The Greenville Journal, October 29, 1914

WETS AND DRYS UNITED

SPOKE FROM SAME PLATFORM IN TOLEDO FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

    The novelty of “wets” and “drys” both pleading the woman suffrage cause from the same platform has been witnessed by a Toledo audience.

    The chairman of the mass meeting was Aaron B. Gabriel, a prominent temperance advocate, and the first speaker, Miss Elaine Jack, took up the question somewhat from a “dry” standpoint.

    Ex-Senator Frank Hillenkamp was then introduced and said bluntly: “I believe in the open saloon, and I am sure women will prefer that kind of a saloon to the kind that exists in violation of the law.

    “However, this has nothing to do with the suffrage question. Women are asking the ballot for the same reason that men want it. They should be granted it as a matter of simple right.”

    Miss Beatrice Vaughn, representing the woman labor unions, closed the meeting. She wore an apron to symbolize her position and pleaded for economic conditions which would not compel the women to invade men’s sphere in factories and offices. “Put the cradle back in the home,” pleaded Miss Vaughn. “Women will do it, if they can have their way.”  

In 1914 there was a great meeting of people in Toledo, Ohio, from both sides of the temperance argument who came together to rally for women’s suffrage. The first of the speakers was Elaine Jack who was a temperance supporter. The second was Frank Hillenkamp who was a former senator of the Ohio General Assembly. Hillenkamp was born in Germany in 1849 and moved to the United States in 1869. He settled in Toledo, Ohio, in 1871 where he engaged in various business. In 1905 he ran as an independent for Representative to the 77th General Assembly of Ohio. He won despite having no endorsement from either political party. He would lose in the polls in 1908, and then would again be nominated by the Independents and won in the 1910 election, this time being endorsed by the Democrats. In 1912, Hillenkamp would run as a Democrat for a Senator seat in the 80th General Assembly. He would be victorious against the opposing Republican and Bull Moose candidates. Hillenkamp was active in many progressive movements including the Women’s Suffrage movement. He was opposed to the temperance movement, but not to the Suffragists whom he supported at the meeting in Toledo. The last to speak was Beatrice Vaughn who represented the woman labor unions. The first female led labor union in Ohio was the Female Protective Union which was established in 1850 to fight for better conditions for women garment workers. It would start its own garment shop in 1851 which sported shorter hours and higher pay than the other clothing stores, however it would be shut down soon after due to the other stores working to run it out of business. The Female Protective Union would disband shortly after.

Fulton County Tribune (Wauseon), March 13, 1914

AN APPEAL FOR WORKERS

W. C. T. U. Solicits Aid in Finance and Influence for Coming Equal Suffrage Campaign-Through Organization Being Planned.

Do you know the is a Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in Wauseon? Are You a member? Do you know what it stands for? If not investigate, get in line, something doing.

We think sometimes the community in which the Womans Christian Temperance Union is laboring fails to see what it stands for in that community. It is classed as a bunch of temperance fanatics; that may be true to some extent, but it reaches out farther and broader and deeper than that. W. C. T. U. is interested in all moral reforms; its aim, votes for women, the W. C. T. U. want equal suffrage for the same reason that other organizations of women are asking for the ballot and for the added reason that they may strike the fatal blow to the liquor traffic. Our object, State-wide and Nation-wide prohibition. When the women get the ballot, they will vote for prohibition. It is the wives and sisters and mothers and they only, who will drive the nails into the coffin of John Barleycorn” – Jack London.

Womens Suffrage is now the live issue before the American people State of Ohio to vote again on equal suffrage amendment in November election, petitions to be filed in April Indications of awakened Interest - Success Predicted.

We are just starting in this campaign for suffrage and we are earnestly soliciting the aid of every good woman and man. Wauseon citizens are so generous to assist every good movement coming to town, now we are much in need of finance and influence to carry on this campaign. Won’t you help us?

Colorado on the firing line
Then forward Colorado!
Hurrah! Hurrah! We’ll all unite
To win the fight for God and Colorado! Unite and fight for
God and Colorado!
“Everybody’s singing it to the ringing tune of “Dixie” because its true.”

