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

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 

The Mahoning Dispatch (Canfield), November 28, 1913

WANT RECOGNITION

Women Say They Are Virtually Ignored in the School’ Histories.

Washington, Nov. 26- Women of history are not given fair play, and, in fact, virtually are ignored in the histories used in the local schools, members of the College of Women’s Equal Suffrage league have just announced. Their protest was aroused by the report of a special committee appointed several weeks ago to examine school books.

The committee, in its report, announced that it had found only “incident mention” of women in the histories used in several grades of the public schools. In the fifth grade text book, the report charges, the only reference to women was in the sentence “on the fourth Monday the women went ashore to wash.”

In most every reference to the sex in the other grade books it was found that no attempt had been made to establish the identity of individuals.

The allusion to women that aroused the committee’s anger was discovered as a foot note in the text book used in the high schools. It contained the information that Garrison failed to become the leader of the abolition movement because of his extreme views, and that “among other things, he believed in woman’s suffrage.”

In 1900, the College Equal Suffrage League (CESL) was founded by Maud Wood Park, who was an American suffragist and woman’s rights activist, and Inez Haynes Irwin, who was an American feminist author and member of the National Women’s Party. The intent of this league was to draw in younger Americans and involve them in the Women’s Rights Movement. Park attended the National American Woman Suffrage convention in Washington D.C. in 1900. While there, she realized she was the youngest delegate, which led to the formation of the CESL. Upon this realization Park and Haynes formed the Massachusetts CESL and began touring colleges to campaign their fight for younger American involvement. 

Prior to the release of this newspaper article, the CESL appointed a committee to determine whether the accomplishments of women were mentioned in textbooks used in district public schools. The leagues findings are mentioned in the article above, where women were overwhelmingly ignored in public school textbooks. 

This story was first covered in The Washington Herald in Washington D.C. on November 25, 1913. In the original story, there is greater detail of how school textbooks for specific grades fail to properly portray and mention women in history. One example given was of the high school textbook which had one paragraph on women. The paragraph mentioned that William Lloyd Garrison, who was an abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer in nineteenth-century America, failed to become the leader of the abolitionist movement because he believed in woman suffrage. Three days later, Mahoning County, Ohio, editors covered this story in their newspaper, The Mahoning Dispatch. 

While there is no clear evidence of how this event in Washington D.C. and the findings of the CESL directly impacted the people of Mahoning County, it is clear that the discovery of women’s misrepresentation in school history was a large enough finding to be mentioned in The Mahoning Dispatch, which was a family newspaper that was promoted as being made for all classes and nationalities. This story would have welcomed the attention of its readers and possibly led to school textbook reform in Mahoning County.

The Mahoning Dispatch, (Canfield), October 15, 1915

For the full article, see Chronicling America

WILL MAKE AN INDIRECT APPEAL

Woman Are Urged to Vote This Fall So As to Show They Are Interested.

HOPE TO BOOST CAUSE OF SUFFRAGE

The Question Not Likely to Come Before Voters for Years Unless the Four Eastern States Should Go for Suffrage.

Special Columbus Correspondent.
     Columbus, Oct. 14. – Women of Ohio, having no campaign for equal suffrage under way, are trying this fall to make an indirect appeal to the male electorate. The indirect appeal is the very unusual one of just voting. The point is that the women can vote for members of boards of education and nothing else. And the notion of the suffragists is that if their sex turns out in large numbers to exercise the very limited franchise they now have, that fact in itself will make another argument for suffrage when the next campaign comes around. So the word is being sent out from the headquarters of the women workers that it will be expedient and wise for all women voters to cast their ballots this fall. As a matter of fact and precedent, however, most political observers do not believe there is much of an appeal in the idea of having the feminine contingent exercise the privilege it now has. These observers aver that the argument that women do not care for the ballot is not one that makes much of an impression with the male electorate anyway, and that even if every woman voted for school board members every two years that wouldn’t hasten equal suffrage so very much. In a word, the argument these people put up is that men who are set against suffrage have some other reason than the notion that women do not want it. Meantime suffrage is not likely to be put up to the voters of Ohio for some years unless the campaigns now in progress in four eastern states pan out well for the suffrage advocates. But if the four eastern states, or say a majority of them, should go for suffrage this fall, it would not be surprising to see the Ohio contingent again cast their hats into the ring next fall.

The Mahoning Dispatch, 1877-1968, was an independent, family run, non-partisan newspaper in Canfield county near Youngstown, Ohio. This particular article discusses female suffragists’ appeal to women voters to utilize their limited franchise in order to disprove the theory that women did not care to vote. Beginning in the 1890s, women in Ohio were given the right to vote in school board elections by the state legislature. This being the only voting right afforded women of said state, many women believed if they utilize their right to vote in school board elections, it would make an argument for their desire and ability to have full suffrage. 

Though only mentioned as “the headquarters of the women workers” within the passage, it can be assumed that the said “headquarters” leading this appeal was the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association. In May of 1855, the Association turned their focus from gaining a constitutional amendment for female suffrage to changing local and state level laws regarding its illegality within the state. The Association, along with all female suffragists in Ohio, were also working against the notion that if given full franchise, all women would vote for prohibition. As these two issues were closely tied during this period, it is quite likely that men disliked female suffrage due to the fear of national or statewide prohibition. It was also believed that the granting of female suffrage in Ohio hinged on the suffrage campaigns of the four eastern states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania). This was due to the fact that these four states held a fifth of the nation’s population, providing them with the potential to jump start the female voting pool in the United States allowing for a larger chance of change at the national level.