The Mahoning Dispatch (Canfield), February 14, 1919

POMERENE ON SUFFRAGE

     A resolution has been introduced in the Ohio legislature asking the two Ohio senators, Pomerene and Harding, to vote for the women’s suffrage amendment now before the national congress. It is hoped thus to induce Mr. Pomerene to vote for the amendment’s submission. Without any regard to his personal feelings in the matter of women’s suffrage, Senator Pomerene has been influenced by the votes of the people of Ohio, he states. To the writer he recently stated that on three occasions during the last few years the people of Ohio had turned down women’s suffrage by direct votes when such amendment was submitted to them, by votes running as high as 170,000 against. The senator takes the position that he is not representing Pomerene in the senate, but the people of the state, and he would be misrepresenting them if he voted for the suffrage measure. The Patriot has always stood for suffrage, but it is fair enough to see the justification of Mr. Pomerene’s position. Lisbon Patriot.

In 1918 the women’s suffrage movement had a major win. The issue of an amendment was opened for debate in the House and passed, but then failed in the Senate. President Willison publicly supported the amendment for women’s suffrage in 1918 and some states had even approved the women’s vote, but Ohio citizens were still divided in 1919. Atlee Pomerene of Holmes County, Ohio, was a member of the Democrat party. After working in law and as Ohio’s tax commissioner, he was elected lieutenant governor of Ohio in 1910 and resigned in 1911 to become an Ohio senator in the U.S. Senate. He served in this role from March 1911 until March 1923. He continued his work as a politician in many roles and later returned to work in law in Cleveland. Senator Pomerene knew his job was to represent his constituents. Unfortunate for the women’s suffrage movement this meant representing the large number of citizens who did not approve of women voting.

 According to a February 28th article Senator Pomerene did not receive this Resolution and only knew of it through the press. This resolution urged the two Ohio senators Atlee Pomerene and Warren G. Harding to support the amendment to the Federal Constitution that would bring women the vote. In this later article he spoke of his regret for not knowing of the resolution sooner, he personally believed in the amendment and had previously voted for it. However, Ohioans had had the opportunity to support the vote for women in 1912, 1914, and in 1917 state elections, these had all been defeated by a wide margin. It was his conviction to accurately portray the will of the majority and thus he voted against the amendment. 

Warren G. Harding of Marion, Ohio, was a Republican who would later become the 29th president of the United States. Typically a conservative politician, he grew to support the Nineteenth Amendment as the Republican party did. In his first senate term he missed at least two-thirds of roll-call votes including the vote to send the Amendment to the states for ratification. As he ran for the presidency he maintained a more conservative appearance against his Democratic opponent the Ohio Governor, James M. Cox. He won the election of 1920, in part due to his popularity among women for his strong support in the Senate for women’s suffrage. This was the first presidential election women could vote in across the nation. 

From The Mahoning Dispatch’s creation in 1877 it was, according to founder, Henry Manning Fowler, to be an independent non- partisan journal. Holding no ties to any religious group or political affiliation. Founded by the Fowler family of Canfield, Ohio, the paper became the longest continuously run family paper in Mahoning County. The paper focused on local issues while also reporting on national and international events with local viewpoints.

Written by Hope Bruce, Class of 2019