NAWSA Subject File Ohio Suffrage Assocs. Ohio Report 1859 CIVIL AND POLITICAL EQUALITY. ---- REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE OHIO SENATE, ON GIVING THE RIGHTS OF SUFFRAGE TO WOMEN. The following petition, numerously signed by both men and women, citizens of this State, was, at the first sesison of this Legislature, referred to the undersigned select committee. "Whereas, the women of the State of Ohio are disfranchised by the constitution solely on account of their sex, "We do, respectfully, demand for them the right of suffrage, a right which involves all other rights of citizenship, and one that cannot, justly, be withheld, as the following admitted principles of government show: "First. 'All men are born free and equal.' "Second. 'Government derives its just power from the consent of the governed.' "Third. 'Taxation and representation are inseparable.' "We, the undersigned, therefore, petition your honorable body to take the necessary steps for a revision of the constitution, so that all citizens may enjoy equal political rights." Your committee have given the subject referred to them a careful examination, and now report: Your committee believe that the prayer of the petitioners ought to be granted. Our opinion is based both upon grounds of principle and expediency, which we will endeavor to present as briefly as is consistent with a due consideration of this subject. The founders of this Republic, claimed and asserted with great emphasis, the essential equality of human rights as a self-evident truth. They scouted the venerable old dogma of the divine right of kinds and title aristicracies to rule the submissive multitude. 2 They were equally explicit in their claim, that "taxation and representation are inseparable." The House of Representatives of Massachusetts, 1764, declared, "That the imposition of duties and taxes, by the PArliament of Great Britain, upon a peoplen not represented in the House of Commons, is absolutely irreconcilable with their rights." A pamphlet entitled, "The Right of the British Colonies Asserted," was sent to the agent of the Colony in England, to show him the state of the public mind, and alnog wiith it an energetic letter. " The silence of this province," said this letter, alluding to the suggestion of the agent, that he had taken silence for consent, "should have been imputed to any cause - even to despair - rather than be construed into a tact cession of their right, or the acknowledgment of a right in the Parliament of Grezat Britain to impose duties and taxes on a people who are not represented in the House of Commons." "I we are not represented, we are slaves!" Some of England's ablest jurists acknowledge the truth of this doctrine. Jurstice Pratt said, "My position is this - taxation and representation are inseparable. The position is dounded in the law of nature. It is more; it is itself an eternal law of nature." In defence of this doctrine, they waged a seven years' war; and yet, when they had wrung from the grasp of Great Britain the colonies she would not govern upon this principle, and undertook to organize them according to their favorite theory, most of the colonies, by a single stroke of the pen, cut off one half of the people from any representation in the government which claimed their obedience to its laws, the right to tax them for its support, and the right to punish them for disobedience. To declare that a voice in the government is the right of all, and then give it only to a part - and that the part to which the claimant himself belongs - is to renounce even the appearance of principle. As ought to have been foreseen, the class of persons thus cut off from the means of self-protection, have become victims of unequal and oppressive legislation, which runs through our whole code. We first bind the hands, by the organic law, and then proceed with deliberate safety, by the statute, to spoil the goods of the victim. * * 3 The objection urged against female suffrage with the greatest confidence, and by the greatest number, is, that such a right is incompatible with the refinement and delicacy of the sex. That it would make them harsh and disputable, like male voters. This objection loses moest, if not all of its force, when it is compared with the well established usages of society, as related to woman. She already fills places and discharges duties with the approbation of most men, which are, to say the least, quite as dangerous to her refinement and retiring modesty, as the act of voting, or even holding office, would be. In our political campaigns, all parties are anxious to secure the co-operation of women. They are urged to attend our political meetinds, and even in our mass meetings, when whole acres of men are assembled, they are importunately urged to take a conspicuous part, sometimes as the representatives of the several States, and sometimes as the donors of banners and flags, accompanied with patriotic speeches by the fair donors. And in great moral questions, such as temperance, for example, in the right disposition of which woman is more interested than man, she often discharges a large amount of the labor of the cmapaign; but, yet, when it comes to the crowning act of vi-oting, she must stand aside - delicacy forbids - that is too masculine, too public, too exposing, though it could be done, in most cases, with as little difficulty and exposure as a latter can be taken out or put in the post-office. But, with all our dainty notions of femae proprieties, women are, by common consent, dragged into court as witneses, and subjected to the most scrutinizing and often indelicate examinations and questions, if either party imagines, he can gain a sixpence, or dull the edge of a criminal prosecution, by her testimony. The interest, convenience and prejudice of men, and not any true reagrd for the delicacy of the sex, seem to be the standard by which woman's rights and duties are to be measured. It is prejudice, custom, long established usage, and not reason, which have demanded the sacrifice of woman's natural rights of self-government; a relic of barbarism still lingering in all political, and nearly all religious organizations. Amn the purely savage tribes, woman takes position as a domestic drudge - a mere beast of burden, whilst 4 the sensual civilization of Asia regarded her more in the light of a domestic luxury, to be jealously guarded from the profane sight of all men, but her husband. Both positions equally and widely remote from the noble one God intended her to fill. In Persia and Turkey, women grossly offend the public taste if they suffer their faces to be seen in the streets. In the latter country they are prohibited by law, in common with "pigs, dogs and other unclean animals," as the law styles them from so much as entering their mosques. Our ideas of the proper sphere, duties and capabilities of woman so not differ from these so much in kind, as degree. They are all based upon the assumption that man has the right to decide what are the rights, to point out the duties, and to fix the boundaries of woman's sphere; which, taking for true our cherished theory of government, to wit: the inalienability and equality of human rights, can hardly be characterized by a milder term than that of an impudent and oppressive usurpation. It is said woman's mental and moral organization is peculiar, differing widely from that of man. Perhaps so. She must then have a peculiar fitness of qualification to judge what will be wise and just government for her. Let her be free to choose for herself, in the light of her peculiar organization, to what she is best adapted. She is better qualified to judge of her proper sphere than man can be. She knows her own wants and capabilities. Let us leaved her, as God created her, a free agent, accountable to Him for any violation of the laws of her nature. He has mingled the sexes in the family relation; they are associated on terms of equality in some churches. They are active working and voting members of literary and benevolent societies. They vote as share-holders in stock companies, and in countries where less is said about freedom, and equality, and representation, they are often called to, and fill with distinguished ability, very important positions, and often discharge the highest political trusts known to their laws. Which of England's kings has shown more executive ability than Elizabeth, or which has been more conscientious and discreet than Anne and Victoria? Spain, too, had her Isabella, and France her 5 Maid of Orleans, her Madame Roland; yes, and her Charlotte Corday. Austria and Hungary, their Maria Theresa. Russia, her Catherine; and even the jealous Jewish Theocracy was judged forty years by a woman. It is too late, by thitry centuries, to put in the plea of her incompetency in political affairs. But it is objected that it would not do for a woman, particularly a married woman, to be allowed to vote. It might bring discord into the family if she differed from her husband. If this objection were worth any thing at all, it would lie with tenfold greater force against religious than political organizations. No animosities are so bitter and implacable as those growing out of religious disagreements; yet we allow women to choose their religious creeds, attend their favorite places of worship, and some of them take an equal part in the church business, and all this, though the husband is of another religion, or of no religion; and no one this side of Turkey claims that the law should compel woman to have no religion, or adopt that of her husband. But, even if that objection were a good one, more than half the adult women of the State are unmarried. It is said, too, that as woman is not required to perform military duty, and work on the roads, she ought not to vote. None but "able- bodied" men, under a certain age, are required to do military duty, and the effect is practically the same in regard to the two days' work on the roads, whilst women pay tax for military and road purposes the same as men. A man's right to vote does not depend on his ability to perform physical labor; why should a woman's? By the exclusion of woman from her due influence and voice in the government, we lose that elevating and refining influence which she gives to religious, social and domestic life. Her presence at our political meetings, all agree, contributes greatly to their order, decorum and decency. Why should not the polls, also, be civilized by her presence? Does not the morality of our politics demonstrate a great want of the two qualities so characteristic of woman, heart and conscience? The female element which works such miracles of reform in the rude manners of men, in all the departments of life where she has the freedom to go, is no where more needed than in our politics, or at the polls. 6 We have endeavored to show that the constitutional prohibition of female suffrage is not only a violation of natural right, but equally at war with the fundamental principles of the government. Let us now look at the practical results of this organic wrong. After having taken away from woman the means of protecting her person and property, by the peacable but powerful ballot, how have we discharged the self- imposed duty of legislating for her? By every principle of honor, or even of common honesty, we are bound to see that her interests do not suffer in our hands. That, if we depart at all from the principle of strict equality, it should be in her favor. Let us see what are the facts. When a woman marries, she becomes almost annihilated in the eyes of the law, except as a subject of punishment. She loses the right to receive and control the wages of her own labor. If she be an administratrix, or executrix, she is counted as dead, and another must be appointed. If she have children, they may be taken from her against her will, and placed in the care of any one, no matter how unfit, whom the father may select. He may even give them away by will. "The personal property of the wife, such as money, goods, cattle, and other chattels, which she had in possession at the time of her marriage, in her own right, and not in the right of another, vest immediately in the husband, and he can dispose of them as he pleases. On his death, they go to his representatives, like the residue of his property. So, if any such goods or chattels come to her possession in her own right, after the marriage, they, in like manner, immediately vest in the husband." The real estate of the wife, such as houses and lands, is in nearly the same state of subjection to the husband's will. He is entitled to all the rents and profits, while they both live, and the husband can hold the estate during his life, even though the wife be dead. A woman may thus be stripped of every available cent she ever had in the world, and even see it squandered in ministering to the low appetite or passions of a drunken debauchee of a husband. And when, by economy and toil, she may have acquired the means of present subsistence, this, too, may be lawfully taken from her, and applied to the 7 same base purpose. Even her family bible, the last gift of a dying mother, her only remaining comfort, can be lawfully taken and sold by the husband, to but the means of intoxication. This very thing has been done. Can any one believe that laws, so wickedly one-sided as these, were ever honestly designed for the equal benefit of woman with man? Yet wives are said to have quite a sufficient representation in the government, through their husbands, to secure them protection. But the cruel inequality of the laws relating to woman as wife, are quite outdone by those relating to her as widow. It is these stricken and sorrowful victims whom the law seems especially to have selected as its prey. Upon the death of the husband, the law takes possession of the whole of the estate. The smallest items of property must be turned out for valuation, to be handled by strangers. The clothes that the deceased had worn, the chair in which he sat, the bed on which he died, all these sacred memorials of the dead, must undergo the cold scrutiny of officers of the law. The widow is counted but as an alien, and an incumbrance on the estate, the bulk of which is designed for other hands. She is to have doled out to her, like a pauper, by paltry sixes, the furniture of her own kitchen. "One table, six chairs, six knives and forks, six plates, six tea cups and saucers, one sugar dish, one milk pail, one tea pot, and twelve spoons!" All this munificent provision for, perhaps, a family of only a dozen persons. Think of it, ye widows, and learn to be grateful for man's provident care of you, in your hour of need! How different in all these cases is the condition of the husband, upon the death of the wife. There is, then, no officious intermeddling of the law in his domestic affairs. His house, sad and desolate though it be, is still sacred and secure from the foot of unbidden guests. There is no legal "settlement" to eat up his estate. He is not told that "one equal third part" of all his lands and tenements shall be set apart for his use, during his life-time. He has all, every thing, even his wife's bridal presents, too, are his. If the wife has lands in her own right, and if they have ever had a living child, he has a life estate in the whole of it; not a beggarly "third part." 8 Such is the result of man's government of woman, without her consent. Such is the protection he affords her. She now asks the means of protecting herself, by the same instrumentality which man considers so essential to his freedom and security--representation, political equality--the right to suffrage. The removal of this constitutional restriction is of great consequence, because it casts upon woman a stigma of inferiority, of incompetency, of unworthiness of trust. It ranks her with criminals, and mad-men, and idiots. It is essential to her practically, as being the key to all her rights, which will open to her the door of equality and justice. Does any one believe, that if woman had possessed an equal voice in making our laws, we should have standing on our statute books, for generations, laws so palpably unequal and unjust toward her? The idea is preposterous. If our sense of natural justice, and our theory of government, both agree, that the being who is to suffer under laws, shall first personally assent to them, and that the being whose industry the government is to burden should have a voice in fixing the character and amount of that burden; then while woman is admitted to the gallows, the jail, and the tax list, we have no right to debar her from the ballot-box. Your committee recommend the adoption of the following resolution: J. D. Cattell, H. Canfield Resolved,--That the Judiciary Committee be instructed to report to the Senate, a bill to submit to the qualified electors, at the next election for Senators and Representatives, an amendment to the constitution, whereby the elective franchise shall be extended to the citizens of Ohio, without distinction of sex. Resolutions Adopted at the Woman's Convention held in Salem, Ohio, April 19 and 20, 1850 Whereas all men are created equal and endowed with certain God-given rights, and all just government is derived from the consent of the governed; and whereas, the doctrine that 'man shall pursue his own substantial happiness' is acknowledged by the highest authority to be the great precept of Nature; and whereas this doctrine is not local, but universal, being dictated by God himself, therefore 1. Resolved, That all laws contrary to these fundamental principles, or in conflict with these great precept of Nature, are of no binding obligation, not being founded in equity or justice. 2. Resolved, That the prohibition of woman from participating in the enactment of the laws by which she is governed is a direct violation of this precept of Nature, as she is thereby prevented from occupying that position which duty points out, and from pursuing her own substantial happiness by acting up to her conscientious convictions; and that all statutes and constitutional provisions which sanction this prohibition are null and void. 3. Resolved, That all rights are human rights, and pertain to human beings, without distinction of sex; therefore justice demands that all laws shall be made, not for man, or for woman, but for mankind, and that the same legal protection be afforded to one sex as to the other. 4. Resolved, That the servile submission and quiet indifference of the women of this country in relation to the unequal and oppressive laws by which they are governed, are the fruit either of ignorance or degradation, both resulting legitimately from the action of those laws. 5. Resolved, That the evils arising from the present social, civil, and religious condition of women proclaim them in language not to be misunderstood stood, that not only their own welfare, but the highest good of the race demands of them, as an imperative duty, that they should secure themselves the elective franchise. 6. Resolved, That in those laws which confer on man the power to control the property and person of woman, and to remove from her at will the children of her affection, we recognize only the modified code of the slave plantation; and that thus we are brought more nearly in sympathy with the suffering slave who is dispoiled of all his rights. 7. Resolved, That we, as human beings, are entitled to claim and exercise all the rights that belong by nature to any members of the human family. 8. Resolved, That all distinctions between men and women in regard to social, literary, pecuniary, religious or political customs and institutions, based on a distinction of sex, are contrary to the laws of Nature, are unjust and destructive to the purity, elevation, and progress in knowledge and goodness of the great human family, and ought to be at once and forever abolished. 9. Resolved, That the practice of holding women amenable to a different standard of propriety and morality from that to which men are held amenable, is unjust and unnatural, and highly detrimental to domestic and social virtue and happiness. 10. Resolved, That so long as women oppose the examination of the position and duties of women in all the various relations of human life, they do but enhance and perpetuate their own degradation and put far off the day when social laws and customs shall recognize them as equally entitled to a voice in creating and administering the governmental and religious institutions under which they and those who are dear to them live. 11. Resolved, That the political history of women demonstrates that tyranny, the most degrading, cruel and arbitrary, can be exercised and produced the same in effect under a mild and republican form of government as by a hereditary despotism. 12. Resolved, That while we deprecate thus earnestly the political oppression of woman, we see in her social condition the regard in which she is held as a moral and intellectual being, the fundamental cause of that oppression. 13. Resolved, That amongst the principal causes of such social condition we regard the public sentiment which withholds from her all, or almost all, lucrative employments and enlarged spheres of labor. 14. Resolved, That in the difficulties thus cast in the way of her self-support, and in her consequent dependence upon man, we see the greatest influence at work in imparting to her that tone of character which makes her to be regarded as the "weaker vessel." 15. Resolved, That as all things work in a circle, such places as we have spoken of will only be open to woman as she shows by the cultivation of her own mind and the force of her own character, that she is capable of filling them, and that herself must prove her courage by calmly putting forth her hand to grasp them, in disregard of the usages which have hitherto withheld them from her. 16. Resolved, That we regard those women who content themselves with an idle, aimless life, as involved in the guilt as well as the suffering of their own oppression; and that we hold those who do go forth into the world, in the face of the frowns and sneers of the public, to fill large spheres of labor as the truest preachers of the cause of Woman's Rights. WHEREAS, One class of society dooms woman to a life of drudgery, another to one of dependence and frivolity; and whereas, the education she generally receives is calculated to cultivate vanity and dependence, therefore, 17. Resolved, That the prevalent ideas of female education are in perfect harmony with the position allotted her by the laws and usages of society. 18. Resolved, That the education of woman should be in accordance with her responsibility in life, that she may acquire that self-reliance and true dignity so essential to the proper fulfillment of the important duties devolving upon her. 19. Resolved, That as a woman is not permitted to hold office, nor have any voice in the government, she should not be compelled to pay taxes out of her scanty wages to support men who get eight dollars a day for taking the right to themselves to enact laws for her. 20. Resolved, That we, the women of Ohio, will hereafter meet annually in Convention to consult upon and adopt measures for the removal of various disabilities-political, social, religious, legal and pecuniary-to which women are subjected, and from which results so much misery, crime and degradation. *See foot note. MEN'S RESOLUTIONS. Immediately after the adjournment of the Ohio Woman's Convention, at Salem, April 20, the men who had attended as spectators organized a meeting by appointing William Steadman, of Randolph, chairman, and Lewis T. Park, of Salem, secretary. The following resolutions were offered by Oliver Johnson and unanimously adopted: Resolved, That the Convention of the Women of Ohio, whose sessions have now been brought to a close, by its exalted aims, its brave enunciation of long suppressed truths, its noble devotion to Duty, and by the talent, courtesy and dignity of its debates, and the practical wisdom of its measures has awakened in our minds, as men, emotions of profound satisfaction and joy, and kindled new hopes of the speedy political enfranchisement and moral and intellectual elevation of the Human Race. Resolved, That we hereby record our solemn conviction that women are entitled by the laws of Nature and of God to the same rights, civil, social, political and religious, which belong to men; and that as husbands, fathers, sons and brothers, we rejoice at the cheering evidence afforded by the Convention just closed, that they are at length awaking to a sense of their dignity as immortal and responsible beings, and manifesting a calm determination to throw off the trammels of a false education and assume the high position for which they were created. Resolved, That we hereby avow the firm and unalterable purpose to cooperate with women in attaining an acknowledgment of their rights in Church and State, to cheer them in their conflict with Oppression and Wrong, and to share with them alike the perils of struggle and the joys of victory which must ultimately crown their labors. Resolved, That as friends of Universal Liberty, we proclaim our detestation of that spurious Democracy which denies to human beings the Right of Suffrage on account of sex or color, and that we will never relax our exertions until a perfect equality of rights shall be acknowledged as the foundation of all our social, political and religious institutions. WM. STEADMAN, Chairman. LEWIS T. PARK, Secretary. *Resolution 21 provided for the appointment of a committee to arrange for the next convention, and Resolution 22 pledged interest in promoting the circulation "of those periodicals which endeavor to promote the great cause of Justice and Equal Rights." We are indebted to the Anti-Slavery Bugle and the Homestead Journal (files of 1850) for the above resolutions. Published by the Literature Committee of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association for the Anniversary Meeting at Salem, Ohio, June 10, 1914. [Findlay Ohio] The Morning Republican, Thursday, Woman Suffragists Leaders of the Cause Meet in Convention in This City. Entertaining Addresses Made by Miss Mills, Mrs. Upton and Rev. Anna Shaw. "We have come here to convert the unconverted and to enlist new workers in the cause of woman's suffrage in Ohio," was the introductory thought expressed in the opening session yesterday afternoon of the first Hancock county convention of the Woman's Suffrage Association by Miss Harriet M. Mills, of Syracuse, N. Y. The convention was called to order promptly at 2 o'clock by Miss Mills, one of the national organizers, and after song and prayer, the first introductory address of the afternoon was given by Miss Mills, who spoke briefly and pointedly upon the object of the Hancock country convention. Miss Mills has the rare gift of subtle humor and her speech was bright and entertaining and at the same time full of strong arguments for her cause. She said opposition to woman's suffrage comes from those who are totally ignorant upon everything relating to the subject and from prejudicted; that few people realize that the ballot is more of a protection to woman than wealth; that political freedom is protection. The have to have women help them to keep the ballot from drifting away. That the great pivotal states of this country are as truly ruled by kings as is Russia by the czar, for nominations are cut and dried by the bosses before the men have a chance to speak their choice. Politics is the science of good government and government is as pure as any other science, but the trouble lies in the fact that the good men who should keep the government pure, stay away from caucus meetings and let the bad nominate the ticket and then they, who have shifted their responsibilities walk to the polls like sheep to the slaughter and cast their vote for the bad. At the conclusion of this excellent address the convention was adjourned until 8 o'clock p. m. Evening Session. A large and appreciative audience greeted the leaders of the Woman's Suffrage association last evening, when the second session of the convention was called to order by Miss Mills. Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, the President of the Ohio Woman's Suffrage association, was the first speaker to be introduced and her address was sparkling and vivacious, holding the attention of the audience in an unusual manner. Mrs. Upton's humorous description of the opinion held by the majority of people upon the kind of women who are found in the ranks of the Woman's Suffrage movement was a most delightful bit of humor. She said there was nothing abnormal in the speaker said that there are more moral and intelligent women than men in America and that an ideal republic can never be realized until woman's suffrage is an accomplished fact. And in the four states in which women already vote, it is an acknowledged fact that better men are placed in office and the relation between men and women is more ideal, while the men become more polite; that the women accomplish whatever legislation they set out to effect and are not like the women in Ohio, who petition and petition and then have their petitions cast aside. Miss Mills closed by saying that men were wanted at the sessions of the convention, for if they are converted the ballot will be granted to women. The Symposium. The Symposium upon Woman's Suffrage was opened with an able discussion upon the question: "Does the Wife Need Suffrage?" by Rev. A. M. Growden, pastor of the Church of Christ. "Why should sex be considered in politics?" asked Mr. Growden. Women pay taxes and are law abiding citizens; they need no "bosses," nor do they fear the crack of the political whip. They need the ballot to annihilate the saloon, for in Wyoming woman's vote has proved a moral factor, and if the wife is sensible enough to make a home, rear and educate children, she is capable of casting a ballot for God; that if there are more women than men in the churches to-day there are more men than women in the penitentiaries, and this great commonwealth needs the vote of women to effect much needed reforms. Rev. C. H. Gatchell, pastor of the First Church of God, then took up the question as to whether the working woman needs the ballot, and he stated that at present the average laboring woman works while her husband votes and provides largely for the family, and should be entitled to the ballot. The question of the need of the ballot by the unmarried woman was skillfully handled by Rev. C. H. Manchester, President of Findlay College. He stated that in a republic intelligence ought to reign and that there was no dispute over the intelligence of the unmarried woman for, in the majority of cases, she wisely chose a $40 position in preference to a $25 man. That the reason so often ascribed for keeping the ballot out of the hands of women is the interference it would cause with home duties is not applicable to the unmarried woman, as they have time to devote to the study of politics and they have as many individual rights and property rights to defend as the unmarried man. And from every way in which the subject is considered the woman has as great rights as the man, and that the legislative bodies ought not to frighten at something which has never been tried but which is just. Prof. Charles T. Fox, of Findlay College, made a very strong argument when, in discussing the question of the need of the ballot by the professional woman, he said that, first of all, he waived the question of equal intelligence for the intelligent woman needs the ballot for the same reasons that the professional man needs it. Woman needs the ballot because she is a citizen, and this fact formed the fundamental argument of the whole question of woman's suffrage. Prof. Fox further stated that professional women were as intensely interested in municipal and state politics as men, and that any woman becomes educated on whatever subject she is interested in. Miss Shaw Talks Rev. Anna H. Shaw, of Philadelphia, the Vice President of the National Suffrage Association, was next introduced and spoke in her fascinating and eloquent manner. Her address was bubbling over with bright sallies of wit and clever arguments. The question of woman's suffrage has outgrown its childhood and childish talk has been laid aside, said Miss Shaw, and the talk about the ballot interfering with a woman's home work has been relegated to the same place as other childish things. It a clear fact that the women who are opposed to suffrage are always those who are watching a man's head to see which way it will nod and then they nod in the same direction. That it is not the good men in the government who keep the ballot from women, but it is the political bosses, the saloon power and the ignorant foreigners. All ignorance and vice is opposed to woman's vote; that conservatism and prejudice is always the same but there is now no reason in it. The greatest question is not whether woman will or will not vote, continued Miss Shaw, but it is that the time is not far distant when men will not vote. Then men will Woman's Suffrage Association; they were neither sour old maids nor women with insignificant "whiffits" for husbands, but they are just as excellent home keepers and cooks, if not a little better, than other women. Mrs. Upton corrected the idea of suffragists being office-seekers, but she said they were seeking the power to elect the officers. And that there is much superstition and prejudice on the part of those who are afraid of suffrage, also that women voting will only increase the chivalry of men and not do away with it. Miss Shaw's Address. Rev. Anna H. Shaw was then introduced and gave the formal address of the evening which was a logical and interesting plea for the just and equal rights of women. The laws of a government are supposed to be made by the representatives of the people, said Miss Shaw, and the representatives of the people are the men, yet men are only a fraction of the people. Are women disfranchised for the same cause that men are disfranchised, asked the speaker. Is it because women are classed with idiots, insane criminals or baby boys that the ballot is denied them? These causes have never been ascribed, continued Miss Shaw, therefore woman's disfranchisement must be due to the fact that there is something in the nature of woman to make her unsafe in the national government