Because every denominational meeting in the state has come out for state wide prohibition this year. Because the forces of the Anti-Saloon League led by Rev. Arthur J. Finch, a clean, honest, brave and resourceful man, are marching with the W. C. T. U. as never before. Because the great Methodist, Bishop, McConnell is giving his time and wisdom to the initiatory conferences that mean so much and leading his fine body of preachers in that state into the thick of the fight.

The petitions to initiate the constitutional amendment are in charge of the W. C. T. U. and it goes without saying that our clear visioned, courageous president will see that the remotest hamlet speaks its need, under the dome of the capitol, for a clean state.

The Anti-Saloon League of the state has set itself the task of organizing the counties to the last votes and in view of that vast domain that will be a great achievement.”-Union Signal.

In 1914 the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) started a new a campaign for women’s suffrage. Everyone knew what the women of the WCTU would do if they were granted voting rights. 

The WCTU was founded in Cleveland in 1874 with the primary objective of combating the influence of liquor on society. It would prove influential in the temperance movement. The WCTU was inspired by the Woman’s Crusade, which was an anti-liquor effort conducted during the winter of 1873-1874. The WCTU eventually grew to become involved in more than the temperance movement, this included the suffrage movement. It became key organizing many leaders in the suffrage movement and getting more women involved in the fight for suffrage. The WCTU started a campaign for women’s suffrage in 1914 with the help of some outside the organization. 

One of these individuals was Rev. Arthur J. Finch, a member of the Anti-Saloon League. The Anti-Saloon League was one of the most powerful prohibitionist groups in the whole country and worked with many other organizations of the same goal. Another to help was American Methodist Bishop Francis John McConnell. McConnell was born in 1871 in Trinway, Ohio, and entered the Methodist ministry in 1894. After McConnell had served as pastor in churches in Massachusetts and New York, he became president of DePauw University in 1909. He was elected bishop in 1912 and worked for various reformations such as supporting the Report on the Steel Strike of 1919.

The Greenville Journal, October 22, 1914

OHIO GATEWAY OF EAST

VICTORY HERE FOR SUFFRAGE WILL GIVE CAUSE TREMENDOUS IMPETUS.

      Five states, four of them in the east, are watching the suffrage fight in Ohio this year with the closest interest. These states will vote on suffrage in 1915, and it is conceded that a victory in Ohio will go far toward insuring victory in the 1915 contests.

      New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts are the eastern states affected, while Iowa, in the middle west, also plans to vote on a suffrage amendment next year.

      Ohio is only one of seven states that are witnessing suffrage campaigns this year, but it is the largest of them all and the most easterly of any state that ever voted on the subject. The other states are Nevada, Montana, North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Missouri.

      In the sense, Ohio is the frontier of the suffrage movement, for progressive measures, generally speaking, move from west to east, just as the earlier course of civilization moved from east to west.

The Greenville Journal functioned as a newspaper in support of the Republican Party, serving as a political organ for the party since 1855 (the year after the party’s conception). The Otwell family took control of the paper beginning in 1869 and owned it through the beginning of the twentieth century. E.W. Otwell—a former teacher, lawyer, and Greenville post-master by President Lincoln’s appointment—owned it first. His son E.C. Otwell became an editor and manager in 1878 and took it over in 1879. The Otwell were known for their management skills as they greatly increased the paper’s reach from fewer than 150 subscribers to over 1,150 subscribers by 1880. They expanded the newspaper in size, made the paper family-focused so it would appeal to women and children, and balanced national and local coverage. The paper specifically focused on the news of Greenville, too. 

At the time of this article, nine states had already granted women the right to vote, all of which were in the West and Midwest. Ohio, considered the gateway to the west for much of American history, potentially represented the movement moving East as indicated in the article. In 1914, Ohio would not grant women the right to vote; Montana and Nevada, again Western states, did. It would not be until 1917 that the suffrage movement would make gains in the East with New York granting full voting rights to women, as well as three Western states and Ohio and Rhode Island granting women the right to vote for President that year.