The Democratic Banner (Mount Vernon), February 13, 1912

ANTI-SUFFRAGE FIGHT STARTED

Columbus Women to Oppose Votes For Fair Sex

Say Ballot is Not Desirable - Will Tell Constitutional Convention Delegates That Only Small Minority of Women Throughout State Desire Privilege And That They Exercise Full Share of Responsibility For Public Welfare In Homes

            Columbus, O., Feb. 12. - Local women, many prominent in social and club life of the capital city, met at the home of Mrs. Herman Hubbard and organized to fight the movement which has for its motive the promotion of equal suffrage propaganda throughout the state, and, specifically, to influence constitutional delegates either to adopt a suffrage proposal in Ohio’s now organic law or to submit the question to the people. They have already drafted an anti-woman’s suffrage petition, which soon will be submitted to the constitutional convention.

            The petition reads: “We, the undersigned women, citizens of Ohio and residents of Franklin county, hereby respectfully protest and remonstrate against any modification of the constitution of our state that seeks to impose upon women the duties and responsibilities involved in the suffrage. We believe that women can and do exercise their full share of influence and responsibility for the public welfare without the ballot. We are confident that only a small minority of the women of the state desire the franchise and we respectfully submit that to impose the responsibilities of the franchise upon an unwilling electorate is unfair to the individual and dangerous to the state. We therefore respectfully object to any and all measures having that end in view.”

 The Democratic Banner, published in Mt. Vernon from 1838-1935, was founded by Chauncey Bassett and Joel Robb. Between its founding and its sale to Lecky Harper in 1853, the paper had nine different editors. Under Harper, the paper had a Peace Democrat political bent and became equivalent with criticism of other papers and immigration defense. Following their father’s death, Harper’s sons Frank and William took over editorship, bringing larger national, local, and court case news coverage to the paper. Finally, Stephen J. Dorgan, leasing editor from 1917 until the paper was sold in 1935 to the Republican News, gave the paper a conservative bent but remained progressive. He focused on local news and also included political cartoons.

 This article, taking place in Columbus not Mt. Vernon, is found within The Democratic Banner due to the subject matter. Not only was suffrage a topic important to all parties, but the Ohio Constitutional Convention of 1912 had begun a month earlier in Columbus, covering proposed amendments from suffrage to education which would affect the entire state. Mrs. Herman Hubbard, or A.P. Hubbard, was the president of the Ohio Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage which formed in May 1902. Mrs. Hubbard traveled Ohio and to other states, including Massachusetts and New York, in order to influence delegates and work against the granting of female suffrage. Mrs. Hubbard, along with her organization, wrote this petition in order to protest the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association working to influence the convention to adopt an amendment granting women’s suffrage to Ohio’s organic law. As organic law serves as the basis of government within a state, this would be the Constitution within Ohio. On September 3, 1912, the delegates to the constitutional convention voted down the amendment calling for female suffrage.

The Democratic Banner, (Mount Vernon), May 15, 1917

LOCAL SUFFRAGISTS ARE URGED TO BE PRESENT

Mississippi Valley Suffrage Conference To Be Held In Columbus This Week At The Hotel Deshler

Suffragists are planning an enthusiastic celebration when the Mississippi Valley conference meets in Columbus May 12-14. It is expected that there will be 20 states represented. The general topic of the conference will be “Victory—How, Why, When, Where?” Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, international and national president of the suffrage movement, will be present and make several addresses. This is the most important suffrage event of the year, lasting three days, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. On Saturday evening there will be a dinner, accommodating 300 guests, at Hotel Deshler. Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, president of the Ohio Woman’s Suffrage association, will be toastmaster. On Sunday afternoon there will be a mass meeting at Memorial hall, which will be addressed by Governor James M. Cox, James M. Reynolds of Cleveland, who managed the presidential suffrage bill, Judge Littleford of Cincinnati, Judge Frank M. Gorman and other distinguished men and women. Monday (all sessions at the Deshler) will be devoted to legislative work, with especial celebration of victories in North Dakota, Indiana, Arkansas and Ohio.All women of Mt. Vernon interested in the cause are urged to go to Columbus and attend some of these meetings.

  

The Mississippi Valley Conference was held in 1913, 1915, 1916, and 1917 (cancelled in 1918) in various cities. It convened members of the Mississippi Valley Suffrage Association, which was a regional part of the National Suffrage Association. 

One of the speakers at the event in Columbus in 1917 was Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, a former teacher who left the classroom to work as a suffragist and peace activist. A talented speaker and political strategist, she was elected president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1900 after Susan B. Anthony retired. In 1902, she founded the International Women Suffrage Alliance. In 1915, she helped to create the Woman’s Peace Party. After traveling the world, she was re-elected president of NAWSA and served from 1915 to 1920. Her “Winning Plan” of a state-by-state suffrage effort led to the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920. With female suffrage secured, she founded the League of Women Voters.

 Hotel Deshler, where the conference was held, was opened in 1916; at the time of the conference, it was one of the most extravagant places in the city of Columbus. The mass meeting mentioned in the article at Memorial Hall, where the Columbus’s 1912 suffrage parade and other events were planned.

Mrs. Harriett Taylor Upton joined NAWSA in 1890; the next year, she started Ohio Women in Convention, a group that worked toward gender equality. From 1894 to 1910, she served as NAWSA’s treasurer and urged the group to move its national headquarters to Warren, Ohio where she lived. From 1899 to 1908 and then from 1911 to 1920, Upton served as president of the Ohio Women’s Suffrage Association. Among other achievements, she served on the Republic National Executive Committee as the first woman to do so.

Governor James M. Cox was Ohio’s 46th and 48th governor and was the first governor to serve three full terms. A Democrat (the conservative party at the time), Cox was known to support progressive reform measures. He was chosen in 1920 as the Democratic party’s presidential nominee and later lost. Through his whole career, he was known as a supporter of women’s suffrage in Ohio. His third term as governor ended in 1921 during which he helped give women the right to vote in the 1920 presidential election by signing into law the suffrage bill that James M. Reynolds wrote after it passed both houses of the Legislature.

Judge Frank M. Gorman served as judge on the Ohio Court of Appeals 1st District bench from 1915-1918. Judge Littleford was the president of the Ohio Men’s League for Equal Suffrage.

The 21 states that were members of the Mississippi Valley Conference were: Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. 

The Democratic Banner, founded in 1838, was a progressive newspaper published in Mt. Vernon.