or else there is something in the government itself that would injure the pure character of our women. If government consists in the protection of property and the administration of justice, it cannot injure woman to be interested in that which so intimately relates to the protection of her property and person. Miss Shaw's witty narration of the settling of the all important question, that "women are persons" by the courts of Massachusetts and by the Supreme Court of the United States, was one of the cleverest hits of the evening. In the old colonial law, said the speaker, husband and wife were one, the husband was that "one" and held possession of all the wife's property and could collect all her earnings. For three years the Suffrage Association went before the Massachusetts Legislature, button-holing, lobbying and petitioning that women might be allowed to own and wear their own clothes, and when at the end of the three long years the law was finally granted, how gloriously happy and proud the women were to quit wearing their husband's clothes. Miss Shaw went on to prove very clearly that women were just as interested in the protection of their property and in the enforcement of justice as the men. That, one of greatest needs of the country to-day is to have women because it is just as necessary that all violators of just laws, whether they be men or women, should receive merited punishment. And when once the "sharks of human virtue are tried by a jury composed of mothers, Heave have pity upon them. Women are as great patriots and love their country as truly as do the men, and they also possess the ability to judge of measures brought before the people, both of which qualities are essential in a true voter. Miss Shaw laughingly said that women may not be able to settle the "tariff question in twenty-four hours, but men have been working over for years - and that the tariff was something like "the poor, which ye have always with you. "Women do not become greatly agitated over the money question but it is due to the reason that they have never had enough money to get agitated over and 16 to 1 does not bother them but there are plenty of other more important questions for them to consider. Women also possess the ability to judge of men, what is needed in good citizen. Indeed, they are better judges of men than men are of themselves, for they look straight through a man to see if he has a soul. A woman can thus pass the examination for good citizenship and the ballot should be granted. The Republic's constitution is "for the people and by the people" and women are a part of the people. The evening session closed after the taking of a collection, which was for the defraying of expenses. To-day's session commences this morning at 10:30 o'clock with a business session at which time the local suffrage organization will be effected. The afternoon' session will consist of addresses by Dr. Mitchell, of this city, and Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton. Dr. Anna Shaw will give an address at the evening session. THIS CLIPPING IS FROM Ohio 7-3 Telegraph CATHOLIC CHURCH AND BOOZE DID IT National Equal Suffrage President Credits Ohio Defeats to Two Interests. VOTE INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN, SHE SAYS Equal Suffrage Among Those Features Specially Mapped For Slaughter. "It was the Catholic church and the liquor interests that defeated the equal suffrage amendment in Ohio," said Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National Equal Suffrage association this morning when told of the probable defeat of the amendment. Miss Shaw was in Kalamazoo today en route to Battle Creek, where she will open her speaking tour in the Michigan suffrage campaign this evening, and she was the guest of Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane. "Last Sunday morning in every Catholic church in the country little pamphlets were distributed among the congregations, giving instructions as to the amendments to be submitted to the people at the election. The argument against equal suffrage was unquestionable and the instruction was to vote no on that amendment, number 23," said Dr. Shaw. "Then at the back of the circular was the complete ticket plainly marked, showing the people exactly how to vote, and the equal suffrage amendment aws among those which were to be voted down." "There are a good many Catholics in Ohio, and the dictates of the church are strong, and this factor was one of the strongest working for the defeat of the amendment," she said. "In addition to this there was the work of the liquor interests. All over the state they had posters 'If you want a dry state vote for equal suffrage.' This purported to come from the temperance element but was really from the liquor interests. We were between two elements, the drys and the wets, and we suffered as the result. "But they put up a great campaign in Ohio. The nigh[?] Women as Repeaters at Elections. COLUMBUS, O., March, 11. - Women who voted in the recent primaries for members of the board of education are said to have repeated. It is said that several hundred illegal votes were cast, and an investigation may follow. LENIENCY IS SHOWN IN MANY CASES Protest of Women of Akron Appears to be Well Founded. Sentences of Seventeen Out of Twenty-Four Accused Men Are Suspended. Protesting against the leniency shown by Probate Judge O. E. Lytle to those guilty of contributing to the delinquency of young girls, the women of Akron are up in arms. A delegation of them called on the Judge Monday, but he could not see them. They contend that a fine to some is but little and when the workhouse sentence is suspended, as it is in most cases, little good is brought about. The protest has been occasioned by the fact that last week the fine of $200 and costs and one year in the workhouse assessed Howard Stewart, guilty of contributing to the delinquency of Opal Conrad, was suspended. The records show that since January 1, 1913, only seven out of 24 are serving tme for the offense. In most of the cases the time part of the sentence was suspended, while others were let off entirely on a personal bond. Of the 24 pleaded or found guilty of contributing to delinquency five are out on bond, the time of ten was totally suspended and part of the time of two was suspended. All, however, were placed on probation from one to two years and have to report regularly. Should be lynched. "The man who contributes to the delinquency of a girl ought to be lynched," was the sentiment expressed by one prominent Akron woman on being interviewed concerning the protest filed Monday against the leniency shown in decisions of this nature by Judge Lytle. "I think the Judge takes a peculiar view of justice in the Conrad-Stewart case. This is not the only time either that he has shown this tendency." "Not so," Dr. Isabel Bradley, president of the Akron Council for Women. "No sentence would be too severe for an offense of this sort," said Dr. Bradley, "but Judge Lytle is very conscientious in his decisions and can be depended uopn to consider the case, from all angles and to act wisely. "I think it would be well to put this man's children in the care of the city in order to meet out justice," said another woman. "If this is an excuse for a married man to commit such a crime, what may we expect. His children were better supported by the city and living on charity that that he should go free, while an innocent little girl pays the penalty for a lifetime." SEAMAN KILLED AS STEAM PIPE BURSTS Boston, July 15. - The bursting of a steampipe on board the battleship Nebraska, at the Charleston navy yard, this afternoon, killed Charles Agena, 19 years old, ordinary seaman, and injured several others. THE AKRON BEACON JOURNAL Published By THE BEACON JOURNAL COMPANY EAST MARKET STREET, CORNER OF BROADWAY. C. L. Knight ... General Manager A. C. Pound ... Managing Editor J. H. Barry ... Assistant to the Manager H. S. Seymour ... Circulation Manager C. H. Norton ... Advertising Manager TELEPHONE DIRECTORY. Bell 'Phone Business Department ... 345 Advertising Department ... 345 Circulation Department ... 345 News and Editorial Departments ... 374 GENERAL MANAGER'S OFFICE Bell 'phone ... 579 People's 'phone ... 1192 People's' 'Phone. Business Department ... 1345 Advertising Department ... 1345 Circulation Department ... 1345 News and Editorial Departments ... 1374 Subscriptions rates by carrier or mail One week, 6 cents; one month, 25 cents; one year, $3 EASTERN REPRESENTATIVE. M. C. Watson, 286 Fifth Avenue, New York City. WESTERN REPRESENTATIVE. Allen & Ward, 123 West Madison St., Chicago Guarantees the largest circulation of any paper circulating in Summit county. Circulation records open to all. Entered at the Postoffice, Akron, Ohio, as second-class matter. JUDGES, BEWARE THE RECALL! Akron women have challenged the double standards of morals which expresses itself in our courts by judicial leniency to men guilty of despicable offenses against womanhood and judicial severity toward women who compromise themselves. The protest is well taken. These shocking crimes will increase in frequency just as long as it is possible for offenders to escape with reprimands or light sentences. For the woman there is no escape - no escape from the pitiless publicity that follows her as the result of an attack ; no escape for the immature girl who yields to the seductions of experienced men. For her, the hospital, the commitment to a home, the stigma of crime added to the pain of motherhood. Yet, within two months, two judges, sworn to do even-handed justice, have let men whose confessions show them to be at present unfit for the society of their kind, escape with punishment pitiably insufficient. One man, who pleaded guilty to the crime for which negroes are lynched, was given thirty days' imprisonment. Another, father of a family, and uncle of his accuser, had sentence suspended for sixty days. The girl, however, received no reprieve; she is subject to immediate commitment. Judge Lytle based his actions on the fact that the culprit had three children and a wife depending on him for support. The judge's logic is faulty. The offender is not only a husband and a father, but also a member of society. We look to our courts for protection from unfit members of society. The man in question touches with his corroding influence other homes than his own, other families than his own. As for his family, it is extremely doubtful if a father of that stamp is not more of a hindrance than a help to their proper upbringing, the pay envelope being only a small part of a father's contribution to the family circle. Certainly, if the girlhood of Akron is made safer from sacrilege by imprisonment of every contributor to juvenile delinquency, the price of supporting the families involved is little enough compared with the saving in sin and suffering. Akron judges will do well to whip out of their courts the double standard of morals. Encrusted as it is with the barnacles of precedent and the callosities of history, the double standard is yielding to the present-day demand for absolute justice. "Away with privilege" is humanity's battle-cry today, and the demand is sweeping enough to include the time-honored legal privileges of the male offender. [*This is only one of many sad cases.*} [*Use this or comment on it, or both*] CITY WILL TAKE AN ACTIVE HAND Mayor Baker Will Ask That Difference be Arbitrated Cleveland, O., July 15. - The strike of ice wagon drivers assumed a grave aspect Tuesday, when 19 of 22 men employed at a city ice delivery company's station on the West Side walked out, and other drivers of the same company signified their intention of striking unless the demands of the men are acceded to by Thursday. A general strike of 1,300 drivers is threatened. A general meeting was held at 1 o'clock Monday afternoon at the labor federation's headquarters to determine a course of action, and to get the other men in line. Mayor Baker says he will not ask that the differences between the employers and men be arbitrated. "I won't contemplate such a situation, as all of the men are not on strike. If such a condition occurs, then it will be time to act," said Baker. Baker indicated plainly, however, that should the strike assume proportions where health and necessity demand it, the city will take an active hand. MRS. PANKHURST AGAIN ESCAPES London, July 15. - Two militant suffragets and a male adherent who took part in the free for all fight in front of the pavilion music hall Monday, when detectives arrested Mrs. Emmaline Pankhurst and Annie Kenney were arraigned Tuesday. Annie Bell got $10 or three weeks, Mary Wyan was sentenced to three weeks or furnish a $100 peace bond, and Robert Page drew a $25 fine or one month's imprisonment for beating a policeman. Mrs. Pankhurst made a second sensational escape and is again at liberty. SIX DAUGHTERS TO SHARE ESTATE An equal division of the estate of Peter Brecht, who died July 4, 1913, is to be made between his six daughters who are Clara Christian, Elizabeth Werner, Amelia Haggerty, Mary Angne and Anna Brecht. Frank Christian, a son-in-law, Clara Christian and Anna Brecht are appointed excutors. All the mechanism in a lighthouse off the English coast, including that RAILROADERS IN CALIFORNIA MAY DECLARE STRIKE Strike Vote is Being Taken on the Southern Pacific. San Francisco, Calif., July 15. - A general strike of all conductors, brakemen and yardmen of the Southern Pacific railroad system was threatened Tuesday in California. Unless the railway officials allowed employees of the Trans Bay Electric systems to work on the same basis as employees of the Steam roads, more than 5,000 men have threatened to walk out, typing up the great transportation lines in the territory extending from El Paso on the South, Ogden on the East and Portland on the North. A general committee of the Brotherhood of Railroad trainmen and the Order of Railway Conductors, after conferences with E. E. Calvin, vice president of the Southern Pacific, every day since June 28, broke off negotiations with the company's representatives. Thirty-eight officers of the railway organization were authorized to take a strike vote of conductors, brakemen and yardmen over the entire electric and steam systems. The vote is returnable not later than July 17. HUNT FOR BARBER IN POISONING CASE Atlanta, Ga., July 15. - Search has been instituted in New York for Fred Lump, a barber, wanted as a witness in the case of Mrs. Mary Belle Crawford, who is under heavy bond, charged with poisoning her wealthy husband in March 1909. Attorney Joseph S. James, representing Charles Z. Crawford, one of the relatives contesting the will of Joshua B. Crawford and now prosecuting his step mother, Tuesday said he is preparing to contest the divorce decrees secured by Mrs. Crawford prior to her marriage to the man she is accused of poisoning. Lump, the man sought in New York, is declared to have been friendly with Mrs. Crawford in St. Augustine, Fla., prior to her marriage to Crawford and he visited her in Atlanta in April and May following the death of Mr. Crawford. Closing Prices: Wheat: Dec. 89 3/4, July 84 5/8, Sept. 86 1/8. Corn: Dec. 57 1/8 @ 1/4, July 60, Sept. 60 5/8. The Home Paper of Akron and Vicinity AKRON BEACON JOURNAL 192 AKRON, OHIO, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 16, 1913. DOUBLE STANDARD JUSTICE To the Man - "You are guilty! Sentence suspended. You may go. You are free to walk the streets." To the Girl - You are the victim of this man. You appear here as the complaining witness, charged with no crime. Nevertheless, the court orders you detained as a menace to society." MISS REED MOORE IS GIVEN RELEASE Miss Reed Moore, "girl boy," found by police last week, masquerading in male attire, and who since has been kept at the city prison awaiting trial, was Wednesday afternoon fined $20 and costs, and 20 days in the county jail. The fine was suspended, and the girl was turned over to Mrs. Winter of the Volunteers of America, who will take charge of her. THE LIBERAL ADVOCATE DEVOTED TO THE SUPPORT OF LIBERAL PRINCIPLES OFFICIAL ORGAN OF LIQUOR LEAGUE Vol. XXII Columbus, Ohio Wednesday, Oct. 21, 1914 No. 42 Aggressive Publicity Is Winning the Fight For Personal Liberty The Anti-Saloon League Which Has So Long Been the Aggressor Is Being Driven to a Defensive Position and Their Last Line of Intrenchment Will Soon Be Taken. HAD THE CAMPAIGN THAT IS BEING CONDUCTED THIS YEAR BEEN INAUGURATED YEARS AGO WE WOULD NOW BE ENJOYING PERMANENT PEACE, AND OUR FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS WOULD BE HONORED FOR BEING RIGHT INSTEAD OF PERSECUTED FOR BEING BRAVE The past week has seen the accomplishment of more effective work than all of the rest of the campaign. The Anti-Saloon League which for twenty years has always been the aggressor is rapidly being driven to a defensive position. The officers and members of that organization realize that the life of their organization is threatened and they are making the fight of their lives, but they are prompted by desperation, rather than hope. In nearly every county in the state the people of all classes are awakening to the dangers of prohibition and are voluntarily devoting their time and efforts to save Ohio from the calamities that would follow the adoption of this fallacy. The press bureaus both state and local are doing splendid work and an army of able speakers, headed by that incomparable orator, on this question, Mr. C. A. Windle, is invading every county, striking terror to the hearts of the league officers converting drys who never studied the question by the hundreds and arousing unlimited enthusiasm in the ranks of the liberal forces. These allied forces, with pen and tongue are proving to the people that [the] adoption of the prohibition would [??] only result in increased taxation [??] League, that many of the previous supporters of that organization are now wondering how they were so thoroughly fooled. If every voter in Ohio could be reached with the facts and arguments that are being used by the advocates of real temperance in this campaign, the only prohibition votes cast, would be by the few who are irredeemably bigoted and prejudiced and the officers and hirelings of the league who are in the game for the dough. This all bears out the contention frequently made by the Liberal Advocate that we can not win these campaigns by gumshoe methods. Too frequently in the past the liberal interests have devoted their time and energies to the election of men whom they believed to be fair. But when those men reached Columbus, it was discovered that the enemy had gone into their counties or districts and secured their constituents and frequently these supposed fair men were obliged to flop. The result of these campaigns has been not only defeats in the prevention of the passage of bad laws, but when the fallacious arguments of the Anti-Saloon League were not answered and our side of the case not presented to the people, a large number of the people who do not think The Black Hand BLIND PIG POLITICAL TURMOIL [GREED] FUSS BUSINESS RUIN License Applications and Transfers in State of Ohio List of Applications for License Transfers and Transfers Granted in Every County in the State During the Past Week. In this column we publish each Week a list [??] [??] for two weeks after it is [??] [?eries], solve labor questions, spy on the police, pose as censors of movies, hold the ears of the city administration, rip up everybody and in general act as moral bodyguards of the universe. "The federal government allows religious freedom and for the same reason the church should keep their hands off such questions as the liquor traffic." Adverse criticism of church edifices, streaked with flaming posters Regulation Of Prohibition THAT IS THE QUESTION INVOLVED IN THE AMENDMENTS. To Be Voted Upon by the People of Ohio This Fall. The following editorial appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer October 15: There are many angles at which the question of license of the liquor traffic or of city, county, state or national prohibition of that traffic can be viewed, and as many different conclusions can be reached from these different views. The brewer, the distiller, the wholesaler and the retailer are naturally upon one side of the question, viewing it from a business standpoint, and with them stand many persons who are earnestly and sincerely opposed to sumptuary laws, deeming it unwise to control by law or regulation the right of the individual to exercise his personal likes or dislikes of food or drink. Opposed are those who just as earnestly, just as sincerely, just as emphatically, dwell upon the evils of the traffic and would save the community, the state and the nation through enactment of laws that would prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors. The contest in Ohio upon this question, as evidenced by what is known as the home rule amendment, as opposed to what is known as the dry amendment, is a direct contest between regulation and prohibition. It is for the people of the state to decide as to whether the traffic shall be regulated or prohibited, and upon that decision hangs the fate of vast amounts of invested capital in the state, material business interests and the employment of many thousands of men. The Enquirer will enter into no definition as to the merits of either regulation or prohibition. There are eloquent, clear-headed, sincere and able advocates of each, and the dis- RIGHT INSTEAD OF PERSECUTED FOR BE- ING BRAVE. --- The past week has seen the accomplishment of more effective work than all of the rest of the campaign. The Anti-Saloon League which for twenty years has always been the aggressor is rapidly being driven to a defensive position. The officers and members of that organization realize that the life of their organization is threatened and they are making the fight of their lives, but they are prompted by desperation, rather than hope. In nearly every county in the state the people of all classes are awakening to the dangers of prohibition and are voluntarily devoting their time and efforts to save Ohio from the calamities that would follow the adoption of this fallacy. The press bureaus both state and local are doing splendid work and an army of able speakers, headed by that incomparable orator, on this question, Mr. C. A. Windle, is invading every county, striking terror to the hearts of the league officers converting drys who never studied the question by the hundreds and arousing unlimited enthusiasm in the ranks of the liberal forces. These allied forces, with pen and tongue are proving to the people that adoption of the prohibition would only result in increased taxation ?? an increase rather than a decrease of the evils that it seeks to cure. They have torn from the back of prohibition the cloak of temperance, in which it has been disguised so long, and left it in its naked hideousness. They are proving to the people that this is a campaign between regulation and temperance, and prohibition and excessive intemperance. More than that, they are so thoroughly exposing the misstatements, misrepresentations, and the fallacy of the arguments of the Anti-Saloon League, that many of the previous supporters of that organization are now wondering how they were so thoroughly fooled. If every voter in Ohio could be reached with the facts and arguments that are being used by the advocates of real temperance in this campaign, the only prohibition votes cast, would be by the few who are irredeemably bigoted and prejudiced and the officers and hirelings of the league who are in the game for the dough. This all bears out the contention frequently made by the Liberal Advocate that we can not win these campaigns by gumshoe methods. Too frequently in the past the liberal interests have devoted their timeand energies to the election of men whom they believed to be fair. But when those men reached Columbus, it was discovered that the enemy had gone into their counties or districts and secured their constituents and frequently these supposed fair men were obliged to flop. The result of these campaigns has been not only defeats in the prevention of the passage of bad laws, but when the fallacious arguments of the Anti-Saloon League were not answered and our side of the case not presented to the people, a large number of the people who do not think ?sion that the league was right, that it represented all decency and morality, and that we had no case that could be presented and represented all that is low and contemptible. This campaign has opened a new and brighter era for the forces of liberty in Ohio and if the people are reached as they probably will be, the victory will be won, and it will no longer be considered a disgrace in Ohio to refuse to sign a dry petition. The people will refuse and will be able to give reasons for the faith that is in them. An Impending Menace To Property and Integrity ANOTHER BROADSIDE FROM THAT STAUNCH OLD BATTLE SHIP OF LIBERTY THE COURIER-JOURNAL Captained by That Victor in a Hundred Battles Colonel Henry Watterson The following editorial is from the Courier-Journal of October 10th: The Mayfield Messenger reprints from the Calvert City Times an article on the liquor question from which we take the following extract: "If state-wide comes along some of these days it will be attributed to two things, the actions of the whiskey people and the radical position of the Courier-Journal." Just what the writer of this may have in his mind by "the actions of the whiskey people," we do not clearly apprehend. That they should be "active" in the effort to protect their property from confiscation would seem natural and should go without saying. But we suppose he means by "the radical position of the Courier-Journal," its earnest stand against sumptuary laws aiming to make people good by act of assembly and its constant assaults upon all forms of mock-religion and professional purism. To substantiate the truth of it, we have shown that wherever prohibition has been tried it has failed of its purpose. Assuredly it has not prohibited in the sense of extirpating the evils of drink. It has merely substituted for licensed, tax-paying drink, contraband and clandestine drink, promoting hypocrisy and putting a premium on lawlessness. In the long run this has proved most hurtful to the character and morals of the people. Too much law is quite as unsafe as too little law. Excess on the one hand breeds anarchy, and on the other hand tyranny. The Jeffersonian principle that the best government governs least teaches in its first lesson the wisdom of yielding the largest measure of personal liberty consonant with the public order. It sprang from ages of despotism during which the world know only the subjection of the many to the will of the few. It denied the right of organized society, religious or secular, to coerce the private life, to oversee the conscience, the habits and the taste of the citizen. Thus it separated Church and State. It ordained that each man's cabin is his castle. It rejected the theory that the human appetite can be, or ought to be, regulated by law, or that law-enforced morality is good for the body politic. Two striking historic examples are adduced in proof of these conclusions: England under Cromwell and New England under CottonMather. If modern instances be wanted they are abundantly supplied by the conditions and experiences of the Southern states, which to keep whiskey from the nigger rushed headlong into prohibition, to say nothing about seventy years of outlawry, humbugging and hypocrisy in the state of Maine. The "radical position of the Courier-Journal" has aimed at keeping these principles of human government and human nature, along with these facts of human experience, constantly before of Kentucky, warning them against the tendency under cover of a doubtful if not a spurious morality, to forget the teaching of Freedom and adopt the teaching of Repression. A wise people will keep their religion and their politics apart. They should pray Good to deliver them from the spirit of proscription and intolerance, leading ever to hysteria and emotional insanity, and delivering its victims over to the leadership of selfish and too often designing and corrupt men. Woe to the state where the security of private property is subject to the popular caprice, and the every-day virtues are fixed and dominated by the will of the majority. In the same article from which the foregoing is taken we find the following: "It would be good policy on the part of Henry Watterson as well as the whiskey people, because there is such a thing as being too radical on a great question like local option. The day has come when advocates of open saloons are not popular with the rank and file of the people, and the least is said by the ultra-whiskey people against local option the better it will be for them in days to come." The writer here falls into a total misconception of the attitude, the intention and the thought of the Courier-Journal. The last thing it is thinking of is "policy." What has it to do with "policy"? It is a public journal set to do its duty, to tell the truth and shame the devil. It has not the remotest private interest. If the people of Kentucky, having established "local option." where it may be enforced by a prevailing public sentiment, want to apply it to communities where public sentiment, being largely in opposition, it cannot be enforced, that is their affair. If they want to make it state-wide; confiscate millions of property without compensation; annihilate millions of dollars of revenue; disarrange millions more embarked in established industries, that, likewise, is their affair. Let them go ahead and do it. Their act will hurt them far more than it will hurt the Courier-Journal, which will only share in the common disturbance, and being tolerably sure of its standing and steady on its pins, will probably survive the disaster as it has survived many another before it. The assertion of the right of prohibition in the matter of drink carries with it and inculcates the doctrine of paternalism pure and simple. It is in its essence a Church and State prerogative. It may include anything from the smoking of tobacco to the playing of marbles and the swapping of packknives. All that is required is an ancient agitation appealing to the emotions of men and women; and especially to women. To such of these as have drunken husbands and drinking sons the appeal is very strong. They do not reason - they cannot discriminate - they clutch at any straw, and for them the commiseration of feeling people is universal and abiding. The hope of these poor women is not in sumptuary laws. It is not in prohibitive statutes. It is in the graud?? sure self-education of man to his belief that strong drink is not good for him. But let us return to our hayseed philosopher of Jackson's Purchase. They know lots down there that is not true; though that is as a body may say, "The day has come," observes the Calvert City Times - where in thunder is "Calvert City," anyhow? - the day has come," it thinks when advocates of open saloons are most popular with the rank and file of the people. There are saloons and saloons, There are saloons which are as orderly and reputable as established (Continued On Page Eight.) POLITICAL ACTIVITY Of the Churches Denounced by a Cleveland Pastor. "Pronounced political activity of churches is pernicous to American ideals," declared Rev. C. C. Morhart, pastor of the Church of the Redeemer of Cleveland, in a recent sermon. "It is not the function of the church to regulate vice, control breweries, solve labor questions, spy on the police, pose as censors of movies, hold the ears of the city administration, rip up everybody and in general act as moral bodyguards of the universe. "The federal government allows religious freedom and for the same reason the church should keep their hands off such questions as the liquor traffic." Adverse criticism of church edifices streaked with flaming posters ?? was also made in the sermon by Rev. Morhart. The Existence OF MANY SMALL LANDOWNERS IN NORTHERN OHIO THREATENED BY PROHIBITION. Grape Growing Is There a Principle Industry. "The adoption of the state-wide prohibition amendment would threaten the very existence of many small landowners of northern Ohio and the contiguous islands," said a prominent Erie County visitor to Columbus. "Grape growing is the principle agricultural pursuit of many small farmers bordering on the lake and is practically the only means of livelihood of the dwellers on the islands, outside of fishing; and should the wine-making industry be destroyed the largest market for grapes would go with it. "I do not know what crop could be raised on the restricted area of the average vineyard that would produce enough to support a family, and in the case of the islander lack of adequate transportation is a bar to frequent shipment throughout the summer season of perishable food-stuffs. Prohibition would be a bad blow to that portion of the state, I am fully convinced." --b-- HOME RULE FAVORED BY THE OHIO STATE FEDERATION OF LABOR. But One Vote Cast Against It at Youngstown Convention. The Ohio State Federation of Labor went on record in favor of the home rule amendment to the constitution at the session of the convention Thursday. But one voice was raised against the adoption of the resolution favoring the home rule amendment, John Robinson, of Canton. Miss Nida R. Prangle, delegate from Toledo, carried the convention off its feet by her speech favoring home rule, and it was several minutes after her address before Chairman Farrel could restore order. The resolution adopted was: "Be it resolved, That the Ohio State Federation of Labor, in convention assembled, again declares against prohibition, and fully approves the action of the executive board in its recent reiteration of the... ...viewing it from a business standpoint, and with them stand many persons who are earnestly and sincerely opposed to sumptuary laws, deeming it unwise to control by law or regulation the right of the individual to exercise his personal likes or dislikes of food or drink. Opposed are those who just as earnestly, just as sincerely, just as emphatically, dwell upon the evils of the traffic and would save the community, the state and the nation through enactment of laws that would prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors. The