetry writing and time as a leader of the women’s suffrage movement. Her early journalist work focused on “poor whites,” but during World War I, she was nationally recognized for her work for the Belgians. She led the Red Cross in Marion and served as the first chairwoman of the suffrage movement there. Her husband was a member of the Society of U.S. Military Telegraph Corps; at the reception for this group in 1909, one of her poems, a tribute to the president of the society Colonel William Bender Wilson, was read. She also had six children that survived her. 

Women’s press clubs, both statewide and citywide, gave women a place to discuss their work and trade advice when these women were often the only ones working at their newspapers or in other writing professions. At meetings and conventions, speeches were given and papers were read pertaining to professional issues of the time, such as poor pay, copywrite law, and other issues. These organizations also served to legitimate women’s presence in the profession of writing at-large. Having their events written about also served to publicize the organizations and female writers.

The Columbus Dispatch mentioned in the article was a Columbus newspaper called the Columbus Evening Dispatch at the time and is today called The Columbus Dispatch. This newspaper’s headquarters has been within two blocks of the Statehouse for over 145 years, allowing it to provide in-depth news pertaining to Ohio government. At the time of this article, this paper was printing colored cartoons.

The Woman Voter was a monthly journal published by the Woman Suffrage Party, of which Carrie Chapman Catt was the president, in New York City to keep its members informed. The publication quickly grew into a “machine,” and it was silenced in 1917 when New York voted on women’s suffrage. This journal was one of three that later became the Woman Citizen, which was a weekly publication via the National American Woman Suffrage Association. 

The Marion Daily Mirror ran weekly from 1890 to 1912. It was known for its Democratic leanings, but it tried to present a balanced view with editorial opinions from professionals of all perspectives. This paper reported international, national, and state news to the people of Marion County, including weather, news, politics, crimes, gossip, sports, cartoons, sheet music, and fiction. In 1926, the Mirror merged with The Marion Ohio Tribune to create The Marion Star that continues to run.