The Mahoning Dispatch (Canfield), August 16, 1912

SUFFRAGISTS ARE MOBBED

Women Flee After Banana Skins, Chicken Bones, Lemon Rinds and Other Garbage Are Hurled.

     Dayton, O., Aug. 14. - Dayton policemen and firemen, on their annual outing, mobbed five women suffragists who attempted to talk to the men on the question of votes for women.

     Miss Margaret Foley of Boston mounted a table and was in full swing when a loaf of bread knocked off her hat. She continued to speak, but the noise about her became so loud that she could not be heard. Then a ham sandwich landed on her cheek. She talked on. Finally banana skins, chicken bones, lemon rinds and other refuse from the table came in a regular torrent. That was too much for even an ardent suffragist of the militant brand. She retired.

 
The Mahoning Dispatch first debuted in 1877 and was based in Canfield, a rural area around Youngstown. The paper was originally created out of concern that the growing industrial city of Youngstown would fail to notice the largely rural area of Mahoning county. For this reason, The Mahoning Dispatch focused on local issues, and maintained a rural demeanor. When Henry Manning Fowler first published the paper, he stated that The Mahoning Dispatch would be non-partisan in politics and would not be associated with any political faction or religion.

The women suffragists mentioned in the article had asked to speak to the policemen and firemen about supporting the right for woman suffrage. The women had even waited until after the main events of the picnic had concluded. According to another article on the event, as soon as Miss Margaret Foley began talking the policemen and firemen began yelling and throwing garbage at Miss Foley, with the chiefs watching. Margaret Foley was a prominent Irish Catholic suffragist from Boston, Massachusetts. She was a member of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association and after speaking in front many audiences, Foley earned the nickname, “The Grand Heckler”. She traveled to many states in 1912, including Ohio, in order to continue promoting suffrage.

After the events of the article, Harriet Taylor Upton, the current president of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association in 1912, commented on the policemen and firemen's attack on the women suffragists. Upton, a prominent suffragist from Ravenna, Ohio, stated that the event was a stigma on the city of Dayton’s honor. She also pointed out that the policemen and firemen were attacking honorable women whose taxes pay their salaries, adding to the dishonor of the officers actions.

Written by Katrina Neff, Class of 2022