contest in Ohio upon this question, as evidenced by what is known as the home rule amendment, as opposed to what is known as the dry amendment, is a direct contest between regulation and prohibition. It is for the people of the state to decide as to whether the traffic shall be regulated or prohibited, and upon that decision hangs the fate of vast amounts of invested capital in the state, material business interests and the employment of many thousands of men. The Enquirer will enter into no definition as to the merits of either regulation or prohibition. There are eloquent, clear-headed, sincere and able advocates of each, and the dis-... ...surely fided the sentiment of ?? ers upon this great question. There is, however, a side to this question of regulation or prohibition that the advocates of each must admit and consider from their position as citizens and as taxpayers in the counties and the state, and which demands consideration from all good citizens who would deal rightly and justly by their fellow men. As taxpayers they should regard the consequences of overthrowing a business which it is estimated contributes some $18,000,000 annually to the federal government revenues and another sum equivalent to $12,000,000 to the revenues of the counties and state. To prohibitionists and regulationists both, this is a point worthy of serious personal consideration, for if the dry amendment wins, these payment to counties, state and nation will cease and revenues must be obtained from other sources. No one in Ohio can dispute this fact. Again, fair-minded citizens - those who would deal with others as they would be dealt with - cannot give their approval to any measure which would result in instant prostration of any great industry in the state, to any that involves immediate destruction of an extended business or virtual confiscation of vested interests of capital placed in a business which, even now, is recognized by state and national law as a legal and legitimate one, and has been so recognized since the state was established. The Enquirer relies implicitly upon the intelligence, the fairness, the wisdom of the electors of Ohio to decide all public questions correctly, and it places these facts before them in order that they may be aided by them in deciding rightly. License Applications and Transfers in State of Ohio List of Applications for License Transfers and Transfers Granted in Every County in the State During the Past Week. In this column we publish each week a list ???? transfers granted, for the week ending Monday evening. By checking this list of transfers granted against your official list of license holders issued by the State Board your list will always be up to date. For the benefit of the wholesalers and other having dealings with the licensed saloon owners we publish the list of the applications for license transfers. An application for transfer can not ?? for two weeks after it is ?? ?? yourself, if necessary you may file a protest with the county board against granting the application. APPLICATION FOR TRANSFER OF LICENSE CERTIFICATE. Adam Bera, 140 North Street, to Marion Marion, same address, Newark, Licking County. Henry M. Brucken, Out Lot 31, North 1/2, to Bernard Dorster, same address, St. Marys, Auglaize Co. The assertion of the right of prohibition in the matter of drink carries with it and inculcates the doctrine of paternalism pure and simple. It is in its essence a Church and State pre[???]tive. It may include anything from the smoking of tobacco to the p[???]ing of marbles and the swapping o[????]ckknives. All that is required is ancient agitation appealing to the emotions of men and women; and especially of women. To such of these as have drunken husbands and drinking sons the appeal is very strong. They do not reason--they cannot discriminate-- they clutch at any straw, and for them the commiseration of feeling people is universal and abiding. The hope of these poor women is not in sumptuary laws. It is not in prohibitive statutes. It is in the gradu[??] but sure self-education of man to [?] belief that strong drink is not good for him. But let us return to our hayseed philosopher of Jackson's Purchase. They know lots down there that is not true; though that is as a body may say, "The day has come," observes the Calvert City Times--where in thunder is "Calvert City," anyhow? --"the day has come," it thinks when advocates of open saloons are not popular with the ranks and file of the people." There are saloons and saloons, There are saloons which are as orderly and reputable as established (Continued On Page Eight.) POLITICAL ACTIVITY Of the Churches Denounced by a Cleveland Pastor. "Pronounced political activity of churches is pernicious to American ideals," declared Rev. C. C. Morhart, pastor of the Church of the Redeemer of Cleveland, in a recent sermon. "It is not the function of the church to regulate vice, control breweries, solve labor questions, spy on the police, pose as censors of movies, hold the ears of the city administration, rip up everybody and in general act as moral bodyguards of the universe. "The federal government allows religious freedom and for the same reason the church should keep their hands off such questions as the liquor traffic." Adverse criticism of church edifices streaked with flaming posters [??] was also made in the sermon by Rev. Morhart. The Existence OF MANY SMALL LANDOWNERS IN NORTHERN OHIO THRETENED BY PROHIBITION. Grape Growing Is There a Principle Industry. "The adoption of the state-wide prohibition amendment would threaten the very existence of many small landowners of northern Ohio and the contiguous islands," said a prominent Erie County visitor to Columbus. "Grape growing is the principle agricultural pursuit of many small farmers bordering on the lake and is practically the only means of livelihood of the dwellers on the islands, outside of fishing; and should the wine-making industry be destroyed the largest market for grapes would go with it. "I do not know what crop could be raised on the restricted area of the average vineyard that would produce enough to support a family, and in the case of the islander lack of adequate transportation is a bar to frequent shipment throughout the summer season of perishable food- stuffs. Prohibition would be a bad blow to that portion of the state, I am fully convinced." HOME RULE FAVORED BY THE OHIO STATE FEDERATION OF LABOR. But One Vote Cast Against It at Youngstown Convention. The Ohio State Federation of Labor went on record in favor of the home rule amendment to the constitution at the session of the convention Thursday. But one voice was raised against the adoption of the resolution favoring the home rule amendment, John Robinson, of Canton. Miss Nida R. Prangle, delegate from Toledo, carried the convention off its feet by her speech favoring home rule, and it was several minutes after her address before Chairman Farrel could restore order. The resolution adopted was: "Be it resolved, That the Ohio State Federation of Labor, in convention assembled, again declares against prohibition, and fully approves the action of the executive board in its recent reiteration of the [??] viewing it from a business standpoint, and with them stand many persons who are earnestly and sincerely opposed to sumptuary laws, deeming it unwise to control by law or regulation the right of the individual to exercise his personal likes or dislikes of food or drink. Opposed are those who just as earnestly, just as sincerely, just as emphatically, dwell upon the evils of the traffic and would save the community, the state and the nation through enactment of laws that would prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors. The contest in Ohio upon this question, as evidenced by what is known as the home rule amendment, as opposed to what is known as the dry amendment, is a direct contest between regulation and prohibition. It is for the people of the state to decide as to whether the traffic shall be regulated or prohibited, and upon that decision hangs the fate of vast amounts of invested capital in the state, material business interests and the employment of many thousands of men. The Enquirer will enter into no definition as to the merits of either regulation or prohibition. There are eloquent, clear-headed, sincere and able advocates of each, and dis- [???] surely fixed the sentiment of [?] upon this great question. There is, however, a side to this question of regulation or prohibition that the advocates of each must admit and consider from their position as citizens and as taxpayers in the counties and the state, and which demands consideration from all good citizens who would deal rightly and justly by their fellow men. As taxpayers they should regard the consequences of overthrowing a business which it is estimates contributes some $18,000,000 annually to the federal government revenues and another sum equivalent to $12,000,000 to the revenues of the counties and state. To prohibitionists and regulationists both, this is a point worthy of serious personal consideration, for if the dry amendment wins, these payment to counties, state and nation will cease and revenues must be obtained from other sources. No one in Ohio can dispute this fact. Again, fair-minded citizens--those who would deal with others as they would be dealt by--cannot give their approval to any measure which would result in intant prostration of any great industry in the state, to any that involves immediate destruction of an extended business or virtual confiscation of vested interests of capital placed in a business which, even now, is recognized by state and national law as a legal and legitimate one, and has been so recognized sine the state was established. The Enquirer relies implicitly upon the intelligence, the fairness, the wisdom of the electors of Ohio to decide all public questions correctly, and it places these facts before them in order that they may be aided by them in deciding rightly. declaration of the Ohio State Federation of Labor in favor of home rule for cities, municipalities and townships in the sale of liquors." The resolution brought forth a flood of oratory, led by Thomas H. Mugavin, a delegate from Cincinnati, who spoke in favor of the adoption of the resolution, and when he concluded his speech the convention broke into a tumult of applause. J. J. Quinlivan, of Toledo, declared that the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association of Ohio was one of the powers behind the Anti-Saloon League in an attempt to wreck labor unions. He wanted the Anti-Saloon League to be buried so deep under an avalanche of votes it would take it 20 years to dig itself out. 2 THE LIBERAL ADVOCATE WHY I BECAME AN ANTI-SUFFRAGIST Why Woman Suffrage Failed in the Suffrage States (BY FLORENCE GOFF SCHWARZ) The following is the third installment of a series of articles by Florence Goff Schwarz, business secretary of the Cincinnati Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage: Woman has always been recognized as possessing spiritual and moral qualities superior to those of men. She has been the refining influence which has raised man from the [?] age to a cultured, intelligent [?] Admitting these facts, why then, has her influence worked for naught, even for detriment in states where she [?] been enfranchised. The answer is simple. It is because politics, [?] outside world for women, is in direct contradiction to nature's intent and therefore fundamentally wrong. Force her, if you will into political fields and she will not vote! She will not attend primaries, never will she go to the polls. Never, in the entire history of the suffrage states, has there been a single case on record where the majority of the women have voted in any state. Judging from the eagerness of the suffragists to win the ballot and to correct all evil, one would naturally think that all women would go to the polls, would fall over one another in the keenness of their desire to vote. Not so; the record of six of the suffrage states at the last presidential election shows that but 47 per cent of the women voted, while in six adjoining non- suffrage states 69 per cent of the men voted. In spite of the fact that the eyes of the world were directed toward Illinois, that suffragists were pleading with the women of that state to make a splendid showing in order to assist the winning of the vote in other states; that wealthy women gave the use of their automobiles and furnished nurses for the babies; and in spite of the fact that one woman boss, Mrs. Blazi, a midwife for three generations, collected 500 votes from her former patients, Illinois showed but a 25 per cent vote of the women on April 7, 1914. Ninety-three per cent of the men in California registered in 1912 and only about 27 per cent of the women. In San Francisco there was approximately but one woman in eight who was interested enough to take the trouble to register and go to the polls. In 1913, in three precincts in San Francisco, [?] woman voted at a city election [?] 49 out of 673 precincts [?] [?] WILL TOUR STATE Noted Massachusetts Anti-Suffragist to Campaign In Ohio. The Cincinnati and Hamilton County Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage will give a luncheon in honor of Mrs. A. J. George of Massachusetts on Oct. 27. A mass meeting will be held on the following night at Emery Hall, where Mrs. George will speak. She is one of the ablest exponents of anti-suffrage now on the platform and her brilliant and convincing argument before the senate committee last year gave her an unrivalled national reputation. She is an alumna of Wellesley and the widow of the late Doctor Andrew J. George, the eminent Wadsworth scholar. She has devoted many years to the study of all legislation affecting women and children and is an authority on this subject. Her accurate statements, based upon a complete knowledge of her topic, combined with her wonderfully flexible voice and her engaging personality, make her a convincing and delightful speaker. Not only is this remarkable woman nationally known, but internationally as well, owning to her much-quoted address before the Anti-Suffrage League in London, whose leaders, Lord Cromer and Lord Curzon, endeavored to engage her for the cause in Great Britain. She will also speak elsewhere in the state. PROHIBIT The Golden-rod and the Milkweed. Among associations that are unique the lines of an inebriate asylum, nor treat its population like patients who must be kept from drink at any cost [?] like it or not [?] Force her, if you will into political fields and she will not vote! She will not attend primaries, never will she go to the polls. Neither will She go to the polls. Never, in the entire history of the suffrage states, has there been a single case on record where the majority of the women have voted in any state. Judging from the eagerness of the suffragists to win the ballot and to correct all evil, one would naturally think that all women would go to the polls, would fall over one another in the keenness of their desire to vote. Not so; the record of six of the suffrage states at the last presidential election shows that but 47 per cent of the women voted, while in six adjoining non- suffrage states 69 per cent of the men voted. In spite of the fact that the eyes of the world were directed toward Illinois, that suffragists were pleading with the women of that state to make a splendid showing in order to assist the winning of the vote in other states; that wealthy women gave the use of their automobiles and furnished nurses for the babies; and in spite of the fact that one woman boss, Mrs. Blazi, a midwife for three generations, collected 500 votes from her former patients, Illinois showed but a 25 per cent vote of the women on April 7, 1914. Ninety-three per cent of the men in California registered in 1912 and only about 27 per cent of the women. In San Francisco there was approximately but one woman in eight who was interested enough to take the trouble to register and go to the polls. In 1913, in three precincts in San Francisco, [?] woman voted at a city election [?] 49 out of 673 precincts [?] [?] Times of [??] vote of the women was disappointing, yet the suffragists carried on an active campaign, attended and spoke at all day meetings, and even worked at their headquarters on Easter Sunday." This conclusively proves that women care little for politics. The game was new both in California and Illinois; all those interested in suffrage were intensely anxious to take advantage of the newly-acquired franchise, and worked zealously to bring out their reluctant sister women, but to no avail. It is well to remember this when hearing the oft-repeated slogan, "Suffrage is bound to come." It might come if the majority of the women were interested in politics, but they are not. What kind of women do go to the polls? Is it those who will vote for the uplift and reform promised by the suffragists? It is the radical woman who is always in[?]van of new schemes; the woman of the underworld, who votes for her own protection; the suffragist of course, will vote in order to hold up her ideals; then comes the purchasable women, the one who has inaugurated in Colorado the term, "the new bribe." These make up the small percentage of women who go to the polls. The ones who could bring about reforms are still following out [one] plan their mothers and grandmothers followed before them. They are contributing service to the government by remaining at home, training [?] children, making their homes [livable?] and sanitary, and no inducement blare of trumpet or flash of [band?] can entice them away from their [?] given appointment. They have proved that when suffrage is forced upon them they will not accept it, nor do they feel distinctly obligated to discharge its responsibilities. In order to do so they would have to choose between those and responsibilities still greater and they stick to their old duties because it is fundamentally right that they should. (To Be Continued.) Mothers' Real Place Grace Duffield Goodwin, in Theory Vs. Fact, says: "We do not need women to mother the government. We do not need to see the 'mother spirit' in the supreme court. We need mothers where mothering counts - in personal contact with the lives of individual children. This is being made a matter of legislation when it should be parental control and parental love. We need better fathers and mothers, better homes, the family still the social unit with a common interest and sympathy. We do not need more women politicians or women office seekers, more women street orators - which type are appearing in this suffrage agitation far too frequently for safety." MRS. A. J. GEORGE. She is an alumna of Wellesley and the widow of the late Doctor Andrew J. George, the eminent Wadsworth scholar. She has devoted many years to the study of all legislation affecting women and children and is an authority on this subject. Her accurate statements, based upon a complete knowledge of her topic, combined with her wonderfully flexible voice and her engaging personality, make her a convincing and delightful speaker. Not only is this remarkable woman nationally known, but internationally as well, owning to her much-quoted address before the Anti-Suffrage League in London, whose leaders, Lord Cromer and Lord Curzon, endeavored to engage her for the cause in Great Britain. She will also speak elsewhere in the state. PROHIBIT The Golden-rod and the Milkweed. Among associations that are unique [??] At the recent annual session of the State Association of New Hampshire the members memorialized Congress for a new sort of prohibition amendment, that is to say the elimination by law of golden- rod, milkweed and all other plants that carry floating pollen. This is but another revelation of the inwardness of the principle. Although the golden-rod in particular is the glory of the fields, but what is the delight of millions to the irritated noses and red-faced sneezing of the comparative handful of those susceptible mortals who smell instead of looking at it. Golden-rod, declares the convention, must go because it must be sneezed at! There are endless things that might be prohibited to the exceeding pleasure of many classes of people. The motorless would willingly prohibit the running of automobiles and the diabolical invention of the evil one, the vehicle motorcycle, which flashes past like a meteor at lightning speed under the urgent flight of Motorcycle Mikes. On the other hand the motorcycle fiends would prohibit the use of the roads to every living thing from humans to dogs and chickens. From circuses and moving pictures to tea, coffee, tobacco and liquors, there is nothing that is not offensive to some well-meaning clique that would abolish it for the benefit of [?] classes that take delight in its existence. It is a pity that all prohibitionists, using the word in its widest sense, do not take a lesson to themselves by inner examination of the motives prompting these sufferers, such as the hay fever victims, to demand the destruction of what the great majority of their fellowmen so greatly enjoy. A hay fever constitutional prohibition amendment surely speels the last word in the vicious circle of prohibition subjects. - Mida's Criterion. COMPULSORY Total Abstinence Not Practicable Nor Would It Be Beneficial. "It does not seem to us that there is any prospect that the use of alcoholic beverages will ever cease in the United States. We do not believe in compulsory total abstinence for all the people. It is not practicable, and we doubt if it would be beneficial. This opinion is not based on esteem for alcoholic beverages, or on the idea that they do people good. It is based merely on observation of the habits of mankind and on some reading. You cannot run a country on the lines of an inebriate asylum, nor treat its population like patients who must be kept from drink at any cost effort was made to do or not. [?] that in the army when the canteen was abolished. It has been a great failure and has helped very much to give our army the worst hospital record of any army in the civilized world. The most that can be done about drink, as we see the case, is to minimize its temptations, regulate and restrict its manufacture and sale, keep it away from the young, disseminate sound instruction as to its effects, favor the mild beverages rather than the stronger ones, and work out a more intelligent treatment of drunkenness and drunkards." - Harper's Weekly. SOFT DRINKS Of the Prohibitionist Are Frequently Injurious. "The average soft drink is so well known to everybody that it is not worth while to describe it. Suffice to say that it is made by adding to water a little sugar, a little acid of some sort, various flavors, usually some color or other, and very often a syrup containing caffeine in order to give a stimulant effect. The acids used are commonly tartaric and citric. Tartaric acid should not be used and is forbidden by law as it has a bad effect on the digestion when even comparatively little is taken. Soft drinks may be adulterated in the first place by the use of impure water. The addition of the flavoring and coloring materials and sugar, to soft drinks, does not kill the bacteria which may be in any impure water, and so a man may acquire a case of typhoid from a source one hundred miles away from him. Many of the colors that are used in these drinks are objectionable, being made from coal tar products." - (Lucius P. Brown, Drug and Food Commissioner of Tennessee.) NATURE Never on the Water Wagon - Always Trying to Get Alcohol. If you are really and truly a total abstainer and do not want to eat anything in which there is alcohol then you must confine yourself to salt-rising bread, for it is a temperance food from the beginning. In ordinary bread the yeast causes a fermentation and alcohol and carbonic gas are formed, and while the gas raises the bread some of the alcohol, but not all, escapes in the baking. But salt rising bread is not raised by an yeast but by a bacillus. This same bacillus causes the release of gases, chiefly hydrogen, which raise the bread, but no touch of alcohol is involved in its production. Nature apparently seems anxious to produce alcohol on the slightest provocation. With jam, as every housewife knows, if the least bit of air enters a fermentation sets up an alcohol is formed. Then there is the harmless glass of grape juice, which if left for a little while will turn into wine. Even a dish of sugared fruit will greet one in a short time with a tingling flavor of alcohol, and a simple bottle of milk, if given a touch of yeast, will turn into a purely alcoholic beverage called koumyss. It does appear from many indications that all nature longs to grow intoxicated, but that man is always interfering. - Champion of Fair Play. One Husband Who's Appreciated. "Don't tell me there is nothing in fortune telling," exclaimed the fiancée. "I consulted one today and she described you to a dot." "What did she say?" inquired the fiancé. "Said you had thoughtful eyes, a firm mouth and a noble brow." - Kansas City Journal. The Liberal Advocate 3 Augustiner The Gambrinus Prize Beer The Elixir of Youth The King of Beers The Choicest Bohemian Hops Used Exclusively The Gambrinus Brewing Co. ABSOLUTELY INDEPENDENT Both Phones 4792 Columbus, Ohio ------------------------------------------------ The Best Trade Winners YOUR MONEY CAN BUY "Crème de da Crème" "Old Edgemont" In the Transparent The Green Wrapper Front Package Whiskey "Crème of Kentucky" "Thee" Whiskey Sold by the Best Jobbers and Wholesalers Everywhere MADE BY THE I. TRAGER CO. DISTILLERY, No. 10, 7th DIST. KY. Offices: 317-321 East 8th St.. Cincinnati, Ohio ---------------------------------------------------------------- The Wine In the Bible Was Always Alcoholic A masterly contribution to this much discussed question. Christ Used Wine and the Bible Frequently Recommends Its Use. In response to the following letter a Jesuit priest gives a lesson in Scripture regarding wine: To the Editor of America: I should like to ask if the New Testament contains any passages that show that Christ was accustomed to drink wine, and if there are, whether [?] Christ is the example that all Christians are to follow as closely as possible, it seems to me to be highly important to find out what His habits of life were in regard to wine. J. B. M. Augusta, Ga. An understanding of the teaching of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament regarding God's gift of wine to His chosen nation will greatly facilitate a correct understanding of Christ's attitude in the matter. Among the material blessings which heaven is said to bestow upon the people of God, [?] early and late rains are sent that they may aid to "bring bread out of the earth, that wine may cheer the heart of man, and that he may make the face cheerful with oil." Ps. 103.) In the abundance of these gifts is to be seen God's special benediction: "And the Lord answered and said to His people: Behold I will send you corn and wine and oil, and you shall be filled with them: and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations." - Joel ii: 19. In the same manner He manifests His displeasure by the withdrawal of them. They shall "plant vineyards and shall not drink the wine of them," and the prophet Aggeus foretells how in punishment God will send a drought "upon the corn, and, upon the wine, and upon the oil." To the faithful Israelite on the contrary God's favor manifests itself, aside from God's graces, in these material rewards: "Thy barns shall be filled with abundance, and thy presses shall run over with wine." - Prov. ii: 8, 10. On the other hand, Almighty God demands of His people moderation and sobriety. He warns them solemnly against the danger of [?] even as against the sin of im[?] with which excess in wine is most naturally connected. "Wine and women make wise men fall off, and shall rebuke the prudent." (Eccl. xix: 2.) It was at a riot of drunkenness that Baltasar was struck down in his pride by the doom of God, as he saw in terror the Mane, Thecel, Phares written upon his palace wall. "Woe to you," exclaims the prophet Isaias, "that are mighty to drink wine, and stout men at drunkenness." (v: 22.) Similarly the prophet Habacuc warns against the deceit which lurks in the wine for those who are unwary. And the book of Proverbs says: "He that is delighted in passing his time over wine, leaveth a reproach in his strongholds." A remarkable passage in Eccleciasticus contains almost the entire doctrine of the Old Testament upon this subject: "Wine taken with sobriety is equal life to men: if thou drink it moderately thou shalt be sober. * * * "Wine was created from the beginning to make men joyful, and not to make them drunk. "Wine drunken with moderation is the joy of the soul and the heart. "Sober drinking is health to soul and body. "Wine drunken with excess raiseth quarrels, and wrath, and many ruins. "Wine drunken with excess is bitterness of the soul." - (xxxi: 32-39) The truths of the Old Testament [?] [?] Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon His Church there has been a greater outpouring of graces. We are called to lead a more purely spiritual life. Far more than the Jews of the Old Dispensation we are called upon to reckon, with the Apostle, "that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us." We do not seek, therefore, in the Gospels for the material promises and rewards of corn and wine and oil. Yet Christ has not forgotten these gifts, but has now attached to them a spiritual significance which the prophets had already foreseen with greater or less distinctness: "For what is the goodthing of Him, and what is His beautiful thing, but the corn of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins? - Zach. ix: 17. Thus over the bread was to be spoken the mighty word, "This is My Body"; and over the wine, "This is My Blood of the New Testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins." So from the rising of the sun to its setting was to be offered up the clean oblation of Melchisedech, as the prophet had foretold. The oil, too, was to be related most intimately to the Sacraments of the New Law. Thus was bestowed upon us a new Bread of Life to strengthen man's heart, and a new Wine, the Blood of Christ, to cheer it, while the sacred unctions of so many of the Sacraments were to illumine with the light of God's grace the face of mortal man. But man is not a purely spiritual being. He has need, under both dispensations, of material things: bread, wine and oil, or their reasonable equivalents. They are gifts of God which he has a full right to use in moderation and with a pure intention, or which else he may laudably offer up in sacrifice by limiting or denying himself according to prudence and his spiritual lights and guidance. Turning now to the life of Christ as told in the New Testament, we have a concise description of His public conduct in this regard from His own divine lips. Reproving the incredulity of the Jews. He said: "For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine and you say: He hath a devil. "The Son of man is come eating and drinking: and you say: behold a man that is a glutton and a drinker of wine, a friend of publicans and sinners." - Luke vii: 33, 34. Clearly, therefore, Christ did not refrain from partaking of the wine [?] offers Him in His quest --------------------------------------------------------- The Geo. J. Renner Brewing Company AKRON, OHIO GROSSVATER Bottle Beer The old Fashioned kind of our Grandfathers brewed. Try it and see your business grow. -------------------------------------------------------- The John Hauck Brewing Company Brewers and Bottlers of GOLDEN EAGLE IMPERIAL SPECIAL DARK 435 Dayton St. Cincinnati, Ohio ------------------------------------------------------- HOME BREW AND Golden Export The Home Brewing Co. CANTON, OHIO ----------------------------------------------------- O'NEIL & WEILL WHOLESALE LIQUORS The Wine In the Bible Was Always Alcoholic A masterly contribution to this much discussed question Christ Used Wine and the Bible Frequently Recommends Its Use. In response to the following letter a Jesuit priest gives a lesson in Scripture regarding wine: To the Editor of America: I should like to ask if the New Testament contains any passages that show that Christ was accustomed to drink wine, and if there are, whether the wine that He drank was the same as the alcoholic wine of today. Since Christ is the example that all Christians are to follow as closely as possible, it seems to me to be highly important to find out what His habits of life were in regard to wine. J. B. M. Augusta, Ga. An understanding of the teaching of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament regarding God's gift of wine to His chosen nation will greatly facilitate a correct understanding of Christ's attitude in the matter. Among the material blessings which heaven is said to bestow upon the people of God, three are constantly mentioned in Holy Writ - corn, wine and oil. The 2.) It was at a riot of drunkenness that Baltasar was struck down in his pride by the doom of God, as he saw in terror the Mane, Thecel, Phares written upon his palace wall. "Woe to you," exclaims the prophet Isaias, "that are mighty to drink wine, and stout men at drunkenness." (v: 22.) Similarly the prophet Habacuc warns against the deceit which lurks in the wine for those who are unwary. And the book of Proverbs says: "He that is delighted in passing his time over wine, leaveth a reproach in his strongholds." A remarkable passage in Eccleciasticus contains almost the entire doctrine of the Old Testament upon this subject: "Wine taken with sobriety is equal life to men: if thou drink it moderately thou shalt be sober. "Wine was created from the beginning to make men joyful, and not to make them drunk. "Wine drunken with moderation is the joy of the soul and the heart. "Sober drinking is health to soul and body. "Wine drunken with excess raiseth quarrels, and wrath, and many ruins. "Wine drunken with excess is bitterness of the soul." - (xxxi: 32-39) The truths of the Old Testament ? is evident, can not be [constructed?] in the New. Yet with the coming of Wine, the Blood of Christ, to cheer it, while the sacred unctions of so many of the Sacraments were to illumine with the light of God's grace the face of mortal man. But man is not a purely spiritual being. He has need, under both dispensations, of material things: bread, wine and oil, or their reasonable equivalents. They are gifts of God which he has a full right to use in moderation and with a pure intention, or which else he may laudably offer up in sacrifice by limiting or denying himself according to prudence and his spiritual lights and guidance. Turning now to the life of Christ as told in the New Testament, we have a concise description of His public conduct in this regard from His own divine lips. Reproving the incredulity of the Jews. He said: "For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine and you say: He hath a devil. "The Son of man is come eating and drinking: and you say: behold a man that is a glutton and a drinker of wine, a friend of publicans and sinners." - Luke vii: 33, 34. refrain from partaking of the wine [?] offers [?] Him in His quest of souls. His attitude, moreover, (Continued on page 7) The Old Grand-Dad Distillery, its product and its president. Nestling among the wooded hills at Hobbs, Ky., in one of the districts that has made Kentucky famous as the home of fine beverage whiskies, is one of the plants whose product maintains that reputation today, the Old Grand-Dad Distillery. The ideal surroundings linked with the typical so-called country distillery are in evidence at the Old Grand-Dad plant, the purling hillside stream with its cold, clear water, the purity of the shurrounding country-side, and everything of that kind, so well adapted to the making of a food product like whiskey, where purity counts so much. And yet the commercial adjuncts necessary to the development of a big business are not missing, for railroad connections make the receipt of materials, and the shipment of the finished product possible with all expediency. The site and surroundings of Old Grand-Dad, are, in fact, all that they should be fo the making of whiskey like Old Grand-Dad. This brand of whiskey in its purity and goodness is typical of the time when our grandfathers were young and Kentucky's reputation got its start. No whiskey contributes more to keep Kentucky's name in the forefront, as a producer of such an excellent beverage, than Old Grand-Dad; for in this whiskey, we have, indeed, a beverage worthy in every respect. It is little wonder, therefore, that the demand for Old Grand-Dad, bottled- in-bond, is growing apace; that every day sees Old Grand-Dad Whiskey called for and served in more high- class dispensaries than ever before; and more wholesale distributers having portions of their Old Grand-Dad holdings bottled-in-bond than ever before, for it is a whiskey that insures perfect satisfaction, in the handling, to both the retailer and the jobber, because the consumer who applies the final test gets perfect satisfaction when drinking Old Grand- Dad. There is more in the making of fine whiskey than the simple purchase of good grain and the admixture of pure water. Knowledge is required. For the fact that Old Grand-Dad Whiskey is such a perfect whiskey, the application of knowledge of how it should be made, as well as the choice selection of materials, centers in Mr. J. B. Wathen, Jr., the President of the Old Grand-Dad Distillery Company. Mr. J. B. Wathen, Jr., is one of the Wathen boys, who are proud of their family history of having been the leading Kentucky distillers since 1788, and he not only inherited a natural aptitude for following in the footsteps of his well known father and forebears, but grtw up in a distillery and applied himself to the learning of every detail of the business. The what is required to make whiskey of complete knowledge thus acquired of the best kind, Mr. J. B. Wathen, Jr., applies to the making of Old Grand- Dad Whiskey, as he makes frequent trips to the distillery to see that it is being conducted just as he would have it. The whiskey thus made, Old Grand- Dad, is the acme of perfection of the Wathen family's own long record as producers of fine Kentucky whiskies, which, in itself, is an assurance that no whiskey can be produced better or given more perfect maturity, so that the favorite beverage of drinkers, who know it, will be Old Grand- Dad. Who Will Pay The Taxes if the State Adopts the Prohibition Amendment. Some of the Schemes That Have Been Adopted in Other States. The general counsel of the Ohio Home Rule Association, declares that if state-wide prohibition prevails in Ohio, practically every industry in the state would be called upon to make up the tax deficit by special taxes. In support of his contention he cites the many schemes of taxation called "business licenses," which have been adopted by the prohibition Southern states. Among these are: Virginia - Rental agencies, $10 to $30; bankers, $750; cigar dealers, $5; commission merchants, $50 and up; dentists, $10 to $25; junk dealers, $50; physicians, $10 to $25; theaters, $10 per week. Georgia - Architects, $10; collecting agencies, $50; gypsies and traders, $25 in each county; insurance agents, $10 to $50; lawyers, $10; pawn brokers, $50; stove agents, $200 each county. West Virginia - Auction sales 2 per cent; druggists, $10; hotels and boarding houses, 3 per cent of rental. Florida - Banks, $10 to $100. Mississippi - Barber shops, $2.50 per chair; brokers, $25 to $75; dances, $10; laundries, $10; lumber yards, $10 per 100,000 feet of sales; money lenders, $100; piano and organ agents, $20; restaurants, $5 to $125; soda water, etc., $5 to $10. Alabama - Billiard tables, $25; book agents, $10; bowling alleys, $25; construction companies, $25 to $50; public halls, $10 to $25; news companies, $100; pool tables, $25 to $100. Tennessee - Retail butchers, $5 to $15; coal dealers, $5 to $30; fruit stands, $2.50 to $5; hotels and boarding houses, 50 cents a room; litigation, $2.50 to $5; plumbers and gas fitters, $5 to $20. Louisiana - Editors, $5 to $120; jewelers, $5 to 125; manufacturers, $15 to $8,000; merchants, $5 to $3,500; oculists, $5 to $125; photographers, $5 to $120; slaughtering, $20 to $6,250; variety shows, $2,500 to $5,000. The Liberal Advocate The Liberal Advocate Devoted to the support of liberal principles. The Liberal Advocate Official Organ Ohio Liquor League. Office: 115 South Wall Street. Phone: Bell, M. 395; Citizens, 3952. Night or House Phone, Cit. 8972. Columbus, Ohio. Published Weekly Subscription price, $2.00 Per Year in Advance. Advertising Rates Given on Application. The largest bona fide circulation of any Journal devoted to liberal principles in the United States. Insanity and Prohibition. Opinions differ as to the responsibility of alcohol in causing many diseases. But it is a universally accepted belief that alcohol is an important factor in producing insanity. Fortunately for our purpose the records of mental diseases are more complete and authentic than any other voters in the state who imagine that if they vote yes on the Home Rule Amendment they have done their full duty. When these men fail to vote at all on the prohibition amendment, it means a half vote for prohibition. Consequently this is a matter of supreme granted that any man knows how to vote, but call his attention to the sample ballot. The American Issue says: "Poor, old, doddering Henry Watterson, editor of the Louisville Courier- Journal, is frothing at the mouth and making himself ridiculous by his fulminations against the prohibitionists of Kentucky." The idea of the intellectual pygmy who edits the American Issue referring to Colonel Watterson, one of the greatest men of this generation, in such language. It reminds us of a little French poodle barking at a big mastiff. The man who claims the right to destroy your property without compensation by a vote, inwardly says that he has the right to destroy it with a torch. We Thank You. The Liberal Advocate, Columbus, O. Gentlemen: I sent you today under separate cover a copy of one of our city papers which contains a sermon of Dr. J. L. Sassen of this city, which I would like to have you publish in your next issue. In my opinion, if every saloonkeeper in the state of Ohio would read your Liberal Advocate and pass it out to his customers and ask them to read it, the state would go wet by 200,000. I am sincerely yours, A. C. Dumont. What We Believe. That temperance is right, and that prohibition is wrong. That you can vote a county dry, but you cannot vote the people dry. That a man who needs a law to make him temperate needs brains more than anything else. That it is wrong to abuse the right to drink, but worse to rob all men of that right because a few abuse it. That a blind tiger is worse than the worst saloon. What We Deny. We deny that a dry town ever made a great city. We deny that righteousness and temperance can come by law. its force, activity and strategy finds greatest outlet in tracking down secret violations of law. Where now the police force, as to the saloon business, is used mostly after midnight and on Sundays, to trap and punish violations of these laws, this actual experience teaches that the police department would not only have to devote all its hours, but it would have to be increased in number, to trap and punish the far more numerous, more cunning and more active violations of the prohibited saloon. The moral results following such a condition would not be uplifting. A system that creates sneaking ways does not make men. Elimination of the liquor question is not to be secured by the "you shall not," but by the "I will not." It is not a thing that will be abolished by law. The destruction of that thing rests with the individual. So long as such a large part of the public favor existence of the saloon, the most effective method of handling the problem is to permit its existence and enforce drastic regulation. The saloon business may be prohibited. The sale of liquor may be prohibited. The making thereof for sale may be prohibited. But its use is not prohibited and in no prohibition state is there an absence of the use thereof and in each the greatest activities of the police department is constantly and continuously centered on defecting and punishing and ever increasing stream of liquor venders who find a host of ready and willing buyers. The result is that there is no regulation - the government receives no revenue - men become willing violators of law and to secret indulgence in vice. Hon. Geo. J. Karb, Mayor. Prohibition Instead of Curing an Evil Creates Two - Drinking and Stealing an Opportunity to get Drink. The One Solution Is the Education of Humanity to Be Temperate and Moderate. "Prohibition is a violation of the principle of personal liberty upon which the fabric of this great nation has been built, and instead of curing in Kansas City, Mo., just across the line. "Property in Kansas City, Kas., in best residence districts rents for from $12 to $15 per month, while property similarly situated in Kansas City, Mo., rents for $22.50 to $30 per month. Taxes on Kansas City, Kas., property is from one-half to three times greater than on the Missouri side, while the sale value of the Missouri Insanity and Prohibition. Opinions differ as to the responsibility of alcohol in causing many diseases. But it is a universally accepted belief that alcohol is an important factor in producing insanity. Fortunately for our purpose the records of mental diseases are more complete and authentic than any other ?? us see what some of these records show: In a recent Bulletin issued by the Census Department a comparative table of insanity is given by states. There were eight prohibition states at the close of the census period: Maine, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Kansas and North Dakota. Comparing the gain or loss in admission to insane hospitals in these states with their immediate neighbors, we find the following significant records: Maine increased 21 for every 100,000 inhabitants, while New Hampshire decreased 7; North Dakota decreased 9, while South Dakota increased 3; Georgia increased 1, while Florida decreased 8; North Carolina increased 11, while South Carolina increased only 4; Tennessee increased 14, while Kentucky increased 12; Mississippi increased 9, while Alabama increased only 4; Oklahoma increased 20, while Texas increased 15; and Kansas decreased 10, while Nebraska decreased 28. Thus it appears that each prohibition state has a worse record than its immediate neighbor in the number of cases of insanity, with the single exception of North Dakota. A Poor Argument. In an address at the First Universalist Church on East State Street, Columbus, Mrs. Lillian Burt, superintendent of the Ohio State Sunday School Association, declared that the parents of 75 to 90 per cent. of the children confined in the Boys' Industrial School at Lancaster and the Delaware Home for Girls, are either victims or users of liquor. What a ridiculous argument that is. Yet it is a fair sample of the logic of the prohibitionist. Suppose the figures are true. Then from ten to twenty-five per cent of the inmates of these institutions are the children of abstaining parents. What caused their downfall? The object of that statement is to convey the impression that the use of alcoholic beverages by the parents results in degeneracy on the part of the children. A large majority of the men of Ohio drink. Why then are not more than half of the children of the state in these institutions? A careful investigation would probably reveal the fact that from 75 to 90 per cent of the parents of those children drank coffee. That would be an equally good argument for the advocate of the prohibition of coffee. Educate the Voters. It is surprising that there are still so many men who do not know how to vote the amendment properly. There are still thousands of liberal Gentlemen: I sent you today under separate cover a copy of one of our city papers which contains a sermon of Dr. J. L. Sassen of this city, which I would like to have you publish in your next issue. In my opinion, if every saloonkeeper in the state of Ohio would read your Liberal Advocate and pass it out to his customers and ask them to read it, the state would go wet by 200,000. I am sincerely yours, A. C. Dumont. What We Believe. That temperance is right, and that prohibition is wrong. That you can vote a county dry, but you cannot vote the people dry. That a man who needs a law to make him temperate needs brains more than anything else. That it is wrong to abuse the right to drink, but worse to rob all men of that right because a few abuse it. That a blind tiger is worse than the worst saloon. What We Deny. We deny that a dry town ever made a great city. We deny that righteousness and temperance can come by law. We deny ?? Christ did wrong when he drank wine and made it for others to drink. We deny that 90 per cent of crime is due to the saloon, for if that were true Southern prohibition states and Turkey would have only 10 per cent as much crime as we have in the wet states in the North. We deny that 80 per cent of poverty is due to liquor, because if it were true, all the drys would be rich. Mayor Karb Shows the Effect that the Adoption of Prohibition would have on Columbus. It Would Decrease Revenues and It Would Be Necessary to Increase the Police Department to Handle Increased Crime. Aside from the revenues which accrue to state and county funds from the liquor license receipts, the city of Columbus would stand to lose all of the $197, 062 received in 1914 from this source in the event of state-wide prohibition. The loss of that income, on the basis of the 1915 duplicate and tax rate, would seem that a Columbus tax rate of $13.50 on the thousand dollars would have to be increased to $14.20 per thousand. The less of that part of this revenue which now goes to the county, would still further increase the city tax rate to bring in the same revenue. Both county and city have had to levy greater taxes in the past three years by reason of the reducing incomes from the liquor tax - that for the city alone in 1914 being less by $42,591 than in 1913 and $51,276 less than in 1912. The receipts from this source to the county have been partially used in the maintenance of the county infirmary. The existence of that institution would not be abandoned, nor its use by the pauper infirm be reduced, no matter what the source of its income. The larger part of the liquor license receipts for the county has gone to road, bridge and other county work, which cost would not be reduced by any change in the source of income. In the city, the liquor license revenues are divided into two parts. Half goes to the maintenance of the safety department and half goes to the use of the general funds. None of these departments are maintained because of the liquor business and none of them could be abandoned or reduced by its absence. The most arduous tasks of a police department are not connected with things done in open. On the contrary and in no prohibition state is there an absence of the use thereof and in each the greatest activities of the police department is constantly and continuously centered on defecting and punishing and ever increasing stream of liquor venders who find a host of ready and willing buyers. The result is that there is no regulation - the government receives no revenue - men become willing violators of law and to secret indulgence in vice. Hon. Geo. J. Karb, Mayor. Prohibition Instead of Curing an Evil Creates Two - Drinking and Stealing an Opportunity to get Drink. The One Solution Is the Education of Humanity to Be Temperate and Moderate. "Prohibition is a violation of the principle of personal liberty upon which the fabric of this great nation has been built, and instead of curing an evil creates two ?? and the stealing of the opportunity to get drunk," said Rabbi Wolsey, a noted Jewish divine, of the Euclid Avenue Temple, Cleveland, in a recent sermon. Continuing, he said: "I am not a sot and I am not a drunkard. My convictions on this subject are grounded almost entirely on what America stands for. "What my appetite wants and what my tastes desire is a matter of my own personal liberty. "If this prohibition amendment carries it means the personal liberty of every man, woman and child of this country is seriously affected. It will be establishing a precedent in social control and government upon which we may build up a despotism and tyranny that will affright all the children of men. "If you can say to me 'you shall not drink alcoholic beverages,' you may also dictate my doctrine. "Suppose, because I do not eat swine flesh, I said you must not eat it. "Prohibition I regard as ineffective because the moment you prohibit you arouse a desire. When you prohibit you create a value. "The things man wants are the things that are rare and precious and the moment you say to a man 'you shall not' or 'you must not' you arouse an uncontrollable and irresistible desire to possess. Deny a man the right of free will and you have the right to punish him. Freedom of choice is a necessity. The solution of the evil is the education of humanity to be temperate and moderate. Columbus, O., Oct. 21. - During the first eight months of the present year there were only four cases of industrial accidents in Ohio in which any mention was made of intoxication as a contributory factor. These figures were brought out in a review prepared by the statistical department of the state industrial commission and made public a few days ago. A Tail of Two Cities Kansas City, Kansas, Compared with Kansas City, Missouri. One Is Under Prohibition, the Other Under the License System. A letter from a former citizen of Kansas City, Kas., says: "Prohibition in Kansas has reduced property values to a lower figure than in any city of 100,000 population, and that it has made taxes higher on actual value than in any other American city. It has raised insurance rates and reduced rents from 25 to 60 per cent. lower than the rates prevailing in Kansas City, Mo., just across the line. "Property in Kansas City, Kas., in best residence districts rents for from $12 to $15 per month, while property similarly situated in Kansas City, Mo., rents for $22.50 to $30 per month. Taxes on Kansas City, Kas., property is from one-half to three times greater than on the Missouri side, while the sale value of the Missouri ?? more than double that of the Kansas property. "I was a resident of Kansas City, Kas., for 14 years and the residents of Kansas City, Mo., consider it a disgrace to live there, on account of the lawlessness engendered by the unrestrained traffic in liquor in 'blind pigs' and the 'bootleggers.' The police and fire departments are greatly reduced in number of men, not because there is not money enough raised by taxation to keep these departments in an efficient condition. "The decline of Kansas City, Kas., under prohibition is easily determined by government census. The subject is one that may be of interest to people of Ohio who are unfamiliar with conditions prevailing in prohibition Kansas," the writer concludes. A Suggestion To the Mothers of America. In view of the fact that prohibition has not diminished the consumption of liquor, but has bred sneaks, liars, perjurers, hypocrites and petty criminals, can it be wise for good mothers to support that proposition? There is hope for one who misjudges his capacity, now and then, for he may remain the soul of honor, but there is no hope for the boy who becomes a sneak. Men who drink too much may remain loyal friends, but the boy who develops into a liar, cannot be trusted. One may, through excess of good fellowship, get drunk and still be willing to die for the honor of womanhood, but a hypocrite is sure to prove false to every trust. Sneakery, lying, hypocrisy, destroy the very fiber of true manhood. Prohibition agitation is bad, for the reason that its advocates constantly remind their boys of possible weakness. You cannot strengthen a weak person by suggesting their need of a legal muzzle, or intimating that you have no confidence in their ability to choose for themselves between good and evil. Suspicion never saved a girl. It never preserved the virtue of a wife, but it has sent many good women to the red hells of shame. Once your loved ones mistrust your honor, question your virtue, or belittle your manhood - the road to ruin becomes more attractive. Prohibition arguments tend to weaken the weak. They cannot strengthen the strong. Let wise mother's think twice before they lend their influence to the cause of prohibition. Let them study both sides of the question before determining their stand upon this question. - The Iconoclast. The Law on the Amendments Any voter who wants to make his vote count on any of the constitutional amendments, must vote on the amendment. If he is for the Home Rule Amendment he must place an (X) mark in the space opposite the word "YES." If he is against the Prohibition Amendment, he must place an (X) mark in the space opposite the word "NO." If he is against the Prohibition Amendment, but does not vote by making his (X) mark in front of the word "NO" he will have voted "YES," because the result is determined by taking the number of votes actually cast on both sides. For instance: if there are 10,000 men who vote "NO" and 10.001 who vote "YES," the amendment will be carried by one vote and it will make no difference that two voters who wanted to vote "NO" did not vote on this amendment. For although 20,003 voters voted at the election, the "YES" will have won by one vote because the other two voters failed to vote on the amendment. If both the Home Rule Amendment and the Prohibition Amendment carry, then the amendment which has the larger majority carries over the one having the smaller majority. That is to say: If the Home Rule Amendment carries by a majority of 80,000 and the Prohibition Amendment carries by a majority of 70,000, the Home Rule Amendment, having the larger majority, becomes the law, and the Prohibition Amendment, having the smaller majority, is defeated. The Liberal Advocate God Created Alcohol to be Used by Mankind With Discretion, as are all His Gifts and He did not Advocate Abstinence. If the Revolutionary Fathers Were Wrong, the Prohibitionists May Be Right, but Not Otherwise. The following splendid letter should be read by every subscriber to the Liberal Advocate. It is the best that we have received for some time. Cadiz, O., Oct. 14, 1914. Editor of the Liberal Advocate: Relative to the prohibition agitation, I desire to make the following suggestions: The question of what brewers are important. The principle involved, which is of grave importance to ourselves and unborn generations is, whether the fathers of '76 were wrong when they battled for the fundamental principles of self-government and human liberty. If they were wrong, then prohibitionists may be right, but I have never thought the fathers were wrong. Through the ages seers and sages have taught self-control, self-denial and temperate habits, not only in the use of strong drink, but relative to all things. For thousands of years Mohammed was the world's one great prohibitionist, but he was a tyrant without regard for the natural rights of man. In recent years we have had many well meaning, manly women and womanly men who assume to correct the mistakes (?) of the Creator in several ways, but, when I behold some of them, in fact all of them, I wonder where they get the idea that they are commissioned and qualified to act as the guardians of their fellow mortals. I never knew but one prohibitionist who could make an argument without lying, and he is dead. Most prohibitionists have a very narrow vision and there is little hope that it can be broadened much. It is about as sensible to compare the use of liquor, as intended by the Creator, with murder, arson, rape, burglary, etc., as some of them do, as to liken the philosophy of Socrates to the rant of Billy Sunday. If Mr. Wheeler lived in a political division where the majority believed every man should drink a given quantity of liquor daily and enforced the rule by fine and imprisonment, would he think he was living in a free country? Under such conditions both Mr. Wheeler and Billy Sunday would bawl for their "personal liberty" like a male calf in a tornado. Yet, it is the same principle, reversed, that they are trying to force upon their fellows by "majority vote." Can't prohibitionists see that their neighbor has the same right to say that they must drink that they have to say that he must not? Majorities lend now sacredness to brute force. Fanatics, and some cheap doctors, have taught that alcohol is poison; yet, God Almighty, in His wisdom, put it in all the fruit and grain of the earth, more convenient for man's use than the minerals. Did He mean to poison the food of His children? If the Creator had heard some latter day prohibition speeches and be- places in the universe, one is the Turkish Empire, the other is Purgatory, and I wouldn't care to live in either place. Kindly yours, A. N. McCombs. The Leading Newspaper In Prohibition Tennessee Opposes Prohibition. Question of Temperance Still Challenges the Thought of the Country. It is a melancholy arrangement of conditions in Tennessee that one may find in almost every issue of the country press of the state an account of some sort of criminal outbreak - a shooting a social scandal, theft, burglary, bootlegging or other flagitious violations of the liquor law. The fact connotes a deplorable state of mind and is a melancholy refutation of the claim that political machinery, built up and organized for personal and partisan promotion, even though deliberating in the stolen and brazen flaunted livery of righteousness ? accomplish moral and social ? Colonel J. C. Hemphill, the brilliant Southern journalist, for many years editor of the Charleston News and Courier, later a special writer on the New York Times, and now with the Philadelphia Public Ledger, has recently been investigating conditions in Maine, in which state politicians have been trying to legislate the human out of men's natures for some fifty or sixty years. Summing up an impartial story of the good as well as the bad of that state's prohibition system, Colonel Hemphill says: "It is argued by the proponents of the system that prohibition has greatly improved the moral status of the states and contributed immensely to the domestic happiness of its people; but, in the opinion of a close student of sociological problems, this claim is met by the somewhat staggering statement that there are more divorces in the state of Maine in proportion to marriages than in any other state in the Union. How many less divorces there would be if the men and women drank whiskey instead of water there is no means of knowing, except by comparing the divorce record of Maine with the divorce record of drinking states of like population and advantages." The same condition, possibly worse, developing in Massachusetts, Vermont and other New England states years ago occasioned ?? is about as sensible to compare the use of liquor, as intended by the Creator, with murder, arson, rape, burglary, etc., as some of them do, as to liken the philosophy of Socrates to the rant of Billy Sunday. If Mr. Wheeler lived in a political division where the majority believed every man should drink a given quantity of liquor daily and enforced the rule by fine and imprisonment, would he think he was living in a free country? Under such conditions both Mr. Wheeler and Billy Sunday would bawl for their "personal liberty" like a male calf in a tornado. Yet, it is the same principle, reversed, that they are trying to force upon their fellows by "majority vote." Can't prohibitionists see that their neighbor has the same right to say that they must drink that they have to say that he must not? Majorities lend now sacredness to brute force. Fanatics, and some cheap doctors, have taught that alcohol is poison; yet, God Almighty, in His wisdom, put it in all the fruit and grain of the earth, more convenient for man's use than the minerals. Did He mean to poison the food of His children? If the Creator had heard some latter day prohibition speeches and be- ? them, he would no doubt ? this, have taken alcohol out of the fruit and grain, then we could have prohibition without the usual drug store saloons where six-year-old whiskey is made in thirty minutes and sold at 75 cents a pint for medicinal purposes; but the fact that He put it in and has not taken it out convinces me that the Almighty is not a prohibitionist. There is a right use to make of everything that has been given us. During the dark ages fanatics tried to regulate men's beliefs by use of the sword, rack, dungeon and thumbscrew and shed rivers of blood in their efforts, but today the same school of misguided mortals would steal the natural liberties of men by "majority vote" because they dare not use the sword. Any one with a quill full of brains who has comprehended our world as it is and was intended to be, must conclude that in this life we are to live surrounded by temptation, injustice, misery and inequality, for the tall oak steals the sunlight from the smaller tree and likewise throughout the whole vegetable and animal kingdoms and the birds of the air, the fishes of the sea and even among the insect pests, the strong prey on the weak, thus everything is at the mercy of hoof, tooth, beak and claw and man is no better than the brutes except as he rises above and repudiates brute force and majority votes in every case where the natural rights of humanity is involved. If the prohibitionists really desire to lessen the world's misery, why not petition the Almighty to omit the pains of childbirth? This would greatly lessen misery attending the sacredness of motherhood and we would have more children. It's a queer old world with unlimited possibilities and God's laws are mysterious for they produce a sun and a stench; a universe and a louse; a Socrates and a Prohibitionist; but the world is big enough for all and the laws that govern it are so rigid that all the ages have brought froth have not succeeded in changing the moral status of mankind, yet it is noble to strive if done along the lines of justice to the natural rights of all God's creatures. Perhaps I ought to say that I have no interest in the production or sale of liquor and would not miss the use of it much, but I think the natural rights which man inherits from his Creator are too sacred to be sacrificed on the altar of bigotry, for a glance at the pages of history shows the danger of any such course; and, moreover, I only know of two really "dry" Courier, later a special writer on the New York Times, and now with the Philadelphia Public Ledger, has recently been investigating conditions in Maine, in which state politicians have been trying to legislate the human out of men's natures for some fifty or sixty years. Summing up an impartial story of the good as well as the bad of that state's prohibition system, Colonel Hemphill says: "It is argued by the proponents of the system that prohibition has greatly improved the moral status of the states and contributed immensely to the domestic happiness of its people; but, in the opinion of a close student of sociological problems, this claim is met by the somewhat staggering statement that there are more divorces in the state of Maine in proportion to marriages than in any other state in the Union. How many less divorces there would be if the men and women drank whiskey instead of water there is no means of knowing, except by comparing the divorce record of Maine with the divorce record of drinking states of like population and advantages." The same condition, possibly worse, developing in Massachusetts, Vermont and other New England states years ago occasioned ?? local option. A pathological weakness for drink appears to develop other immoral abnormalities when too violently restrained. A knowledge of this fact and the corollary imperfections of the system which create more or less of a contempt for all law, has so impressed itself upon the people of Maine that whereas the prohibition law was adopted by 40,000 majority many years ago, that majority has been dwindling so rapidly that in the last election when the issue was up it carried by a beggarly 758! In other words, Maine is finding that there are more demoralizing evils to be combated than depriving its bibulously inclined citizens, a small percentage of every community, of their favorite beverages. The question of temperance is therefore one that must still challenge the intelligent thought of the country as against prohibition, which in its final analysis means the shunting of one violent pathological distemper into another with possibly more demoralizing and hurtful results. - Chattanooga Times. Bishop Tuttle Will Vote Against State-Wide Prohibition. Bishop D. S. Tuttle, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, diocese of Missouri, has announced his opposition to state-wide prohibition on the ground that it violates the American principle of self-government. He favors local option. Bishop Tuttle said he would cast his vote on November 3 against prohibition. "This question of prohibition or the regulation of the liquor traffic is a perplexing one," he said. "It is a difficult one to discuss, acknowledging the evils of the liquor business. But all true Americans, it seems to me, ought to strive to maintain and perpetuate American principles. "Local self-government, I think, an American principle. State-wide prohibition opposes this principle, and local option supports it. Therefore, I am opposed to state-wide prohibition and in favor of local option." Bishop Tuttle said that he had always held this view regarding prohibition, but had never previously been asked for a public statement on the proposition. 6 The Liberal Advocate Alcoholic Beverages a Blessing, Not a Curse A True and Vigorous Statement of Facts that was Refused Publication by Promoters of a One Sided Competition. Truths About Alcoholic Beverages and Those Who Use Them That Can Not Be Denied or Refuted. In the recent competitive publication of Everybody's Magazine, entitled "What I Know About Rum," the following article written by Dr. Geo. Muller was refused. Perhaps the reader will discern the reason why. In more than sixty years of life touching every sphere and condition of human living, I have learned much regarding the use and effect of alcoholic liquor. In presenting the result of my experience I am affected by no prejudice, I am not the exponent of any propaganda. Alcoholic intoxication has undoubtedly been the bane of almost innumerable lives, intemperance the cause of unmeasurable woe. Yet David, the Psalmist, includes among the blessings enjoyed by mankind. 'Wine that maketh glad the heart of man." I have observed on the one side, the misery resulting from immoderate use, on the other, the good fellowship, the sociability, the general spirit of friendly intercourse gendered by its moderate and reasonable use. I find a refutation of the radicalism and of the charge that the thing itself is inherently and inevitably evil in the practices and history of the Jewish people. The Jews all use intoxicating liquors, there are not teetotalers, no prohibitionists among them: the Jew cannot be a Jew without the use of wine or an intoxicant produced in some form from fruit. From circumcision to marriage, from birth to burial, the use of wine is imperative. Where three Jews sit at a meal together the blessing must be asked over a glass of wine. We have just passed through the great Jewish feast of the Passover which lasts a period of eight days, during which wine is of such necessity that the poorest Jew, even by the not one met the vicissitudes of life with such patience, not with equal success triumphed over adversity. He has lived under the lash of persecution for 19 centuries and yet today is master of the business of the world. The Jew succeeds where others fail and maintains the integrity of his religion and of his family and business life in all nations and among all conditions of life. If the use of alcohol was necessarily destructive, the Jew would long since have perished from the face of the earth. Yet there are few drunkards among the Jews. He drinks regularly but moderately, he subdues and controls appetite and exemplifies that higher rule of life, the subjection of appetite to reason, the use of the good gifts of God without abuse. I need not go farther for proof that alcohol is not essentially evil and that it is not necessarily and inevitably destructive. But this lesson is not taught by the Jews alone, at least 90 per cent of the users of alcohol are free from bad effects, physical or moral. Judgment is passed upon evidence furnished by a small minority who in most cases are destructive physically or subject to abnormal conditions. And judgment is rendered without investigation, upon surface and superficial evidence. Intemperance in the use of liquor is staged, it staggers and falls in the street, it shouts and curses in the ears of men; intemperance in other things is obscured. One drunkard is more widely advertised than ten gluttons. The charge of excessive percentage of deaths, of crime and of pauperism to liquor drinking is without proof of record or substantiation of fact. All Mohammedans are non-users of liquor, the followers of Confucius and Buddha are abstainers. Does Turkey, China and India represent higher standards of life, more prosperous conditions, or a more advanced civilization than the Anglo Saxon, the Germanic, Slavonic and Latin Nations? All this does not excuse abuse in use or in the sale. It is the abuse not the use that damns the thing. standing, the reckless and oftimes vicious assaults upon the character of the men in the liquor business, I have found them equal in this respect to men in other lines of trade. The liquor trade in politics and legislation is there for self protection. The misrepresentations and hallelujah methods of the anti-license men, and the black jack practices of many politicians have forced the trade in self defense to enter the political arena, but if the real, the honest and sincere promoters of the common welfare, would enter into a conference for the adjudication of this matter, the man in the trade would agree to any suggestion for the common good. The evils of the liquor habit and of the trade are not inherent and necessary, they are the result of abuse. The modern grape juice statesmanship is incomparably inferior to that of Washington, Jefferson and Webster, of Bismarck and Gladstone, all of whom were regular users of alcoholic stimulants. The most virile nations are pro- alcohol, the least virile anti-alcohol. Today the people who use alcohol are the promoters of race increase, the puerile, puttering, puritanical promoters of prohibition the greatest promoters of race suicide and prenatal murder. To read the records is to conform the fact. This could be extended indefinitely but your conditions would be trespassed. The remedy is the old and only one, personal rightness. Neither theological or legal prohibition ever made men right, or accelerated the evolution of human development. The Christian system is purely one of choice, of liberty. The Jewish system, while less liberal, has given men a latitude that lacks the galling effect of restraint. There is no warrant, absolutely no warrant, in the Old and New Testament Scriptures for the propaganda of present day prohibitionists. From Moses to Christ and to Martin Luther to Protestant or Roman leaders in the religious world of modern times, there is no support for this excrescence of prohibition, the mushroom growth of sixty years, in which the clergy have continually lost favor with the people and the respect of mankind because they have been meddlers in many matters. The inculcation of correct principles of life in this and all other relations is more necessary than mathematics and the study of the dead languages in moral effects sure to follow the adoption in Ohio of the state-wide prohibition amendment. County Auditor Fred Sayre is authority for the statement that adoption of the prohibition amendment would result in a loss in license revenues in Franklin County alone of $417,744.44. This would mean a proportionate increase in the already high tax rate. Irreparable financial damage would be done the city and county. The greatest financial loss, however, would be the effect on general values, aggregate total of which can only be conjectured. This would include the depreciation of general realty values through the vacation of five hundred store rooms and valuable brewery sites. We ask you, Mr. Voter, how Columbus, not to mention the other Ohio municipalities that are even at the present moment facing absolute bankruptcy, could survive the financial catastrophe certain to follow adoption of the prohibition amendment. [?] you willing to take arbitrary [?] which would add thousands to [?] already large army of unemployed at a time when business depression is one of the country's serious problems? This is not a time for sentiment and fiction, rather one for actual facts and serious consideration. We maintain that the electors at the November election will be unwilling to overturn the present satisfactory saloon license system adopted two years ago in this state by a great majority, operation of which has received the highest approbation from liberal and anti-liberal alike. Prohibition in Ohio not only would mean the wiping out of the present enormous revenue derived by local, state and federal government, but would render valueless more than $450,000,000 invested in the brewing and distilling business in this state. Prohibition would forbid the importation of alcoholic beverages for home or club use. A vote against prohibition is a vote (Continued on page 7.) National Liquor League of the United States President - M. F. Farley, 160 Eleventh av., New York. Vice President - Hy. F. Maiwurm, Forest Park, Ill. Secretary - Robert J. Halle, 64 W. Randolph st., Chicago, Ill. Treasurer - Thomas C. Hayes, 146 [?] Neward, N. J. 'Wine that maketh glad the heart of man." I have observed on the one side, the misery resulting from immoderate use, on the other, the good fellowship, the sociability, the general spirit of friendly intercourse gendered by its moderate and reasonable use. I find a refutation of the radicalism and of the charge that the thing itself is inherently and inevitably evil in the practices and history of the Jewish people. The Jews all use intoxicating liquors, there are not teetotalers, no prohibitionists among them: the Jew cannot be a Jew without the use of wine or an intoxicant produced in some form from fruit. From circumcision to marriage, from birth to burial, the use of wine is imperative. Where three Jews sit at a meal together the blessing must be asked over a glass of wine. We have just passed through the great Jewish feast of the Passover which lasts a period of eight days, during which wine is of such necessity that the poorest Jew, even by the exercise of ?? self-denial, provides himself with the chief requisite of the Passover feast. Any Jewish Rabbi will confirm this. What is the effect on the Jews of this regular use of intoxicating beverages? And they by no means confine themselves to wine. Among all peoples not one has so perfectly maintained racial autonomy, in most cases are destructive physically or subject to abnormal conditions. And judgment is rendered without investigation, upon surface and superficial evidence. Intemperance in the use of liquor is staged, it staggers and falls in the street, it shouts and curses in the ears of men; intemperance in other things is obscured. One drunkard is more widely advertised than ten gluttons. The charge of excessive percentage of deaths, of crime and of pauperism to liquor drinking is without proof of record or substantiation of fact. All Mohammedans are non-users of liquor, the followers of Confucius and Buddha are abstainers. Does Turkey, China and India represent higher standards of life, more prosperous conditions, or a more advanced civilization than the Anglo Saxon, the Germanic, Slavonic and Latin Nations? All this does not excuse abuse in use or in the sale. It is the abuse not the use that damns the thing. The drunkard is a shame to manhood, and the liquor dealer who encourages excess is a disgrace to his calling. Of these, I regret to say, there are many, but they do not stand alone in abhorrent relation to their fellowmen: the food adulterant, the builder and owner of unsanitary tenements, the purveyor of diluted milk, robbing babes of living nourishment, the manufacturer, mine owner, and railroad magnate who risk lives to save profit, are in the aggregate offenders against humanity, and it may be said that if the liquor dealer has killed his thousands, these others have killed their ten thousands. In striking the average of merit or demerit, the former will mark as high a record as the latter. The most influential department of the liquor business is the brewing industry. Its members stand as high in the commercial and financial world as any class of business men. It is the same with the distillers, the major part of whom, by the way, are Jews. The retailer is often defective, because it does not require much knowledge and often small capital to open a saloon. But again, if we compare him with the purveyor of decayed vegetables, adulterated groceries, foul meat and stinking fish, he does not fall far below the average, and his honesty is incomparably superior to the thousands of short weight and short measure dealers in other departments, who are being dragged into court to answer for their swindling practices. Notwith- personal rightness. Neither theological or legal prohibition ever made men right, or accelerated the evolution of human development. The Christian system is purely one of choice, of liberty. The Jewish system, while less liberal, has given men a latitude that lacks the galling effect of restraint. There is no warrant, absolutely no warrant, in the Old and New Testament Scriptures for the propaganda of present day prohibitionists. From Moses to Christ and to Martin Luther to Protestant or Roman leaders in the religious world of modern times, there is no support for this excrescence of prohibition, the mushroom growth of sixty years, in which the clergy have continually lost favor with the people and the respect of mankind because they have been meddlers in many matters. The inculcation of correct principles of life in this and all other relations is more necessary than mathematics and the study of the dead languages in our public schools. Man know thyself and master thyself is the thought to be constantly impressed. For the state and the law regulation enforced by constituted authority and under constant and effectual inspection. But the first and the last, the whole substance and hope of human betterment lie with the illuminating beneficence of knowledge backed by self mastery. In the conclusion of the matter, I desire to emphasize that a straight- jacket does not represent the true philosophy of life. First liberty, and then liberty, and last, more liberty! Columbus in the Game Against Prohibition A Splendid Home Rule Association Organized. A Declaration of Principles That Has the Proper Ring. The Franklin County Home Rule Association was organized the past week with David T. Logan, chairman; Edward F. Morris, clerk of the probate court, secretary, and Ben H. Harmon, manager of the Neil House, treasurer. The officers of the association will be at 614 Harrison Building. An active campaign will be carried on for the defeat of the state-wide prohibition amendment and the adoption of the Home Rule Amendment. Accompanying this is a declaration of the principles of the advisory committee, composed of fifty business men and property holders of Columbus. Principles of New Organization. In announcing the organization of the Franklin County Home Rule Association, its Advisory Committee calls attention to the association's membership as representative of the most substantial and influential business and professional interests of the city and county. This association will conduct the campaign of the liberal minded people of Columbus and Franklin County, and to that end asks the support of the thinking public. We seek to accomplish these two things: First - To urge the adoption of the Home Rule Amendment to the state constitution, which would replace the Rose County prohibition law with true local option applicable to the municipalities and townships. At the same time adoption of this amendment would prevent any future general assembly from inflicting state- wide prohibition by a mere vote of that legislative body. Second - To inform the people concerning the disastrous financial and tory saloon license system adopted two years ago in this state by a great majority, operation of which has received the highest approbation from liberal and anti-liberal alike. Prohibition in Ohio not only would mean the wiping out of the present enormous revenue derived by local, state and federal government, but would render valueless more than $450,000,000 invested in the brewing and distilling business in this state. Prohibition would forbid the importation of alcoholic beverages for home or club use. A vote against prohibition is a vote (Continued on page 7.) National Liquor League of the United States President - M. F. Farley, 160 Eleventh av., New York. Vice President - Hy. F. Maiwurm, Forest Park, Ill. Secretary - Robert J. Halle, 64 W. Randolph st., Chicago, Ill. Treasurer - Thomas C. Hayes, 146 [?] Newark, N. J. [?] Literary Bureau - P. R. Nolan, 7th and Pine sts., St. Louis, Mo. Chairman Congressional Committee - Hugh F. Harvey, National Hotel, Washington, D. C. General Counsel - Hon. John M. Thurston, Ex. U. S. Senator from Nebraska, Evans Building, Washington, D. C. Executive Committee - Hugh F. Harvey, Washington, D. C.; Fred Rohde, Chicago, Ill.; H. B. Mayne, Sioux City, Ia.; Jos. Delabar, St. Louis, Mo.; Geo. T. Carroll, Elizabeth, N. J.; Hugh Dolan, New York, N. Y.; Neil Benner, Philadelphia, Pa.; John F. Langan, Kenosha, Wis., J. E. McHugh, Providence, R. I.; J. C. Roth, Baltimore, Md.; W. Seckel, Cleveland, O. Congressional Committee - Hugh F. Harvey, chairman, Washington, D. C.; Wm. D. Barry, Washington, D. C., Ernest Kunde, Chicago, Ill.; D. J. O'Connell, Washington, D. C.; Richard McCormick, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Alex. D. Newman, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Col. M. Ingwersen, Clinton, Ia.; M. F. Farley, Pres., New York, N. Y.; R. J. Halle, Secretary, Chicago, Ill. Auxiliary Committee - E. J. Balenelli, Wynn, Ark.; H. Choynski, San Francisco, Cal.; Geo. Becherer, Denver, Colo.; E. W. Mooney, Pocatello, Idaho; Ben H. Schrader, Louisville, Ky.; H. C. Ramos, New Orleans, La.; H. F. Cavenaugh, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Jerry Mullins, Butte, Mont.; Dave H. Harding, Omaha, Neb.; G. H. Steele, Manchester, N. H.; Frank Hoffman, F?land, Ore.; Jas. Woodruff, Sioux Falls, S. D.; C. E. Bosshardt, San Antonio, Tex.; M. Mulvey, Salt Lake City, Utah; E. A. Stumpf, Richmond, Va.; G. Van Der Haar, Huntington, W. Va.; J. W. Morrison, Seattle, Wash.; C. F. Kelley, Wilmington, Del. Headquarters - 62 West Randolph st., Chicago, Ill. State Associations, Arkansas. Liquor Dealers' Association. President, E. J. Badinelli, Wynne, Ark.; Secretary, M. P. Foster, Little Rock, Ark. District of Columbia. Federation of Retail Liquor Dealers. President, Wm. D. Barry, 2024 14th st. N. W., Washington, D. C.; Secretary, Walter J. Sharp, 812 F st., N. W., Washington, D. C. Colorado Retail Liquor Dealers' Association. President, Geo. Becherer, Denver, Col.; Secretary, Jas. Cater, Denver, Col. Illinois. President, Ernest Kunde, 2025 S. Halsted st., Chicago; Secretary, M. J. McCarthy, 1154 Wells st., Chicago, Ill. Iowa. Liquor Dealers' Association. President, M. Ingwerson, Clinton, Ia.; Secretary, H. B. Mayne, Sioux City, Ia. Idaho Retail Liquor Dealers' Association. President, G. W. Wattles, Boise, Idaho; Secretary, H. W. Schubert, Boise, Idaho. Kentucky. State Liquor League. President C. J. Meredith, Owensboro, Ky.; Secretary, Ben H. Schrader, Louisville; Financial Secretary, Henry C. Lauer, Louisville. Louisiana. President, H. C. Ramos, 712 Gravier st., New Orleans, La. Maryland. State Liquor League. President, C. F. Lentbecker, 1932 Alicenna St., Baltimore Md.; Secretary, F. G. Oldham, 302 Law Bldg., Baltimore Md. Massachusetts. President - Thos. J. Burke, 521 Main st., Springfield, Mass.; E. H. Pinkham, Secretary, 43 Tremont st., Boston, Mass. Michigan. Liquor Dealers' Association. President, Hugh B. Cavanaugh, 41 Pearl st., Grand Rapids, Mich.; Secretary, A. J. Paltenghi, 301 Main st., Jackson, Mich. Minnesota. President, Bart O'Connor, Minneapolis; Secretary, Matt Ettinger, Duluth, Minn. Missouri. Liquor Dealers' Benevolent Association. President, L. H. Padberg, 3901 S. Broadway, St. Louis, Mo.; Secretary, H. G. Everhardt, 736 S. 2nd st., St. Louis. Montana. Protective Association. President, Jerry Mullins, Butte; Secretary, J. V. C. Taylor, Butte. Nebraska. Liquor Dealers' Association. President, A. H. Koop, Lincoln, Neb.; Secretary, Henry Keating, 302 N. 16th st., Omaha, Neb. New Jersey. Liquor Dealers' Protective League. President, John Weickert, Hudson st., Hackensack, N. J.; Secretary, Geo. T. Carroll, 1179 Elizabeth st., Elizabeth, N. J.; Financial Secretary, John Weiter, 155 Manhattan av., Jersey City, N. J. New Hampshire. President, Chas. J. O'Neill, N. Walpole, N. H.; Secretary, Geo. H. Steele, Manchester, N. H. New York. Wine, Liquor and Beer Dealers' Assn. President, C. J. Reilly, 1 Madison ave., New York; Corresponding Secretary, T. D. O'Connor, 773 3rd av., New York; Financial Secretary, John J. Byrne, 317 Hudson av., Brooklyn. Ohio. State Liquor League. President, Lew Rinkenberger, 9th and Plum Sts., Cincinnati, Ohio; Secretary, Nic Dutle, National Theater Bldg., Dayton, Ohio. Oregon. President, frank Hoffman, Portland, Ore.; Secretary, C. D. Elder, Portland, Ore. Pennsylvania. President, Neil Bonner, 22nd and Carpenter sts., Philadelphia; Secretary, Howard M. Bright, Keystone Hotel, Lebanon, Pa. Rhode Island. President, G. C. Fogarty, 58 Putnam st., Providence, R. I.; Secretary, A. J. Scallin, 136 Dunnwell av., Pawtucket, R. I. South Dakota. Liquor Dealers' Protective Association. President, Jas. Woodruff, Sioux Falls, S. D.; Secretary, Ed. Henning, Huron, S. D. Texas. Liquor Dealers' Association. President, Chas. Wernette, San Antonio, Tex.; Secretary, Alex. Fues, San Antonio, Tex. Virginia. State Liquor League. President, J. P. M. Joyce, Norfolk, Va.; Secretary, L. B. Hancock, Richmond, Va. West Virginia. President, Geo. Von Der Haar, Huntington, W. V.; Secretary, S. J. Hyman, Huntington, W. Va. Utah. Retail Liquor Dealers' Protective Assn. President, Martin Mulvey, Salt Lake City; Secretary. Vermont. Liquor Dealers' Association. President, F. M. Brown, Barre, Vt.; Secretary. Wisconsin Liquor Dealers' Association. President, J. F. Langan, Kenosha, Wis.; Secy., M. H. Niesen, Kaukauna. The Liberal Advocate tised in the most opposite ways, accordingly as God's will may demand. The great thirst of Christ upon the cross had seized upon many souls and made them indifferent to all lesser things. God's grace and love sufficed for them. Joseph Husslein, S. J. Columbus in the Game Against Prohibition (Continued from page 6) for the orderly saloon and Ohio's splendid license system. A vote for home rule amendment is a vote to restore to municipalities and townships of this state the right of local option. This right was taken away with the passage of the un- American Rose County Prohibition law some years ago. A vote for home rule would place the liquor question where the professional agitators can not drag it back into politics at will. In no sense can it repeal any existing regulatory or prohibitory law, it simply modifies the Rose County Prohibition law. Infliction of prohibition on Columbus would breed wholesale violation and disrespect of the law. This has been the history of every city in every state where prohibition has been experimented with. The question of prohibition, however, is a question of the orderly saloon, conducted as at present by responsible citizens and operated under the strict regulation of the new license law, or the substitution of the unregulated bootlegger, speakeasy and dive operated in back alleys and the cellar by men who know no law. In consideration of these facts we ask the careful consideration of all thinking electors of Franklin County in an unprejudiced decision of these two great questions to be decided on November 3rd. Signed by David T. Logan, President, And the Advisory Committee of the Franklin County Home Rule Association. This Column Free. For the Benefit of the Readers of the Liberal Advocate. If you have anything you do not need and wish to sell, or need anything and wish to buy, at second hand; if you need a bartender or want a position; you are invited to use this column, free of cost. This department was established as a medium of exchange for our readers and is being thoroughly appreciated by those who have used it ? Our only request is ? For Sale - Good paying saloon, located in the heart of town of over 6,000 population, two railroads and interurban lines; first-class fixtures. Address A. S., care Liberal Advocate. For Sale - Fine café. Best location in Cleveland, on Superior St., downtown district. I want to retire. Can be bought right. Address Z, care Liberal Advocate, Columbus, Ohio. Wanted - Position as sales man for a first-class liquor house. Would prefer a special line of goods on commission basis. Address E. G. Elder, 1852 E. 55th St., Cleveland, Ohio. Wanted - Position as bartender (first class) 36 years of age. J. H. Davis, 2162 E. 55st, Cleveland, O. Wanted - Position as bartender; can give references; 14 years experience; can work lunch counter. Will go any part of the state. Address E. A. Mahoney, Marion, O. Wanted - Position as bartender, 15 years experience, best of reference. J. W. D., care Liberal Advocate. For Sale - One of the best paying saloons in the heart of Cincinnati. Present owner desires to move West. Address J. H. B., care Liberal Advocate. For Sale - Wholesale Liquor House and Café in connection; a big proposition, located in the heart of Cleveland, Ohio; present owner retiring; a chance to get in right. Address L, care Liberal Advocate. Wanted - Position as traveling salesman for first class liquor house or brewery, have had considerable experience in both lines and can furnish good references. Address J. E. Sieber, 125 Rhodes Ave., Akron, Ohio. For Sale - Liquor store with bar in connection in town of over 10,000 population. Six railroads and three interurban lines. Cars stop in front of store. Best location in town. Address G. A. T., care of Liberal Advocate. For Sale - Hotel in city ? 40,000 The Wine in the Bible was Always Alcoholic (Continued from page 3) and that of His Blessed Mother, as displayed toward others can, perhaps, best be seen in the miracle at Cana. Not only He Himself and His Mother, but the disciples likewise were invited guests at that marriage banquet. There, at Mary's petition, six water pots of stone, containing two or three measures apiece, were filled "up to the brim" with the choicest wine, by a miracle. Of the private life of Our Lord we have no record in this regard, except what may possibly be implied in the words we have quoted above. There is no need that we should know more. Whatever in our own conditions can contribute most to God's glory and the salvation of souls is the course which Christ Himself would have us pursue. God's will is our only law, and those who humbly and sincerely seek His will assuredly find Him. It was the love of God and the love of souls which alone determined Christ's actions as man. The rule is sufficient for us. Whether he drank the wine of the publican, or retired to fast in the desert, or accepted the cooling draught from the impure hands of the Samarian woman, He did it all from this sole motive. More we need not know. How the early Christians understood the desire of Christ in this regard we can learn from the Epistles of St. Paul. Sobriety is enjoined by him upon all ages and upon both sexes, not total abstinence. That some went farther and practiced such complete denial from a spirit of mortification would, however, seem a probable conclusion from the letter written to Timothy. The holy bishop's health had evidently suffered in consequence of his abstention, and the greater good demanded a change in his course of life. "Do not still drink water," St. Paul therefore wrote to him in tender solicitude, "but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thy frequent infirmities." If we would look for the final counsel of the great Apostle we shall find it in his first letter to the Corinthians: "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever else you do, do all to the glory of God. "Be without offence to the Jews, and to the Gentiles, and to the Church of God. "As I also in all things please all men, not seeking that which is profitable to myself, but to many, that they may be saved." - 1 Cor. x: 31-33 Neither drink nor abstinence is in itself of any merit. It is the motive of love that transmutes our actions into gold in the sight of God. The saints sought in all things the denial of themselves, but this may be prac- the strict regulation of the new license law, or the substitution of the unregulated bootlegger, speakeasy and dive operated in back alleys and the cellar by men who know no law. In consideration of these facts we ask the careful consideration of all thinking electors of Franklin County in an unprejudiced decision of these two great questions to be decided on November 3rd. Signed by David T. Logan, President, And the Advisory Committee of the Franklin County Home Rule Association. This Column Free. For the Benefit of the Readers of the Liberal Advocate. If you have anything you do not need and wish to sell, or need anything and wish to buy, at second hand; if you need a bartender or want a position; you are invited to use this column, free of cost. This department was established as a medium of exchange for our readers and is being thoroughly appreciated by those who have used it ? Our only request is ? when ? get what you want, you notify us at once, in order that the advertisement may be discontinued, and the space given to others who wish to use it. Home Rule Advocates, here's what you're looking for. The book entitled "Prohibition of Intoxicating Liquors, The Enemy of Church and State." Greatest wet argument ever published, cloth bound, stamped in gold, contains 409 pages, size 6x8½. Plenty of peop. Price $1.00 postpaid. Big commissions to agents. Send $1.00 for sample and get busy. Act, quick. The Common Sense Pub. Co., Canton, Ohio. 43A Wanted - Position as bartender or hotel clerk; ten years experience and best of references. Address R. J. W., Liberal Advocate. Wanted - To buy a good set of bar fixtures. Send description, dimensions and price. Address R. E. W., Liberal Advocate. For Sale - A good second hand steam table. Address J. H. W., Liberal Advocate. Wanted - Position as bartender; 15 years experience in the best saloons in Columbus, O. H. J. W., care Liberal Advocate. For Sale - A fine set of bar fixtures; good as new. J. H. M., Liberal Advocate. Wanted - Position as cook in saloon or hotel; 12 years experience. Address C. H. J., Liberal Advocate. Wanted - Position as bartender, cook or any other employment about café. Can give good references. Address M. W. G., Liberal Advocate. For Sale - Good paying saloon in Central Ohio; safe county. Address R. J. W., Liberal Advocate. Wanted - Position as bartender or restaurant man; fifteen years' experience. Address R. J. B., Liberal Advocate. Position wanted - As bartender or back of lunch counter, 17 years experience. Best of references. Address Wm. Maher, Gahanna, Ohio. Wanted - Position as cook in hotel or restaurant. Ten years' experience. Address R. J. M., care Liberal Advocate. Wanted - Position as bartender; 12 years' experience; best of references. Address J. D. W., care of Liberal Advocate. years experience, best of reference. J. W. D., care Liberal Advocate. For Sale - One of the best paying saloons in the heart of Cincinnati. Present owner desires to move West. Address J. H. B., care Liberal Advocate. For Sale - Wholesale Liquor House and Café in connection; a big proposition, located in the heart of Cleveland, Ohio; present owner retiring; a chance to get in right. Address L, care Liberal Advocate. Wanted - Position as traveling salesman for first class liquor house or brewery, have had considerable experience in both lines and can furnish good references. Address J. E. Sieber, 125 Rhodes Ave., Akron, Ohio. For Sale - Liquor store with bar in connection in town of over 10,000 population. Six railroads and three interurban lines. Cars stop in front of store. Best location in town. Address G. A. T., care of Liberal Advocate. For Sale - Hotel in city ? 40,000 best location in city. Dining room can be run as grill room in connection with bar. Address S. M. S. care of Liberal Advocate. Wanted - Position as hotel clerk. Have had several year's experience and can furnish good references. Can also tend bar; 32 years old. Address Eugene Moser, Gen. Del., Youngstown, Ohio. For Sale - National Cash Register, as good as new. Electric, cost $435.00. Will sell for $250.00. Late model, 2 drawer. Address 1423 E. Main St., Columbus, O. For Sale - One set old English finish bar fixtures consisting of back bar with three mirrors, two liquor display cases and lunch case, 44 feet long, 9 feet 10 inches high. Counter with marble foot base and brass rail 44 ft. Two German silver work boards, 2 bottle beer boxes and one faucet box with seven taps. Leaded glass office fixtures and screen. In use only 18 months. Geo. Leo, 117 S. Fifth St., Steubenville, O. For Sale - One second hand electric piano with 5 rolls, cost when new $625.00. If sold soon can be bought for $225.00. For information write, Fanelly Bros., 68 Furnace Street, Akron, O. For Sale - Base Ball score board and 10 gallon coffee urn. Address 68 E. Spring St., Columbus, O. For Sale - Hotel located at Beech City, Ohio. Can be bought cheap if sold soon. For information write to W. H. Wood, 11 E. Market St., Akron, Ohio. For Rent - Hall for private dances and club and lodge meetings. Address, for terms, Dominic Augustus, southwest corner Parsons and Livingston Avenues. For Sale - An elegant café and restaurant centrally located on main business street, "High street," Columbus, O. Address K. this office. For Sale - Electric Piano with 10 to 15 tunes, in good condition. Will sell cheap. Harry Miller, 1500 Race St., Cincinnati, O. Wanted - Restaurant man to take privilege in connection with hotel, good proposition for live wire at Cincinnati, O. Address, H. H. Liberal Advocate. For Sale - National Cash Register, electric machine, latest model; suitable for hotel, liquor store or bar. Will sell at a great bargain. Address McBride Duffy Co., P. O. Box 283, Lowellville, Ohio. For Sale - 2-box ball alleys for sale at a bargain. Inquire 42 East Long St., Columbus, O. Wanted - Names and addresses of saloonkeepers who require help of any kind. Am in position to furnish you help on short notice, free of expense. Address "Help," Liberal Advocate. For Sale or Rent - The Mecca Café, 267 N. High street, within one square and a half from the Union Station. A splendid location for a man of business ability. Inquire The Bott & Cannon Co., 269 N. High St., Columbus, O. Wanted - Position by man and wife of good appearance in saloon or hotel; both experienced in the business. Man as bartender or clerk and wife as cashier. Best of reference. Address M. C. F., care of Liberal Advocate. Wanted - Position as bartender. Fifteen years' experience with the best places in Columbus. Good references. Address J. J. M., Liberal Advocate. For Sale - Three second-hand pool tables, 68 East Spring Street, Columbus, Ohio. For Sale - One address mailing machine, foot power, and about 8,000 stencils; cheap. Address, this office. For Sale - Pool Tables, second- hand; refinished, 4x8 and 4½x9 for sale cheap. 42 East Long Street, Columbus, O. For Sale - A first-class saloon in Lorain, Ohio. Poor health the reason for retiring from business. Address P. J. H., care of Liberal Advocate. For Sale - One of the best saloons in the heart of Cleveland. Has always been and is now a moneymaker. Address R. J. T., care Liberal Advocate. Have you $25,000 to invest in one of the best paying stands in Cleveland? Property alone is worth the money. Write to P., care Liberal Advocate. For Rent - For saloon purposes, small hotel (17 rooms) located near depot, Cleveland, Ohio; rent $60.00 per month. For particulars address S., care Liberal Advocate. For Sale - Café located in good business district, in Columbus, O. Money maker. Address, A. D., this office. For Sale - Saloon in small town. Money maker from the start. Address T. B. C. Care of Liberal Advocate. 8 The Liberal Advocate "A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing" Particularly in discussing prohibition you should be able to answer any question at a moments' notice. The Anti-Saloon League, unassisted, can never win this fight, but if that resourceful organization can secure the assistance of General Apathy and his assistant Over-Confidence, there is no telling what may happen. The meetings that have been held by the League so far are merely preliminary skirmishes, the real battle does not begin until the first of October. From that time until the polls are closed on the day of election, meetings will be held in every ward and township, every voter will be flooded with literature and every billboard, fence, barn and store box will be plastered with Anti-Saloon literature. Every active advocate of Home Rule should be able to answer every argument that they present - and as soon as they are presented. There is but one way in which he can be sure of being able to do this, and that is to have a copy of "The Anti-Saloon Campaign Manual - Reproduced and Answered" in his pocket at all times. This presents and answers every argument that the Anti-Saloon League has been able to advance, and is so arranged that any argument and its answer can be found at a moment's notice. Every reader of the Liberal Advocate should have a copy of this Manual on Hand, and additional copies to give to those who may be able to advance the cause if properly informed. The price is ten cents per copy. In larger quantities the price is: 100, $5,00; 500, $16.00 and 1,000, $25. Order and use them now; do not wait until the people become blinded with prohibition prejudice. Address The Liberal Advocate, Columbus, Ohio. mately 6,000 liquor licenses in Ohio paying a tax of $6,600,000, of which $2,400,000 goes to the state and $4,200,000 to the counties and cities. YOU, Mr. Tax Payer and Property Owner, will have to make this up with an increase in your own taxes. This means a deficit in the state, county and city treasury of $13,500,000 per year on direct taxes only, it also means a decrease of $17,000,000 in internal revenue for the U. S. government which will have to be made up. The following amounts, therefore, must be raised by the tax payers of Ohio to make up this enormous amount of money, namely: Paid to the U. S. government ………………………………….$17,000,000 Paid to the State Government on licenses …………………...6,600,000 Paid to the County Government for taxation on real and personal property....7,000,000 _______________ Total amount of taxes paid by the industry...….30,600,000 This amount will be largely increased by the war stamp tax act now pending in Congress, which im- Marking the Ballot Below is shown a fac-simile of the ballot on which are printed the four constitutional amendments which will be submitted to the electors of ? November 3, 1914. There are two amendments on ?? question, the Home Rule Amendment and the Prohibition Amendment. To vote for Home Rule on the subject of Liquor and against statewide Prohibition, the ballot should be marked as indicated: Sample Ballot Proposed Amendment to the Constitution. X Yes Article XV, Section 9a No Home Rule on the Subject of Intoxicating Liquors. Yes Article XII, Sections 1 and 2 No Limitation of the Tax Rate and for the Classification Mark of Property for Purposes Your of Taxation. Ballot Thus Yes Article V, Section 1 No To Extend the Suffrage to Women. Yes Article XV, Section 9 X No Prohibition of the Sale, Manufacture for Sale and Importation for Sale of Intoxicating Liquor as a Beverage. Every elector of Ohio who believes in Home Rule and who is opposed to prohibition should make certain that he vote, not only YES on the first amendment appearing on the ballot, but NO on the last. Even if the Home Rule amendment carries, if you and others fail to vote NO on the Prohibition amendment, and the latter thereby receives a majority larger than the Home Rule amendment, Home Rule will be dead and Ohio will be a dry state. You must vote on both amendments - YES on Home Rule and NO on Prohibition. Every NO vote on the Prohibition amendment kills one YES vote on that amendment. Failure to vote NO amounts to half a vote YES. Note - If the election officer fails to give to you the separate constitutional amendment ballot, on November 3, ask for it. tains that every case of total drunkenness is a mortal sin and she teaches that a drunkard will not enter the kingdom of heaven. The Catholic priests knew long before any of our modern fanatics were born ?? Catholic Church any suggestions as to how to vote? If a priest wishes to treat on politics, and he has that right as a citizen, then he must seek other opportunities - the platform or the ?? but he is strictly forbid- mately 6,000 liquor licenses in Ohio paying a tax of $6,600,000, of which $2,400,000 goes to the state and $4,200,000 to the counties and cities. YOU, Mr. Tax Payer and Property Owner, will have to make this up with an increase in your own taxes. This means a deficit in the state, county and city treasury of $13,500,000 per year on direct taxes only, it also means a decrease of $17,000,000 in internal revenue for the U. S. government which will have to be made up. The following amounts, therefore, must be raised by the tax payers of Ohio to make up this enormous amount of money, namely: Paid to the U. S. government ………………………………….$17,000,000 Paid to the State Government on licenses …………………...6,600,000 Paid to the County Government for taxation on real and personal property....7,000,000 _______________ Total amount of taxes paid by the industry...….30,600,000 This amount will be largely increased by the war stamp tax act now pending in Congress, which im? ??? additional tax per barrel on beer. Now, what about the indirect losses, the vacant properties, the idle 100,000 workingmen unable to maintain their homes, pay rent and support their families? Will this not affect you also, will it not depreciate the value of your property while it increases the taxes at the same time? In what industries will you employ these 100,000 men who today have an earning and spending power of $1,800,000 per week? Are the ministers and politicians going to take care of them and their families? What good will they have done to the community if they succeed in bringing about state-wide prohibition? Will we not have blind pigs, bootleggers, illegitimate manufacture and sale of whiskey, law violations, instead of open- and-above-board regulated tax-paying, orderly saloons? What is their cry against Home Rule? Is this not the most democratic and just way to settle this question once and for all? Let each community be the judge of its wants, saloons or not, and thereby remove the entire question from the body politic forever. We, the workers employed at present in this industry, make this appeal to you to consider the above, and weigh carefully before you help to make 100,000 men idle and bankrupt your state, counties and cities. Vote for Home Rule against state-wide prohibition. Respectfully, The Ohio Labor Home Rule Association. The Catholic Church Demands Temperance but does not Insist on Teetotalism. The Church Is Not the Place to Influence the Political Consciences of the Citizens. On the morning of October 5th the Rev. John L. Sassen, assistant pastor of St. Wendelin's Catholic Church in Fostoria delivered a powerful sermon on the liquor question. In part he said: "Our church is blamed today to be in favor with the wet movement. A Protestant minister dared to say that the temperance movement that is going on at present need expect no support from the Catholics of this glorious country. That is false, just as it was untrue and blasphemous when the Pharisees called our Savior a bibber. If anyone knows that temperance is a virtue only when it is practical for the love of God and the good example of our fellowmen. She maintains Yes Article XV, Section 9 X No Prohibition of the Sale, Manufacture for Sale and Importation for Sale of Intoxicating Liquor as a Beverage. Every elector of Ohio who believes in Home Rule and who is opposed to prohibition should make certain that he vote, not only YES on the first amendment appearing on the ballot, but NO on the last. Even if the Home Rule amendment carries, if you and others fail to vote NO on the Prohibition amendment, and the latter thereby receives a majority larger than the Home Rule amendment, Home Rule will be dead and Ohio will be a dry state. You must vote on both amendments - YES on Home Rule and NO on Prohibition. Every NO vote on the Prohibition amendment kills one YES vote on that amendment. Failure to vote NO amounts to half a vote YES. Note - If the election officer fails to give to you the separate constitutional amendment ballot, on November 3, ask for it. that every case of total drunkenness is a mortal sin and she teaches that a drunkard will not enter the kingdom of heaven. The Catholic priests knew long before any of our modern fanatics were born ?? bands and fathers addicted to ?? make their homes a veritable hel ? that the dollars given to the saloon keepers would be far better spent to buy bread for the hungry family and clothes for the ragged children. "I need only recall to your minds the great Father Matthew, the famous Irish apostle of temperance, who, almost a century ago, began his labors in the old country as well as in the new. But the Catholic Church while demanding sobriety and praising temperance does not endorse all claims and demands of teetotalism; does not first of all, because she knows how much hypocrisy is behind that movement; she does not teach that drinking in itself is a sin; that drunkenness is almost the only crime of human society; but she condemns excessive indulgence in this as in all other things; condemns it most earnestly as a transgression of the divine law and a debasement of human dignity. "Total abstinence, I repeat it, is a virtue, is, under certain conditions, an absolute necessity. No doubt, a drunkard cannot be cured unless he abstains entirely from all intoxicating drinks; a young man who has inherited an inclination for drink from his parents must become a teetotaler, otherwise he will end a bibbler. But, I think that all that can and should be performed without the interference of the lawgivers, because all good works are meritorious only when performed by our own volition and not by coercion on the part of the state. State prohibition is a very deliberate matter when one considers it from the viewpoint of Christian justice. Everyone holds the sacred right that the state may not take away his property, at least, not without paying indemnity. So long as you do not proclaim the socialistic order of things, Christian justice will oblige you to make reparation is you cause another's property to depreciate in value. Now there can be no doubt that state prohibition will reduce to a great extent the value of all property that is invested in the liquor business. You may say no one has the right to expect the protection of the state for his particular business; but every one has at least the strict right to be so protected so as not to be robbed of his honestly acquired property. During the last week the different pulpits of our city have been used - I do not say abused - to induce the voters this fall to make Ohio go dry. Considering the political condition of the state today, that means treating politics from the pulpit. We Catholics do not believe that the church is the proper place to influence the political consciences of the citizens. "I ask, did you ever hear in any Catholic Church any suggestions as to how to vote? If a priest wishes to treat on politics, and he has that right as a citizen, then he must seek other opportunities - the platform or the ?? but he is strictly forbidden to use the pulpit for such purposes. Nevertheless, you can read in a great many pamphlets and papers scattered broadcast over the country that we Catholics mix politics and religion; that Rome seeks to rule; that the Catholic hierarchy strives to gain control in the United States, endeavors to dictate to our government. "While pondering on the subject I cannot help thinking that those who clamor the loudest against the Catholic Church are the very ones who seek political influence and use such insinuations as a mask to cover their own purposes and aims and thus to remove suspicion." An Impending Menace to Property and Integrity (Continued From Page One.) clubs. Then there are the merest dives. The difference between the cross-roads "doggery" and the "cabaret" of the city is illimitable. Unfortunately people of the countryside see only the "doggery," and, by that standard, as the Courier-Journal has often said, the saloon is an indefensible quantity. In point of fact, it is the drinkers that make the saloons, not the saloons that make the drinkers. But our critic falls into quicksands when he adds "the least that is said by the ultra-whiskey people against local option the better it will be for them in days to come," meaning, of course, that the prohibition propaganda must be allowed to proceed unchecked and undisputed until its advocates, hiding behind what they call "local option" are ready to confiscate property honestly obtained and lawfully possessed without compensation or "due process," and make it a felony for anybody to take a drink. This is not alone rank despotism. It is not alone misdirected purism. It is unprincipled and immoral politics, conceived by fanaticism and justified by madmen, making alliance with corruption whilst seeking the support of the ignorant, the innocent and the gullible. It cannot be carried without yet degrading the popular sense of justice and law, nor be achieved without yet further debauching the character of the people. That the suggestion does not horrify the average citizen attests how low we have fallen in our public life and morals. It is proof of a certain degeneration in Kentucky politics. The thing nicknamed 'local option' in Kentucky would, if it were capable of speaking the truth, have a sorry tale to tell. Its origins were twofold: to drive out disorderly drink places from isolated and unprotected neighborhoods - a most legitimate and laudable purpose - and the opportunity which this gave the venal and dishonest to blackmail what our rustic commentator of Calvert City calls "the ultra-whiskey people." The two streams, one limpid and pure, the other muddy and turgid, met first in the county seats and finally in the state capital, working havoc with politics and morals. Kentucky - old Kentucky - dear Kentucky - was not of yore either a liar or a hypocrite. "Better England free than England sober," said the sturdy old English Bishop, mindful of Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights. Better be both, says the Courier- Journal; but not on compulsion; never at the bidding of canting cheats and dishonest fanatics. Rather than make Kentucky over in the likeness of Maine and Kansas, better to sink her in the bottom of the ocean. Yea, better, a thousand times better, in the deep of deeps, her standard of freedom and manhood at the fore - her fidelity to justice, public and private, intact - the tattered emblems of her glory about her, than a sea of fraud, a rotten old hulk of degeneracy and bigotry, honor gone, courage dead - all that makes for gallantry and grace departed - her only virtue by Act of Assembly, her only fame the memory of what she was and the shame of what the knave and fool have made her. THE HISTORY of WOMEN SUFFRAGE and THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS in CUYAHOGA COUNTY 1911-1945 VIRGINIA CLARK ABBOTT The publication of this volume has been made possible by a grant made by the Distribution Committee of the Cleveland Foundation from the following funds: The Frederick Harris Goff Fund, the A. W. Hurlbut Fund, the George W. and Sarah McGuire Fund. COPYRIGHTED 1949 BY VIRGINIA CLARK ABBOTT PRINTED BY THE WILLIAM FEATHER COMPANY THE HISTORY of WOMEN SUFFRAGE and THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS in CUYAHOGA COUNTY 1911-1945 by VIRGINIA CLARK ABBOTT AUTHOR'S NOTE The first part of my store - the History of the Suffrage Movement in Cuyahoga County (after 1910) - I have told in some detail. However, it would have been impossible to mention by name the thousands of courageous Cuyahoga County women who gave their loyal efforts to the cause of woman suffrage. I am especially grateful to the following suffrage workers whose personal memories of the long campaign to "Win the Vote" added color and humanness to my story: Judge Florence E. Allen, Miss Belle Sherwin, Mrs. Walter B. Laffer, Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride, Judge Mary B. Grossman, Mrs. Howard S. Thayer, Mrs. E. S. Bassett, Mrs. E. E. Hill, Miss Rose Moriarity, Mrs. A. B. Pyke, Mrs. Frederick Green, Mrs. Frances F. Bushea and Miss Marie Wing. The second part, the First 25 Years of the League of Women Voters in Cuyahoga County, is not a complete history. I regret that for the sake of continuity it was necessary to omit many local campaigns and significant legislative victories; that it was not possible to name in detail the successive League presidents, finance chairmen, voters' service chairmen, and the hundreds of other who contributed their share to the growth and prominence of the League of Women Voters in the community. Moreover, I would like to have included those "martyrs for the cause" whom Mary Kane refers to as the League's kitchen help: "Those who furnish the cars, the League speaker who puts on her hat at the last moment to 'fill in'; the 'packhorses' who carry League literature to the schools, the libraries and the Public Hall, then pay the taxi bill out of their own purse; those who set- 2 up the tables, but miss the luncheon, then hear the rattle of the dishes, instead of the speech" In addition to those suffragists and members of the League of Women Voters whom I have mentioned above, I want to thank the following League members for their cooperative interviews: Mrs. Max Hellman, Miss Margaret Johnson, Mrs. W. J. Schneider, Mrs. Lucia Johnson Bing, Mrs. Siegmund Herzog, Mrs. Ralph Kane, Mrs. Arthur Van Horn, Mrs. James T. Hoffmann, Mrs. Reed Rowley, Mrs. Roger J. Herter, and Mrs. E. J. Kenealy. Also Miss Elizabeth Magee, and the Messsrs.: Earl L. Shoup, Wendell Falsgraf, Joseph Crowley, James E. Ewers, S. Burns Weston and other who have helped unravel the complications of several local campaigns. Mrs. Emerich Sabo, Mrs. Peter Bellamy and Mrs. W. W. Kittinger were my invaluable editorial assistants. And Miss Betty Cooper, Executive Secretary of the League of Women Voters, helped with League records and file materials. It is my hope this short history will inspire future members of the League of Women Voters in Cuyahoga County with a desire to help carry on the League's continuing responsibilities - for good government, for improved social and economic conditions, for a more-informed electorate and for a better understanding of world affairs. V.C.A. 3 DEDICATION This little book tells all to briefly the story of the campaign for woman suffrage in Ohio and in Cuyahoga County, and also in the first 25 years of the League of Women Voters in the County. It cannot tell everything that happened - it has had to be selective. There is no complete record of that brave host of workers who, though unnamed, fought for their right to be citizens and finally triumphed in 1920. Many of these women are living today, and their memories have helped piece together a living picture of the valiant fight Cuyahoga County suffragists waged for the right to vote. The story of the first steps of the League of Women Voters is here. Though incomplete, it gives, we hope, a picture of a band of women, inexperience in politics, who, dedicated to the public interest, supporting no candidates, and caring only for issues has grown into an organization - unique in the world - which has won the respect and confidence of the nation. To every gallant soldier in the campaign for woman suffrage, and to every disciplined worker who made the League of Women Voters what it is, this little book is dedicated. LUCIA MCBRIDE 4 THE WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT IN CUYAHOGA COUNTY One hundred years ago in 1848, long before polite society, or for that matter "nice women" took up the fight for woman's equal suffrage, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton called together the first Woman's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Perhaps the immediate act which provoked woman- lawyer, Elizabeth Stanton to call this Convention was the fact that women had not been allowed to participate in a convention of Abolitionists. However, there was a long-time cause which actually brought about the beginning of this revolution of American women, the Woman Movement. According to historian, Mary R. Beard, this cause was the popular acceptance after the American Revolution, of Sr William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, and his interpretation of the legal status of married women. In Blackstone's chapter, "Of Husband an Wife," a married woman was completely subservient to her husband: "By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law; that is, the very being or legal existence of woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband; under whose wing, protection and cover, she performs everything." 5 At Seneca Falls, Mrs. Stanton proclaimed the historic subjection of women (quoting Blackstone as her authority), and Lucretia Mott and the other women reformers who attended this Convention discussed openly and vociferously the question of equal rights for women. They voted to adopt Mrs. Stanton's Declaration of Sentiments, a document modeled on the Declaration of Independence, which set forth the claims and demands of women to equality. But even those forward-looking ladies were shocked by the radical nature of Mrs. Stanton's proposals, which called for: equal suffrage; equal opportunities in the colleges, trades and professions; the right to share in all political offices, honors, and emoluments; the right to complete equality in marriage, including equal guardianship of children, and for married women, the right to engage in business and to testify in the courts of justice. Protested the gentle Mrs. Mott, "Why, Lizzie, thee will make us ridiculous." At this time, the more progressive states were considering proposals which would reform state laws concerning women's property rights. The same year of the Seneca Falls Convention, New York State passed a married woman's property bill which provided some safeguard to a married woman's property rights after marriage. Massachusetts, too, had its brave pioneer for woman's rights, Mary Upton Ferrin, who was waging a strenuous campaign against the Blackstone doctrines. Quoting from the History of Woman Suffrage by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, "Mrs. Ferrin traveled some six hundred miles, two-thirds of the distance on foot, circulating petitions which she presented to the State Legislature." 6 In Ohio Too. Though the women of Ohio "brought the conservatisms of Connecticut right with them" to the Western Reserve, by 1850, agitation for the Woman Movement was more general in Ohio than in any other state in the country. At Oberlin College, the first co-educational college in the country, Lucy Stone, one of Ohio's pioneers for women's rights, won a significant victory for women when she was allowed to read her graduation essay in 1847. Miss Stone was a very bright student, and she forced college authorities to reverse their decision that it would be "unwomanly" for a girl to speak before a "promiscuous" assembly. In 1850, at the Quaker meeting house in Salem, Ohio, Mrs. Betsey M. Cowles (a relative of the Bassett family of Cleveland) presided at the first officially recognized Ohio Women's Rights Convention. And sometime before the Salem Convention, Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, one of the founders of the Ohio Association, addressed a session of the Ohio Legislature in behalf of the right of women to hold their own inherited property and earnings. Mrs. Severance was most bold and daring, yet according to newspaper report, she was heard with "attention and respect." Other members of the Severance family - Miss Mary Severance and Mr. R. E. Severance - took a prominent part in the 1853 session of the National Woman's Rights Association, which Lucretia called together in Cleveland. And so, even before the Civil War, Ohio women were agitating for equal rights. The first "Votes for Women" bill, calling for a constitutional amendment which would be approved by the voters of the state, was introduced in the Ohio Legislature before the Civil War. However, when war was declared, the 7 women of Ohio suspended their "woman's rights" activities for the war's duration. The Civil War. Women workers were needed in the factories - more than 100,000 in the textile mills, almost 30,000 in the boot and shoe factories, and even in the munitions plants where small numbers of women were making ammunition for small arms and artillery. At last, through necessity, womanhood was ceasing to be a protected group - the war was establishing women's right to labor outside the home. In the North, many of these working women were suffragists as well as abolitionists, and they held high hopes that the end of the war would bring political enfranchisement for women as well as for Negroes. Therefore, when at war's end there were few new political gains for women, and hundreds of women war workers were turned out of their jobs, suffragists were bitterly disappointed. In this dark-gray chapter of suffrage history, Susan B. Anthony was arrested at her home in Rochester, New York, on a federal warrant charging her with illegally voting in the congressional election of 1872. Here sensational trial was played up by the national press; 13 other suffrage pioneers were haled into court, together with four election judges and clerks who had accepted Miss Anthony's ballot. Susan Anthony was given a speedy hearing and fined $100 and costs. Though she refused to pay her fine and was never jailed, this case caused a considerable national rumpus, and hastened some change in the public attitude toward the suffrage movement. Encouraged by this sympathetic reaction to her act, Miss Anthony launched her national campaign to win congressional consideration of a resolution providing 8 for the submission to the states of a constitutional amendment enfranchising women. Finally, the suffrage movement was making real progress. Wyoming had given women citizens the franchise in 1869 and other western states - Idaho, Utah and Colorado - were preparing to follow Wyoming's lead. These state gains, together with Miss Anthony's action proposing a suffrage amendment to the U. S. Constitution, inspired a new wave of enthusiasm in the suffrage ranks. Ohio for Suffrage Early pioneers in the Ohio suffrage movement were the women of Newbury, "out Punderson Pond way" in Geauga County. Besides being strong supporters of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, Newbury's women were also leaders in the move for feminine dress reform, political reform, and other rights of women. Not content to wait for Ohio to get "Votes for Women," the suffragists of Newbury took matters in their own hands, and in the election of '71, nine women cast their "illegal" votes for the Governor of Ohio. While these votes were conveniently lost in the shuffle between Chardon and Columbus, the members of the Newbury Woman's Political Suffrage Club were not discouraged. Again, the next fall, fourteen women planned to cast their votes. But according to the story, the town's foresighted politicians hired a lot of boys to fill the voting place with smoke, and the women voters were forced to retreat from the polls. Nevertheless, the Newbury women won their point. The men and boys apologized for the "smoke-out" and by the next election Newbury had equal municipal suffrage. By now, Ohio was recognized as a center for suf- 9 frage activity. In 1869, Julia Ward Howe, Lucy Stone and others met in Cleveland to form the American Woman's Suffrage Association. This new organization advocated suffrage by state adoption, while the Stanton-Anthony National Woman's Suffrage Association continued to stress suffrage by constitutional amendment. Since at that time, "states rights" was a major political issue, it was some years before the leaders of these two factions of the movement could resolve their differences in the National American Woman's Suffrage Association, an organization promoting suffrage by both state adoption and federal amendment. The same year of the Cleveland meeting, both Cuyahoga County and Toledo organized local chapters of the new American Woman's Suffrage Association. And so began the campaign for state adoption suffrage in Ohio. An aggressive group, the women of Toledo took the lead in a battle for women's right to vote in the Ohio school elections. And finally, in 1894, after years of persistent effort, Mrs. Caroline McCullough Everhard and the Toledo suffragists pushed on to a victory for all Ohio women - the Ohio Legislature gave women the right to vote in school elections. Constitutional Convention. The Woman Movement in the United States was making definite progress by the turn of the century. Seven million women wage earners were working outside the home, more than 900,000 in the manufacturing industries; the women of Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado had the ballot, and Washington and California would soon follow; then too, in other states (like Ohio where women voted in the school elections) women had 10 partial suffrage. However, east of the Mississippi, approval of suffrage and other women's rights was coming about with considerable caution. In Ohio, women like Mrs. Frances D. Casement of Painesville, President of the Ohio Women's Suffrage Association (after 1885), and Mrs. Emma S. Olds of Elyria became inveterate letter writers, and with dogged determination they won support and workers for the cause. One of Mrs. Casement's converts was Harriet Taylor Upton of Warren. "She bombarded me with letters and pamphlets and helped me see the light," said Mrs. Upton. Nevertheless, in spite of the women of Newbury and Toledo and such enthusiasts as Mrs. Casement and Mrs. Olds, it was late 1910 before Ohio suffragists decided to make an organized attempt to win universal suffrage by state adoption. That year, a Constitutional Convention was called to draft a new Constitution for Ohio, and leaders of the Ohio Suffrage Association recognized this as an opportunity to push ahead for suffrage groups, and several of the ten were in a near-dormant state, organizing a state-wide campaign was a tremendous job. Moreover, the time was short. The Association was also at a great disadvantage because of a shortage of experienced leaders, but one remarkable exception was Miss Elizabeth Hauser of Girard, Ohio, who was sent to organize the Cleveland campaign. Cleveland Organizes The Cuyahoga County Woman's Suffrage Association had had many ups and downs since its founding in 1869, but thing began to happen when Miss Hauser took over. A newspaper woman by pro- 11 fession, Elizabeth Hauser had also been Tom Johnson's Secretary and she knew how to get things done. After opening offices in the Old Arcade, Miss Hauser sent an open invitation to all Cleveland women interested in suffrage to attend a meeting in the parlors of the Hotel Hollenden. That meeting reverberated the new life and hope of the Ohio movement, and the Cleveland campaign was launched with two immediate objectives: Electing delegates to the Constitutional Convention, who had declared themselves for Suffrage. Enlisting thousands of new members in the Cuyahoga County Woman's Suffrage Association. The College League. It should be explained that earlier in 1910, before Miss Hauser came to Cleveland, Inez Milholland, of the famous Vassar "Suffrage Class," and the beautiful and talented Mrs. Maud Wood Park of Boston helped Cleveland organize a chapter of the National College Equal Suffrage League. Charter members of this League were some of Cleveland's most brilliant women: Vassar graduates Minerva K. Brooks and Adele McKinney; Emma Perkins, whose mother, Mrs. Sara Perkins, had been a member of the Cuyahoga County Equal Rights Association, and who was herself a Professor at Western Reserve; Mrs. Willard Beahan, a graduate of the first co-educational class of Cornell University, who was considered "a woman ahead of her time"; Mrs. Frederick C. Howe and Mrs. Anna Bemis, who "burned with suffrage enthusiasm"; Mrs. O. F. Emerson, wife of a Western Reserve professor; Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride, Mrs. L. B. Bacon, a niece of 12 Susan B. Anthony, who had a flair for dramatics and directed suffrage plays, and many others. These two groups - the Cleveland Suffrage Association and the College Suffrage League - maintained their separate identities, but they cooperated with each other in the campaign effort, in fact not a few College League members were also members of the Association. Cedar Point Picnic. To rally workers for the summer campaign, Miss Hauser and her small nucleus of 1911 organizers - the popular Zara DuPont, the energetic Mrs. Myron B. Vorce, and the experienced Myrta L. Jones, who had worked with the Consumer's League - made plans for a picnic and outing at Cedar Point, June 1. The skies were over-cast and threatened rain the day of the picnic and only 200 of the expected 1,200 guests turned up; nevertheless, the affair was considered a great success for it was "the most fashionable demonstration in the history of the suffrage movement in Ohio." According to a society report of the event, "the women were politely enthusiastic but insistently disinclined either to be excited or militant . . . They were willing enough to wear "Votes for Women" badges which were sold on the boat for 10¢ each, but they refused to wave "Votes for Women" flags provided for the occasion." Fifty Association members from other northern Ohio counties joined the Clevelanders: Mrs. Pauline Steinem of Toledo, the President of the Ohio Woman's Suffrage Association was there; also Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton with a delegation of 18 women from Warren; Mrs. Emma S. Olds and her delegation from Elyria; and College League members 13 - Mrs. L. B. Bacon, Adele McKinney and Minerva K. Brooks, who were also members of the Association - were all on hand for this big event. Mrs. Pankhurst Speaks. A surprising addition to the Cleveland campaign was the appearance of Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, militant leader of England's suffrage movement, who was on her way home to England after a world-wide lecture tour. Mrs. Pankhurst needed little further publicity to draw a capacity Cleveland audience. However, members of the Suffrage Association Executive Board who met Mrs. Pankhurst at Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride's Mayfield Club luncheon, and the 1,500 women and men who heard her afternoon lecture at the Knickerbocker Theatre expected a self-assertive, masculine-type woman. Instead, they were pleasantly surprised when the much-talked-of Mrs. Pankhurst turned out to be a woman of small stature and gracious, feminine ways. Her words, though defiant, were soft-spoken. She told her "fashionable" audience that her lecture tour in foreign countries had convinced her that the world-wide objection to any progressive move for women was fear that if women became any further advanced through suffrage or education they would neglect their families and their domestic instincts. Many of the curious who came to see Mrs. Pankhurst were won over to suffrage, and once again a suffrage event rated social consideration One society editor noted that on the afternoon of the lecture "a double line of smart motors was standing on Euclid Avenue and the streets adjacent to the Knickerbocker Theatre," and concluded that society had joined forces with suffrage. 14 Gaining Respectability From the days when newspapers and cartoonists poked fun at Mrs. Bloomer and her wearing apparel, and minstrel men made gags about Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony, to the present, the suffrage movement had suffered from not being "fashionable." Though the Cedar Point picnic had attracted a few of Cleveland's more courageous society women to the fold, and many "curious" socialites had attended Mrs. Pankhurst's lecture, more important Cleveland names were needed if the movement was to be recognized as socially respectable. All during that summer, Miss Hauser made calls on Cleveland's first families, seeking women who would allow their names to be used in the campaign. Some promised little more than the use of their names, but among those who accepted Miss Hauser's call were Mrs. Edward W. Haines, the daughter of the much respected Dr. Hiram Hayden - a Professor of Religion at Western Reserve and pastor of the Old Stone Church; Mrs. Charles W. Thwing, whose husband was President of Western Reserve; Miss Harriet L. Keeler, nationally known author and authority on the trees and flowers of Ohio, who later became the honorary chairman of the Cuyahoga County Woman's Suffrage Association; Mrs. Frederick H. Goff and Mrs. Henry Upson whose mother, Mrs. Louise Southworth had been one of the original members of that small nucleus of Cleveland Suffragists - the Equal Rights Association; Mrs. Newton D. Baker, wife of the City Solicitor, and herself an accomplished musician who generously contributed her talent to suffrage events; Mrs. Minot Simons, wife of the unitarian minister, the first President of the Men's Suffrage League; Mrs. George Addams, the 15 mother of Judge George Addams gave her moral support, and the indispensable Mrs. Ralph Mitchell paid the office rent. For many it was a questionable privilege to be signaled out for action with the suffrage movement. "I was embarrassed to have Miss Houser call on me," said Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride, "I was reluctant to involve my husband and his family in the suffrage movement." Mrs. McBride also remembers "dragging" Miss Belle Sherwin into suffrage work. Miss Sherwin admits that she had a "natural shrinking from publicity" and that before Mrs. McBride sought her out, she had never been in the public eye. Courageously, she taught school after graduating from Wellesley because she "burned to do something that was considered wicked," and after returning to Cleveland she was an early leader in welfare activities in the community. Because Miss Sherwin's conscience wouldn't allow her to receive suffrage as a gift, she "joined up." Men's League Organizes. Also adding considerable prestige to the Cleveland movement was a group of prominent Cleveland movement was a group of prominent Cleveland men - mostly husbands and relatives of active suffragists - who put themselves on record for suffrage when they organized a Cleveland chapter of the Men's Equal Suffrage League of Ohio. City Solicitor Newton D. Baker, who was at that time a candidate for mayor of Cleveland, was chairman of the first meeting when Minot Simons, pastor of Unity Church was elected President . Others among the early members were Charles W. Thwing, President of Western Reserve; Professors O. F. Emerson and A. R. Hatton, also of the University; Myron B. Vorce, Leopold Wolf, Charles S. Brooks, Malcolm L. 16 McBride, Phillip Merrill, Charles R. Hayden, Clay Herrick, Leon B. Bacon, Charles O. Jenkins, and Dr. Harris L. Cooley, who had been a member of Tom Johnson's cabinet. Like the women's group, this Men's Suffrage League published a pamphlet, which reported state and local activities of the Ohio Men's Suffrage Association. A Victory - At Last! It was rewarding to the effort put in on the 1911 pre-election summer's campaign that an all-time high of 5,407 women voters registered for the fall school election. But still, there was no letdown in campaign steam. The house-to-house canvassers kept plugging away getting the 15,000 signatures for the petitions Cleveland would present to the 1912 Constitutional Convention. By February, when the Convention met, a majority of Cuyahoga County's delegates had been won over to suffrage and declared themselves in favor of "Votes for Women." Signed petitions in hand, two very proud Cleveland "lobbyists" - Mrs. Myron B. Vorce and Elizabeth Hauser - set out for Columbus to join Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, the new President of the Ohio Woman's Suffrage Association, and the other members of the Ohio Suffrage Lobby. At suffrage headquarters, across the street from the Capitol, the witty Mrs. Upton made a statement to the press: "This time we're not being given the cold shoulder. There's nobody sliding down mail chutes or climbing out coal holes to get away from us . . . Even the men who 'ain't jes' tellin' where they stand, give us respectful hearings; they treat it as a simple business proposition." 17 However, since the members of this "lobby" were among the brainiest of Ohio's women, it is little wonder they were given a respectful hearing. According to William Kilpatrick of Warren, Chairman of the Convention's Equal Suffrage Committee and a valiant campaigner for the woman's cause, "no better organized lobby ever haunted the Capitol corridors than that of the Ohio Woman's Suffrage Association." On February 15, the Convention voted 76 to 34 in favor of submitting Amendment 23 - a woman suffrage amendment - to the vote of a special election, September 3. With this victory the suffragists of Ohio had won the first round in their battle for the ballot. Congratulations came from suffragists all over the country and some of the greatest women leaders of the day promised help in the coming campaign. Soap Box Oratory Earlier in the year, a new and bolder campaign technique - soap-box speaking - was first introduced to Cleveland when Miss Martha Gruening, a militant suffragist of New York who had been arrested as a picket in the Philadelphia garment worker's strike, addressed an open-air suffrage meeting in the Public Square. A small group of local women - Miss Hauser, Mrs. Vorce, Miss Bertelle Lyttle and Mrs. Arnold Green, an independent candidate for the Board of Education, accompanied Miss Gruening to the Square and passed out literature at the meeting. They reported back to "headquarters" that the speech was well-received and that such "unladylike" procedure seemed to get results. the success of this meeting gave Mrs. Vorce an inspiration - why not series of trolley car excursions 18 and open-air meetings in Medina, Bedford, Willoughby, Oberlin, Norwalk, Chagrin Falls, Painesville, and East Cleveland? Mrs. Maud Wood Park of Boston and her assistant, Miss Florence E. Allen, who had just finished law school in New York, were filling several Cleveland speaking engagements and they were persuaded to join the first such junket to Medina. One can imagine the gayety of that morning when 40 Cleveland suffragists and members of the press, including cub reporter, Louis B. Seltzer, set out in their private trolley, covered on both sides with big "Votes for Women" signs and rechristened the "Susan B. Anthony." Mrs. Park did most of the speaking on this occasion, but Florence Allen and Mrs. Vorce ventured a few words and Ruth Feather, Mrs. L. J. Wolf, Myrta Jones, Zara Du Pont, Mrs. J. J. Sullivan, Mrs. John N. Stockwell, Mrs. Frederick Green, Grace Drake and others passed out yellow "Votes for Women" leaflets. Still others like Mrs. Clarence Collens, whose mother was an early New York suffragist, joined the courageous pilgrimage. The following Sunday, Louis Seltzer's feature story of the trip appeared in the Sunday supplement of the Cleveland Leader. According to his report, the suffragists got a rather cool reception in Medina, and there were laughing jeers and taunts from those men who were bold enough to say out loud that they thought women "ought to stay home." And so, timidly at first, but with the conviction of their cause, Cleveland's suffragists took to the soap box. Among the first was Ruth Feather. Ruth, a recent college graduate, was young and bold and didn't seem to worry much about public opinion. Another, was Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride who admitted that she 19 always hoped it would be the wrong day, or that there wouldn't be anybody there when she was scheduled for a speech, and the spectacular Mrs. Roger G. Perkins. Edna Perkins, the daughter of Charles F. Brush, the inventor, was a powerfully built woman who stood more than six feet tall, and besides climbing mountains, she could "do anything she put her mind to," including speeches for suffrage. Heckling Suffragists. For the 1912 summer campaign, Mr. A. J. Gilman, the father of Mrs. Frederick C. Merrick, provided transportation for the local speakers in a "chauffeured" 7-passenger, red Winton touring car. The "girls" were delighted with the Winton, for the color was very gay and with the top down they could address their audiences without leaving the car. The chauffeur, however, was not so delighted with the suffragists. A young college student working his way through Yale, he was mad and ashamed to the bottom of his soul to be driving around with "those women". That summer, Mrs. Royce Day Frey held training classes for the suffrage speakers and her students were well-drilled in the importance of answering all questions from the audience. It was this training which led to a most embarrassing evening for Ruth Feather: One clear, starlight night, Ruth - in the company of her chaperon - Miss Zara DuPont, an indefatigable suffragist - drove up to her corner at the Public Square in the "chauffeured" Winton. When she stood up in the back of the car and started her speech, she noticed a drunken man on the fringes of the crowd. Quietly at first, and then with more insistence the drunk raised his hand for recognition. Ruth first 20 tried ignoring him, but as he edged his way through the crowd and asked, "Say, lady, can I ask a question?", Ruth remembered her speakers' class training and feared what the crowd would think if she refused to answer him. "Well, sir," she said, "what is your question?" "Say, lady," said the drunk, "can I go home now?" Incidents like this were not infrequent, for heckling suffragists was a favorite afternoon sport that summer. Shortly after the Constitutional Convention victory, the Cuyahoga County Suffrage Association had changed its name to the Cuyahoga County Woman's Suffrage Party, and now hardly a day passed at headquarters on Euclid Avenue, without some coy gentleman popping his head in the door and asking as he pointed to the Woman's Suffrage Party sign, "Where's the party, girls?" Undaunted, these "girls" were not cowed by the taunts of the passer-by or the "niceties" of the past. They were learning new and effective techniques for selling their cause, and once on the soap-box, they talked, and talked some more. Out-of-State Help. 1912 was a Presidential election year, and a constant stream of out-of-state suffrage speakers came to Ohio, not only to help in the Ohio campaign, but to take advantage of the audiences that came out to hear the presidential candidates - Republican Taft, Bull Moose, Teddy Roosevelt and Robert M. LaFollette. Some of these guest suffrage speakers were a great help to the Ohio effort. There were women of national prominence: Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, President of the National American Woman's Suffrage Association and one of the first woman preachers in 21 this country, fired the opening guns of the Cleveland campaign in a speech at Gray's Armory; and Jane Addams of Hull House, in spite of vociferous objections of the local Anti-Suffrage Association, included a plea for suffrage in her Chamber of Commerce speech. There were young traveling militants like Jeanette Rankin of Montana, who was later elected first U. S. Congresswoman, Margaret Foley and Florence Luscomb of Boston. Long "auto" trips were considered a risky business - particularly for women - and these young ladies won considerable publicity for the cause by their daring cross-country dashes. Then there were others, like Rosalie Jones who drove from New York in a yellow wagon, and the militant team who set out to "cover Ohio" in an Amish horse-drawn cart. These suffragists alienated public opinion and were a great worry to Mrs. Upton and the Ohio Association. Even Mary Garrett Hay, who played a prominent part in winning the vote for the women of New York, embarrassed members of the local party when she insisted on keeping an evening speaking engagement above a local saloon. Since she was a guest and must have an escort, Sheldon Kerrush of the Men's League was pressed into service. Factory Talks. Two out-of-state campaigners who made a large contribution to the Cleveland effort were: Miss Louise Hall, a Vassar classmate of Minerva K. Brook's from Providence, R. I., and Miss Rose Schneiderman, an executive officer of the National Women's Trade Union League in New York. In line with Mrs. Upton's suggested policy that the suffragists carry their arguments for "Votes for Women" into the factories and shops, Miss Hall and 22 Miss Schneiderman helped organize Cleveland's first noon-hour factory talks. An audience of men and two women at the H. W. Black Company listened attentively to Miss Hall's first talk of the drift of women's work from the home to the factory. Then Miss Schneiderman, a former cap maker who had had considerable experience as a union organizer, approached the men in the unions. Rose Schneiderman knew how to "talk right up" to those union suffragists like Harry J. Thomas of the Carpenters' Union. Harry Thomas made a habit of "just dropping around" suffrage headquarters to see if there was anything he could do. New York Parade As in Ohio, the voters of New York State would decide the fate of "Votes for Women" in their 1912 election. As the major event in the New York campaign, other states were invited to take part in a "Votes for Women" pageant parade - the largest demonstration of women ever seen in the United States. California and the western states would send a special train of paraders. And Cleveland promised a float of "handsome equestriennes." Zara DuPont and Grace Treat, first Executive Secretary of the Suffrage Association in Cleveland, gave local publicity to the New York parade when they posed for newspaper pictures in an especially designed 37¢ hat which the paraders would wear. Though not the first suffrage publicity pictures, these were the first "front view" pictures. The first photographed suffrage group in Cleveland was a pathetically frightened little group of women 23 who had turned their backs to the camera when they were seized with last minute stage fright. The final effect was a "back-view" of a group of suffragists looking intently in the headquarters' window. Symbolizing the moral support of those who could not get to New York, Cleveland headquarters had a special window display - a miniature "Votes for Women" parade. Suffrage statuettes, borrowed from a local department store, carried suffrage signs like this: "Women should vote, what do you say? She pays the taxes, she obeys the laws, She is mother and teacher. Women should vote. Why not?" All was not peace and harmony in preparation for this great parade in New York, for the two factions of the Suffrage Association had come into open conflict. The militants approved the tactics of the English Suffragets, and the non-militants believed that the gentle, more feminine approach was more suitable for this country. A fuss and fury developed over the question of whether the cavalry divisions of the parade would ride side-saddle or astride. Both sides threatened to withdraw from the parade in this "battle of the habits," and though it was finally resolved in the decision that the riders could make their personal choice of habit, was one of many differences which brought about a complete division between the militants and the non-militants. The wealthy and influential Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont and her assistant, Miss Alice Paul, led the militant faction of the New York Association into forming a Congressional Union, and in 1913 the political branch of that Union was organized as the National Woman's 24 Party. These U. S. militants patterned their campaign tactics on those of Mrs. Pankhurst and her followers the same gracious Mrs. Pankhurst who six months before had charmed a Cleveland audience. Now, Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst had been sentenced to nine months' imprisonment on a charge of conspiracy and inciting to malicious damage of property. And her protesting followers had also been hustled off to jail where they sang hymns and refused food until they were forcibly fed through the nostrils. In this country, newspapers printed lurid imaginative, line drawings of these forced feedings, and while there was great sympathy for the English women and their cause, it was definitely felt by members of the Suffrage Association that these tactics were not necessary in the United States. Columbus Parade Following New York's lead, the Ohio Woman's Suffrage Association planned to climax the Ohio campaign with a huge suffrage parade at the Centennial in Columbus, August 27. Though smaller than the New York display, this Columbus parade had its stellar attractions; six Roman chariots, each pulled by two snow white horses and driven by a pretty girl in green, came from Baltimore to lead the 3,000 women, men and children through the streets of Columbus. The Cleveland suffragists - women, men, and children - arrived in a special car provided by the Pennsylvania Railroad. In the parade, Myrta Jones, Zara DuPont, Selma Sullivan and Mrs. J. J. Sullivan led the Cleveland delegation carrying a large banner with the slogan: "Women Vote in China; Why not in Ohio?" 25 Other Clevelanders took part in the prize-winning float - "The Suffragist Arousing Her Sisters." This float, a replica of the Woman's Suffrage Association's large white plaster statue, had had a hectic through interesting past. A gorgeous, much-draped cheesecloth affair, the float had taken second parade prize and first section prize in Cleveland's 4th of July Parade. And though neither of its decorators - Mrs. Dean Mathews and Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride - admitted to having a "decorating sense," they were deserving of their honors. In the last minutes before that Cleveland parade was called to order, the heroine of the tableau did not "show up." And after spending nine hours in the White Motor Car Garage draping that truck in its miles and miles of cheesecloth, the decorating team of McBride and Mathews was not to be cheated of its show. In view of the desperate need, Mrs. McBride persuaded an innocent bystander - an attractive young woman passing by on the street - to substitute for the Suffragist. This woman had a child, but that was a small problem. As "The Suffragist Arousing Her Sisters" floated out to parade, Mathews and McBride settled down to baby-tending. Party Organization At about this point in the campaign, the Cuyahoga County Woman's Suffrage Association became the Cuyahoga County Woman's Suffrage Party in order to encompass a new organizational set-up, borrowed from the regular political parties. Now, with ward and district chairmen and precinct workers collecting together small neighborhood groups of interested women, the Suffrage Party was realizing a new 26 strength. Suffrage speakers could always count on a good audience at the ward meetings, and districts were canvassed two and three times. More and more women appeared with the suffrage colors - gold buttons with blue letters, "Ohio Next." Zara DuPont won here reputation as an organizer going about Greater Cleveland in the red Winton perfecting these ward suffrage groups. But in spite of their strenuous campaign, voting day - September 3, 1912 - came all too soon for Ohio suffragists. From the Haymarket district to the suburbs, the polls, and from 5:30 A. M. on through the day they passed out literature (contributed by a loyal suffrage friend - S. J. Monck, the printer). Alas, when the votes were tallied, Amendment 23 lost by 87,455 votes. Those in the "political know" were surprised that Amendment 23 got the second largest number of votes of the election, for all during the campaign there had been a strong, organized opposition from the liquor interests who feared that voting women would outlaw the saloon. The suffragists got full credit for creating the keen interest in the issue, but this was small comfort to the Cleveland Woman's Suffrage Party. There had been a special esprit de corps among the 1911-1912 campaigners: Ohio was the first state east of the Mississippi to vote on the question of universal suffrage; these suffragists were the first "nice women" to wave flags and carry banners in the streets; the first to have their pictures taken for publicity; and the first to make soap-box speeches. Furthermore, Cleveland suffragists had "believed" that they would win. 27 Salem Pilgrimage. Mrs. Upton, the true leader that she was, sensed the discouragement and dampened spirits in the ranks, and organized a pilgrimage to Salem, Ohio - the meeting place of the second Equal Rights Convention in 1850. There was strength to be gained from reconsidering the long years that this battle for women's rights and political freedom had been going on, and the many victories that had been won since the days of Betsey Cowles. Mrs. Upton and the persevering suffragists - re-adopted the Resolutions of 1850, and "consecrating themselves anew to the cause," they returned home with new courage to wage the next battle for suffrage. The following year there was a premature effort to petition another suffrage election, but this petition was withdrawn until a law was passed which clarified and safeguarded the initiative and referendum clause of the Ohio Constitution. This law made it possible to petition for an amendment to the Constitution. Again, in 1914 new petitions were circulated and the campaign was on to get the necessary 131,271 signatures (10 per cent of the voters in the last election in 88 counties of Ohio) which would put another woman's suffrage amendment to a vote of the state. "Whiskey" Lobby Many Ohio newspapers had considered the Anti- Saloon League endorsement of "Votes for Women" and the contention that women would vote out the saloon - the 1912 kiss of death for Amendment 23. And there is little doubt that this publicized association of the suffrage cause with the prohibition movement proved an early disadvantage in the 1914 campaign. In this election, suffrage was one of the three election issues: Woman Suffrage; a referendum on the 28 prohibition amendment; and repeal of the county local option law. Even before the Woman's Suffrage Party had lined up its campaign, carrying out the 1914 slogan - "a leader in every ward, a captain for every precinct" - the wet-dry issue stole center stage and "Votes for Women" became a secondary issue. Zara DuPont and the Suffrage Party President, Mrs. Minerva K. Brooks, made repeated statements to the press, protesting the attempts of the prohibitionists to connect suffrage and prohibition. They stressed the Suffrage Party's strict neutrality on the wet-dry question. "The women of our party are so widely divided on the question that we could not think of complicating our affairs by mixing in the wet and dry campaign," said Mrs. Brooks. Though the Woman's Suffrage Party had taken no stand on this question in the 1912 campaign, there was at least one open gesture of friendliness to the "whiskey group." Johnny Kilbane, U. S. feather- weight boxing champion and a loyal suffrage supporter, came from that very tough section down on the Flats which was then known as "Whiskey Island." Johnny was a Cleveland hero, and when he dropped in at suffrage headquarters with a newspaper photographer and generously offered to have his picture taken with a group of suffragists down on "Whiskey Island," Grace Treat seized this opportunity for publicity. She made a spot recruitment of those suffragists who happened to be at headquarters, the ever-loyal Belle Sherwin and Mrs. J. J. Sullivan and others went along with Johnny to Whiskey Island where they posed on a flat car. Other Cleveland citizens gave their support. Peter Witt, who hoped to be Mayor of Cleveland stood be- 29 hind the suffragists in this fight with the liquor interests. One night on the stage of the Hippodrome, Peter Witt announced that he was a convert of suffrage and that if the people didn't want to vote for suffrage they didn't have to vote for him. Said Witt, "I don't know, but I'll hazard a guess that those who are furnishing the money to finance the anti-suffrage campaign are people who are afraid of the good influence of good women." But in spite of these valiant attempts to profess friendship and neutrality on the wet-dry issue, there was always the woman on the street, who when asked would say: "Yes, I'm for suffrage, I'm dry." As this campaign proceeded, the "whiskey lobby" came out in open opposition to the Suffrage Amendment. Charging that there was a tie-up between prohibition and suffrage and that woman's vote would close the saloons, they pointed to the hundreds of Ohio suffragists who were members of the Women's Christian Temperance Union; to crusading prohibitionists like Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, President of the National Suffrage Association and Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, President of the Ohio Suffrage Association. The Woman's Suffrage Party could not deny that many Ohio suffragists, particularly in the rural communities, did belong to the W. C. T. U. Though it is the opinion of Rose Moriarity - an early suffragist and one of Ohio's first women politicians - that many of these women were not active prohibitionists, but women who found that the gay social events of the W. C. T. U. offered a welcome relief from their straight- laced, church-going life. Certainly it could not be denied, that Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Upton and many other suffrage leaders throughout the country made no secret of their hope that 30 "Votes for Women" would do away with the saloon. In American history this was an era of reform, and independently, and through reform organizations, women were leading the campaign against the evils of the day - the limited franchise, war, the white slave traffic, sweat shop labor conditions for women and children, the saloon. Anti-Suffragists It was one thing to be opposed by the men and the whiskey forces and quite another to have opposition from an organized group of women. Mrs. Upton commenting on the defeat of Amendment 23 had said, "Two enemies are working against us - a band of ignorant and futile women, very few in number and the federated forces of evil. The former makes no impression, the other is powerful and will grow more powerful as the days advance." Though Mrs. Upton did not consider the Ohio Association Opposed to Woman's Suffrage (the Anti- Suffragists) and its "inactive" membership list of fashionable names as serious opposition in the 1911- 1912 campaign, one cannot underestimate the talents of the Anti-Suffragist's Ohio spokesman, Mrs. John M. Gundry of Cleveland. Mrs. Gundry was intelligent and an effective speaker and writer and at the 1912 Constitutional Convention where she warned the delegates against suffrage, she shared the same platform with suffragists Elizabeth Hauser and Mrs. Vorce. These were Mrs. Gundry's chief "Anti" arguments: -Domestic ties would not remain the same and the home would not be the same if women voted. -Giving the vote to the women of Colorado 31 had brought a higher divorce rate and more illegitimate children. -Not more than 10 per cent of the women of Ohio wanted the vote, and the other 90 per cent were content with the present arrangement. Suffragists Myrta L. Jones, Ruth Feather and Mrs. L. J. Wolf answered Mrs. Gundry's arguments in letters to the press, but once again in the 1914 campaign, the Cleveland Anti-Suffrage Association revived itself with the same old 1912 arguments. The "Antis" opened expensive new downtown Euclid Avenue offices and began issuing a seemingly endless stream of anti-suffrage literature. By 1914, the membership list was so filled with names of Cleveland's top-drawer society that Minerva K. Brooks, who was of "society" herself, made this open charge: "The homes along Euclid Avenue are, for the most part, strongholds of the Anti-Suffragists." Price-Allen Debates. After her 66-county organizing tour of Ohio in the summer of 1911, Miss Florence E. Allen had settled in Cleveland, where her speaking experience and legal training made Florence an invaluable addition to the Suffrage Party. Now, when Lucy Price (Mrs. Gundry's successor) of the "Antis" publicly offered to give $100 for any suffrage question the Anti-Suffragists could not answer, Florence challenged Miss Price to a series of three debates: at Gray's Armory, the Men's City Club and in Boston. The Plain Dealer reporting the City Club debate pointed out that in this campaign there was much less emphasis on a woman speaker's clothes and the color of her eyes. "Much of the novelty is gone, men of the state have grown accustomed to women 32 spellbinders and have accepted them as a part of the progress of time . . . listeners now are more interested in what the speaker has to say then her clothes, and the color of her eyes." Certainly no one could be less concerned with the foibles of feminine fashion than Florence Allen, but what Florence intended to wear in Boston was of great concern to Grace Treat, to Minerva Brooks and others of Miss Allen's closest friends who felt that this particular occasion demanded formal attire. When they finally ferreted out the shocking news that Florence intended to wear a suit, headquarters took the matter under advisement. Suffrage papers were put aside, a sewing machine installed, and those same suffragists, who had such a poor reputation for their domestic talents, turned Florence out in a "stunning" evening dress. In Boston, Miss Price repeated the same old argument that less than 10 per cent of the women of Ohio wanted the vote. Miss Allen challenged Miss Price to produce records to substantiate her statement. When she didn't, Florence closed in with the Ohio Suffrage Association's evidence that suffrage was indorsed by at least 500,000 Ohio women. Still this did not settle the matter. The "Antis" continued to throw out their unsubstantiated claims furnishing powerful talking points to the heavy opposition - the whiskey forces. Finance Problems The Cuyahoga County suffragists always had money problems; however, in 1912, Ohio had attracted national attention: speakers came to help publicize the election, and there were generous financial contributions from out-of-state. But now, 33 with growing emphasis on the national campaign for the Anthony Amendment and with other states waging their individual battles, Ohio had to carry its own financial weight. Competing with the wealthy Anti-Suffragists and the powerful whiskey interests required limitless funds, and in spite of Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride's wizardry as finance chairman, there were many times when the cupboard was nearly bare. Women like Mrs. Harold F. Seymour, Mrs. Andrew Squire, Mrs. Ralph A. Harman and the good Democrat, Mrs. Henry M. Coffinbury, were ever-loyal in these times of distress, but they were not rich women, and more than once Mrs. Brooks was prompted to tell her worries to the press. "We have no angels. We have no wealthy women to whom we can turn for unlimited funds . . . there has been a narrow margin many times between us and an empty treasury." In the 1912 campaign there had been a Country Garden Fair, a lavish, money-making event out at 65th Street on Euclid Avenue. Dancing, food, concessions, and an auction were the attractions of the evening, but best of all was the interpretive dancing. Minerva Brooks was keen on interpretive dancing, and she had arranged a Grecian number with very filmy garments. Marie Wing, Clare Ames and the other young ladies who took part in this dance pageant remember that night well. It was very chilly, and the fact that they appeared in their bare feet and filmy costumes was evidence of true devotion to the cause. However, the dance almost ended in chaos. The young Italian boy who took the part of Pan found his protection against the cold by disappearing into the bushes for a nip or two between scenes. 34 Now, in the 1914 campaign many more ingenious money-raising projects were needed to balance the budget. Party headquarters moved from the Huron- Euclid corner to the second floor of the Bangor Building. This new location had several advantages: the rent was cheap, the rooms were large and there were kitchen facilities - a small two-burner stove in a back room. Always eager to turn a nickel, the suffragists set up a headquarters restaurant where workers could drop in for lunch. Mrs. A. B. Pyke, then chairman of the Lakewood District, laughed when remembering the "restaurant." "It was strictly a non-professional, non-salaried affair, and anybody who had a specialty was pressed into service as a cook. The cooks took turns." Then there was a "Sacrifice Week" when members were not only asked to contribute money they would have spent for ice-cream sodas, shampoos and matinees as they did in 1912, but also to dig into their sock for valuables - rings, bracelets, and old gold. There was a suffrage bazaar, a suffrage night at the Colonial Theatre, and another garden fair. This fair was much like the previous one, but it was held at the old Euclid Club on Cedar Road. And this time, members of the Junior Auxiliary - Betty baker, Alice Stockwell, Elizabeth Stockwell, Alice Laffer, and others were recruited to do the dancing. Another money making project was "A Dream of Freedom," and elaborate pageant extravaganza with over 125 women, men and children taking part. Produced and directed by Miss Hazel MacKaye, a member of a brilliant family of artists and playwrights, who had dedicated her life to work for the emancipation of women. This pageant was a smashing financial success. The entertainment started with a 35 musical program, starring the heroine of the evening, the soprano, Mme. Frease-Green who played the part of Columbia. Then, in pantomime and dance the characters told the story of woman and her struggle for freedom and representation. The grand climax was the Pageant of the States: The enfranchised men and women from the states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Illinois, Idaho, Washington, California, Arizona, Kansas, Oregon the Territory of Alaska ascended Freedom's Heights together. But when the women from the unenfranchised states tried to follow, their progress was barred by the MEN. Publicity. If they didn't earn the money, most suffragists had to ask their husbands for every nickel they spent, and so good publicity was vitally important - it helped convince husbands that suffrage was a worthy cause. Though women and their suffrage activities were front page news, Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride - the finance chairman and the Party's "cracker-jack" new publicity chairman - Mrs. Howard S. Thayer continually stressed the importance of thanking editors and reporters for good suffrage stories in the local papers. Nevertheless, there was one period - at the beginning of the 1911-12 campaign - when relations with the press were somewhat strained. At that time, being a member of Miss Hauser's Executive Board was largely a volunteer affair, and one Board member just "happened" to be an ambitious young newspaper woman from the Cleveland Leader. After a series of embarrassing situations when this Board member scooped the other papers on news "before it had happened," 36 other members of the Board took the matter in hand. With feminine finesse, it was decided that meetings would be adjourned early, and after the reporter had gone home, the other Board members would reconvene to discuss intimate Party matters that were not intended for public consumption. But with this exception, the Party maintained excellent press relations. And in the 1914 campaign, Party President Mrs. Minerva K. Brooks claimed that every newspaper but one in the state had endorsed the 1914 campaign, if suffrage lost. Reporters like Louis B. Seltzer and Walker S. Buel were eager to get suffrage assignments. It had been a "lucky break" for cub reporter "Louie Seltzer when he got the Medina assignment, and his story won a good position in the Sunday supplement of the Cleveland Leader. Cartoonist J. H. Donahey of the Plain Dealer followed newsworthy suffrage movement in a series of cartoons that represents a chronological story of Cleveland's struggle for the vote. The Big Parade In the fall of 1914, when World War I was casting its shadow over Europe, Ohio suffragists were making plans for another all-state suffrage parade, this time in Cleveland. Returning to Cleveland, after spending the summer in Europe, Mrs. Brooks was very much upset over the war and thought the parade plans for October 3 should be postponed. But despite Minerva's warning, parade chairman, Mrs. Rufus P. Ranney and members of her committee decided to carry on with the parade, for the majority of Ohio's suffragists still believed in the possibility of peace - at least for the United States. 37 On October 3, an estimated 10,000 women, men and children - from 64 Ohio cities and counties - joined in this Cleveland parade for suffrage. Entire families like the John N. Sockwells, their three daughters, and Mr. Stockwell, Sr. passed the stands where Newton D. Baker, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton and other prominent state and local leaders were reviewing the parade. First came the impressive Grand Marshall - Miss Matilda Spence of Painesville - leading the procession on horseback. Then the leaders of the Cleveland Suffrage Party - Minerva K. Brooks, Mrs. Roger G. Perkins, Florence Allen, Mrs. Malcolmn L. McBride and others, and the divisions of bareheaded women in white marching six abreast with their District leaders: Mrs. Rufus P. Ranney, Mrs. Frank Muhlhauser, Mrs. J. A. Reaugh, Mrs. E. S. Bassett, Dr. Miriam Kerrush Stage, Mrs. F. G. Barker, Mrs. A. B. Pyke and the women of Lakewood and Mrs. Norman Anderson and the women of East Cleveland. Miss Virginia Wing and the other parade marshals on horseback were in charge of signaling the various divisions to join the ranks. Also, there were the business girls of the Wage Earners Suffrage League led by Selma Darmstadter, Mrs. Gertrude Handrick and Mary B. Grossman. Many business girls still boycotted suffrage, as they preferred to stress their femininity in the business world. But this group, which started in 1911 as a small nucleus of office workers who brought their lunches to headquarters, now boasted a membership of 350 girls. "We all had yellow corsages and we thought we were very 'swell', remembers Judge Mary B. Grossman. 38 Then there were the Woman's Party auxiliaries. Mrs. Howard S. Thayer helped organize the graduate nurses, social workers and kindergarten teachers. And Rose Charvat and Mrs. Ann Mulac and the foreign groups - the Bohemian, Jugoslavian, and Czechoslovakian women. Though only a few negro women marched, these women were outstanding suffragists: Jane Hunter, the founder of the Phyllis Wheatley House, the home for negro girls; Mrs. Thomas Fleming, a great suffrage ward worker; and Mrs. Alexander Martin, a graduate of Oberlin, who often sat in on the board meetings of the Suffrage Party. Though some of the original members of the Men's Suffrage League had dropped by the way, this still- lively organization had a large delegation in the parade. Among the new recruits were: Ralph A. Harman, Sheldon Kerrush, Frank Muhlhauser, Sherman A. Arter, Professor C. C. Arbuthnot, George A. Welch, Mr. Andrew Squire, George Green and others. Marie Wing, a YWCA worker, who would later be Cleveland's first woman member of the City Council, had called together several hundred industrial women workers, but when the parade was called to order there were only 50 women left in this division. This story now seems funny to Miss Wing, but it was a great blow at the time, for suffragists were sincerely concerned with the oppressed working woman and her problems, and Marie had spent months recruiting this delegation. However, when the unmarried girls saw the signs which headquarters expected them to carry - 4-sided transparencies with "hot: slogans like "Protect our Future Mothers" - the girls deserted in mass. Many of these working girls were unmarried, and they wouldn't be caught dead 39 on Euclid Avenue with signs referring to them as future mothers. Mrs. Walter B. Laffer also remembers this parade well. She had planned to march with the Cleveland Heights delegation, and loaned her cap and gown to Mildred Chadsey - Cleveland's first woman Safety Director of the Tom Johnson cabinet, who marched with the other cap and gowned members of the College League. However, on the day of the parade, Mrs. Laffer was late getting downtown, too late in fact to drop her two children off at Dr. Laffer's office, and too late to take advantage of the free checkroom service which was provided for the children of marching mothers. So as the parade passed by, she and the children just stepped into the Cleveland Heights delegation. Mrs. Laffer smiled with pride as she passed inspection on her two well-scrubbed marching darlings, but as they were passing the slums of the downtown district (now part of the Mall), she overheard one slovenly looking woman yell over to her neighbor: "You'd think them women would know enough to stay home and take care of their children." Though the general public had come a long way in being educated to the idea of women voting, not a few still held the common conception of a suffragist as a woman of masculine stride, short hair and self-asserted manner. If by chance she was a mother, she most certainly neglected her children, her husband and her home. Also it was rumored that suffragists and their families lived on canned goods and crackers, and it was assumed that if these women got the vote, they would neglect their domestic duties still further. 40 Suffrage Gains Though not in vain, the parades, pageants, pamphlets and other all-out propaganda efforts of the Ohio suffragists were not equal to the strength of the liquor interests - suffrage met a 335,390 - 518,295 defeat in this second attempt to put through a state amendment, in 1914. Defeat in Ohio could not stem the tide of the national movement. That year, for the first time since 1887, when A. A. Sargent of California introduced a suffrage resolution and it came to a vote in the Senate, suffrage was making gains on Capitol Hill in Washington. By now, several hundred national organizations were bringing pressure to bear on Congressmen, urging them to pass the Anthony Amendment! The American Federation of Labor, National Miner's Federation, the National Grange, the National Education Association, and other Women's Clubs and the National Women's Trade Union League all joined the campaign. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt was now President of the International Woman's Suffrage Association. At a mass meeting in Akron, Mrs. Catt called on the suffragists to stand on one plank - a Declaration of Independence. "Taxation without representation was wrong in the days of the colonists and it is wrong today," said Mrs. Catt. Finally, after still another defeat, a suffrage bill was voted out of the Senate by a one-vote majority. For the first time, suffrage came to a vote in the House. Although the bill was defeated by a 204-174 vote, suffragists were encouraged that Congress had finally taken action. And a national victory, which 41 would give suffrage to women in all states, was now a real possibility. Not only in Washington, but throughout the country, 1914 was recording more gains for suffrage than had been made in any one year since the movement began. There were important state campaigns in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New York. Members of the Ohio State Board: Mrs. Upton, Elizabeth J. Hauser, Zara DuPont, and Mrs. Vorce went east to make their out-of-state contributions to these campaigns, and Clevelanders - Minerva K. Brooks, Mrs. Roger G. Perkins, Mrs. Phillip Merrill, Mrs. C. W. Merrill, Mrs. Charlotte Trainer, and the Misses Aileen and Ethel DuPont marched in the Boston parade. War Gains. The times were now more favorable to the suffrage movement. Current events, which were bringing war closer to the United States, were increasing the demand for women workers in factories. As in England, more jobs for women would mean more freedom for women. From England, Mrs. Phillip Snowden, wife of the Liberal Parliament leader and herself a famous non- militant suffragist, came to tell the Annual Convention of the Cleveland Woman's Suffrage Party how the war effort of the English suffrage workers (the non-militants and militant suffragists) had made more impression than 60 years of argument for suffrage. Members of the audience were "moved to tears" as the lovely Mrs. Snowden told of the English women and their long struggle for the ballot. "When war began," she said, "all suffrage organizations responded to the call for women to take the place of men - in business and in factories." More than 30,000 42 women had enrolled in the War Register and an army of women had invaded fields of industry formerly closed to them. However, suffrage progress was still moving slowly in England from the time of Mrs. Snowden's visit to Cleveland. It was almost two years before Premier Lloyd George would pay warm tribute to women's work during the war, and Parliament, following his recommendation, would give the women of England the right to vote. Cleveland Re-organizes In 1915-16 the Ohio Suffrage Association voted against trying another State Amendment campaign, but these were busy years for Cleveland and suffragists. They not only spent their effort in furthering the national campaign and the state campaigns in the eastern states, but locally the Suffrage Party had three going campaigns: - A membership drive - to sign up all women not opposed to suffrage. - "Getting-out-the-vote" for the fall school election. - Winning municipal suffrage for the women of East Cleveland. Nearly 7,000 paid-up members were on the Woman's Party roll in the 1914 campaign, but since more endorsements would be good campaign talking points, a new membership drive was launched to sign up every woman of Greater Cleveland. Newspapers advertised the drive with special enrollment blanks, urging women to sign for suffrage - FREE. Getting-out an all-time high registration and vote in the school election was a direct answer to 43 the Anti-Suffragists and their blatant charge that the suffragists represented only 10 per cent of the women - a minority opinion. All during the summer Belle Sherwin and her committee worked to establish a record vote. There were chain telephone calls to get women out to register and suffragists in every district answered their phones with "Votes for Women" instead of "Hello." Each house was tagged with a broadside reminder of the election, and Miss Sherwin drove about Greater Cleveland in the Sherwin electric to see that the pre-election posters were placed and they stayed in place. These poster-billboards carried provocative messages as, "Say, Mother Don't you care enough about My School To Vote?" Municipal Suffrage. The Suffrage Party took a new tack when it engaged in an all-out effort to win municipal suffrage for the women of East Cleveland. Shortly before this campaign, the Illinois Supreme Court held valid an Illinois law which gave women the right to vote for offices created by the state legislature. This new approach to the suffrage problem inspired the women of Cleveland and lawyer Florence Allen in particular, with an idea: Under the 1912 Constitution, Ohio cities had the right to frame their own charters and create their own municipal offices. Why didn't the Illinois case make it possible for an Ohio charter city to grant women the right to vote on municipal affairs? East Cleveland was starting to frame its own charter. Why not make this a test case? In the 1914 election, East Cleveland passed the 44 State Suffrage Amendment with a large majority and after Illinois' sample the leaders of the Woman's Suffrage Party were now optimistic about the chances of getting municipal suffrage for the women of East Cleveland. However, there were those who doubted the wisdom of the plan: Mayor Minshall of East Cleveland declared that he favored woman's suffrage, but doubted that it would be legal if included in the new charter. Newton D. Baker, a proven friend of the suffragists, said that the proposition was manifestly unconstitutional. Undaunted by these discouragements, Florence Allen and a small group of tireless suffrage workers - Mrs. Norman Anderson, a member of the East Cleveland Board of Education, Mrs. Roger G. Perkins, Mrs. brooks and Grace Treat - sat night after night in the East Cleveland City Hall, persuading members of the Charter Commission, who were in session there, to entertain this Suffrage Amendment proposal and refer it to a committee. Lawyer Allen gave her arguments on the constitutionality of a suffrage clause, pointing out that by the decision of the Supreme Court the municipality which creates the offices has a constitutional right to create the electorate. Four men lawyers cross-examined Florence, but she stood here ground, contending that since there was nothing in the constitution to prevent the move, the proposition must be legal. Said Miss Allen: "The woman suffrage proposal is perfectly legal, having as a precedent the ruling of the Illinois Supreme Court which granted Chicago women municipal suffrage." While Florence Allen, Edna Perkins, Minerva Brooks and the others "sat out" a favorable decision of the Commission, a house-to-house canvassing crew 45 spread out over East Cleveland, winning friends and support for the cause. A petition containing 1,403 names of East Cleveland women (about one half the women eligible to vote) was presented to the Charter Commission, but before the question was decided in favor of the women, there were several "hot" meetings. Several members of the Charter Commission accused each other of side-stepping, playing politics, and "talking much and saying nothing." After the suffrage question won a place on the ballot, there was more canvassing, more publicity and more talking to get out the vote, June 6, for the special election. When voting day came, the voters approved the proposed city-manager commission form of government and the Municipal Suffrage Amendment won by a 426 vote majority. "If anyone tries to prove our right to vote in East Cleveland unconstitutional, we are prepared to fight it through the courts to the very last." said Party President, Minerva Brooks. These were jubilant days for the suffragists. Florence Allen now prepared to fight the case (Taylor v. French) in the courts. Then Mrs. Upton announced that after the court affirmed women's right to vote in other charter cities - Lakewood, Columbus, Toledo, Dayton, Ashtabula and Warren. "This Amendment, giving women the right to vote in East Cleveland is the key to suffrage for all Ohio women," said Florence Allen, "A favorable court decision would also pave the way for state legislation which would give women the right to vote for all statutory offices." 46 Woman Candidate. Immediately after this victory for suffrage, Mrs. Gertrude Baldwin Tinker, an ambitious East Cleveland woman, announced her candidacy for City Commissioner in the coming fall election. Greatly concerned over the propriety of leaping into politics so soon after being granted the ballot and before the East Cleveland vote had been tested in the courts, the Woman's Suffrage Party called on suffragist Rose Moriarity of Elyria, for advice. Rose, the Deputy City Auditor and "petticoat- boss of Elyria," had run her town since 1903. Though she couldn't vote and so couldn't be elected to office, she had helped draft several municipal charters - including the East Cleveland charter. Rose was reputed to know more about municipalities from a legal and executive standpoint than any woman in Ohio. Since it was Miss Moriarity's expert advice that the women of East Cleveland would have a hard time proving their right to elect a woman Commissioner, the Suffrage Party did not back Mrs. Tinkers' candidacy. National Party Platforms On the national front, 1916 was another big year for suffrage. Republicans and Democrats were choosing their presidential candidates and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt called for a large demonstration of suffrage strength at both party Conventions. Suffrage leaders would again ask support for the Anthony Amendment. The weather in Chicago at the Republican Convention did not cooperate with the suffragists. Nevertheless, in a driving rainstorm, 5,000 women members of the National American Woman's Suffrage Association, the Congressional Union and the National Wo- 47 man's Party - marched two miles from downtown Chicago to the Coliseum. At the Coliseum, policemen made a mild attempt to break up the demonstration, but Mrs. Catt and other leading spokesmen easily got in to present their case for suffrage. Before this, Republican candidate, Charles Evans Hughes, had made a flat declaration in favor of woman suffrage and now, when the platform committee voted 26-21 to include a plank indorsing in principle woman suffrage, Mrs. Catt and members of the association were well-pleased. But not the militants, these followers of Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont and Alice Paul, were not satisfied. Members of the Congressional Union and the National Woman's Party had wanted the Republicans to indorse suffrage by constitutional amendment, and after Chicago, the militants set off for St. Louis and the Democratic Convention in a fighting mood. At St. Louis, they insisted that the Democrats adopt a resolution demanding that Congress pass the Susan B. Anthony Amendment to the Federal Constitution, immediately. Mrs. Catt and members of the Association would have been content if the Democrats had included a plank indorsing the principle of suffrage - i.e., if it did not have strings attached to it which would make equal franchise a state question. There was violent disagreement among members of the Democratic platform committee. And finally, when it was solved by declaring in favor of enfranchisement of women by the states, the Democrats pleased no one. They were "passing the buck" to the states and such a plank was objectionable to both supporters and opponents of "Votes for Women." Also, since Woodrow Wilson had not changed his view that the woman suffrage question should be 48 dealt with by the states, the Republicans gained another advantage with the women. Militants March On. After the party Conventions, the National Woman's Party - a political branch of the Congressional Union - was organized with the sole purpose of securing immediate passage of the Anthony Amendment. These militants were "out after Wilson's scalp." "Our single plank is suffrage first, the political freedom of women before the interests of any national political party," said National Chairman, Ann Martin when she appealed to the women of the 12 suffrage states to defeat Wilson, the Democratic candidate for President. Bitterness was now creeping into the suffrage movement - bitterness toward men, toward Wilson and the Democrats. This was doing more harm than help to the cause. "It would be the first direct appeal for an expression of sex solidarity through the ballot box," said the Plain Dealer in commenting on Miss Martin's announcement of the beginning of this campaign for violent partisan activity. Before the Congressional Union and the National Woman's Party opened their attack on Wilson and the Democrats, the leaders of the Ohio Suffrage Association had hoped to unite with Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont's militant faction in this final offensive for the Anthony Amendment. In fact, Alice Paul of the Union was invited to Cleveland, with all expenses paid, to discuss ways the two organizations could cooperate. The Union had brought a fresh enthusiasm to the national campaign, and when Miss Paul announced that all militant policies had been abandoned, the Ohio Woman's Suffrage Association voted to cooperate with the Union. 49 In the meantime, while the discussions with Alice Paul were going on in Cleveland, members of the Congressional Union attempted to waylay President Wilson in a Washington Hotel. The announcement was made to the press that the Union blamed the Democratic party not only for the failure to pass the Federal Suffrage Amendment, but also for suffrage defeats in Nebraska and South Dakota. To make matters worse for the Cleveland meeting, the Union announced that it would continue to pester the President. This finished the discussions. Up until this time, many suffragists, particularly in New York, had belonged to both the National American Women's Suffrage Association and the Congressional Union. However, the end of the Cleveland discussions with Alice Paul brought an open break between the two organizations. After the Cleveland meeting, Mrs. Belmont announced that the Union would set up headquarters in Columbus and would organize to advocate more aggressive tactics in Ohio. Mrs. Belmont sent her advance guard out to Cleveland by "auto." There was some newspaper publicity about the trip, but when Mrs. Sar Bard Field of Oregon and Miss Frances Joliffe of California arrived it was on a cold, penetrating November day. The girls got a frigid Cleveland reception. Cleveland suffragists had not rallied to greet them and Mayor Baker refused to sign their proposed petition saying, "I never demanded anything from my government and your petition demands that Congress pass this amendment." Mrs. Belmont did not carry through with her plan to campaign in Ohio. And it was at this point that the Congressional Union started off the deep end. It urged women in the enfranchised states to forego alliances 50 with existing men's political parties, and in June, 1916, the National Woman's Party, a political unit of the Union was organized with the sole purpose of demanding the immediate passage of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. 1916 Election When the National Woman's Party announced that it was out "to get" Wilson and the Congressional Union declared against Wilson when he didn't mention suffrage in his acceptance speech, Mrs. Catt and Dr. Shaw appeared before the House Judiciary Committee. They put the National American Woman's Suffrage Association on record as diametrically opposed to this policy. They declared that the National American Woman's Suffrage Association did not support the militant tactics of the Congressional Union and the National Woman's Party; that the Association was non-partisan in its appeal for votes for the Susan B. Anthony Amendment and appealed to both Democrats and Republicans for support. Shortly before, at the 48th National American Woman's Suffrage Association Convention in Atlantic City, delegate Florence E. Allen had urged the Association to adopt a policy of strict neutrality for the coming presidential campaign. Against the National Woman's Party's announced plan to carry on a western campaign to defeat President Wilson's re-election in the enfranchised western states, Florence decided that she would make a personal campaign for Wilson in Montana, Miss Allen's help combined with others of the Association might balance the political score for suffrage in the west. Despite the militants who were now picketing the White House, President Wilson maintained his opinion that suffrage should be 51 dealt with by the states. Time and again President Wilson had repeated his belief in suffrage, but it was his stand that as the leader of his party, he was not willing to commit the party to action it had not endorsed. On the other hand, Charles Evans Hughes, the Republican candidate, had declared himself in favor of an amendment to the Constitution granting women the right to vote. With his declaration and his party's indorsement of the principle of woman's suffrage, there is little question that Mr. Hughes held an advantage with the suffragists - non-militant as well as militant, on the eve of the election. Grand Ball. On election night at Gray's Armory, members of the Cuyahoga County Woman's Suffrage Party and their friends attended a Grand Carnival Ball, celebrating the first election when the women of East Cleveland used their new-won vote. These ballots were to be placed in separate boxes until the court made a final decision in the case. Suffragists in yellow Elizabethan ruffs and yellow paper turbans danced the program of the evening: the "Wilson Wobble, Willis Walk, David Dip and the Cox Trot." And between dances, John N. Stockwell, Jr. announced the latest telephoned returns on the Presidential contest between Woodrow Wilson and Charles Evans Hughes. This was an elegant affair and it was reported that "everybody who was anybody" was there: "society women in evening gowns, shop girls and stenographers in shirt waist and skirt." Admission to the Hall was a mere 50 cents, but carnival booths and hawkers tempted the large crowd to a night of free spending. When the dance ended, suffragists bid their tearful good-byes to Minerva K. 52 Brooks who was leaving to live in New York. Republicans went home jubilant with the belief that Charles Evans Hughes had won the election, but the next day, after California's votes were counted, Woodrow Wilson was re-elected President of the United States. Credit for this brilliant affair which was reported to be the largest of its kind ever staged in Ohio, went to the Ball Chairman, Mrs. Walter B. Laffer and her "Committee of 100" - which included among others: Mrs. Roger G. Perkins, Mrs. Rufus P. Ranney, Mrs. Howard S. Thayer, Mrs. Allard Smith, Mrs. Frank Muhlhauser, Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride, Mrs. Alton Smith, Mrs. Phillip Merrill, Mrs. William E. Shackleton, Selma Sullivan and Mary B. Grossman, who had charge of the ushers corps - girls from the Wage Earners' Suffrage League. Ohio Gains In the 1916 election, women of the states of Arizona, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Illinois cast their first ballots for President. Once again, Illinois was setting the precedent for Ohio. A Supreme Court decision in the Scoron vs. Czarnecki case had upheld a statutory law giving women of Illinois the right to vote for Presidential electors. Following this election, Ohio suffragists, in convention at Lima, voted to campaign for Presidential suffrage through legislative enactment. This decision pleased Mrs. Upton, who still held to the precepts of Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe - that state suffrage must come first. After the 1914 defeat, the large, brown-haired Mrs. Upton had made a plea for renewed activity for the ballot in Ohio. "Without carrying on their state work, Ohio suf- 53 fragists would have as much chance of getting what they are after as I have a chance of becoming a willowy blond," said Mrs. Upton. Taking the lead for the suffragists in the Ohio Legislature, James A. Reynolds (Jimmy to his suffrage friends), a Democratic Representative from Cuyahoga County, introduced a bill which provided for women to vote for Presidential electors. Because both party conventions had approved woman suffrage - at least through action by the separate states - and national victory seemed a not too distant inevitability, there was political competition for the women's favor. After the Reynolds bill was introduced, the Republicans brought in a competing bill, and during the debate, the silver-tongued orator, William Jennings Bryan, a strong advocate of Presidential suffrage for women, addressed the Ohio Legislature, urging immediate enactment of Presidential suffrage. In Cleveland, Suffrage Party President, Mrs. Roger G. Perkins called for another house-to-house campaign, and the party forces were reorganized with ward captains and lieutenants in every district. In other cities and towns throughout the state, the women waged their intelligent campaign, familiarizing legislators with the purpose of the bill. Of course, there were some legislators who stubbornly insisted that the proposal was unconstitutional. One such senator from Cuyahoga County argued this point with Zara DuPont: "It can't be did," said he. Zara, who did not give up easily, pointed to the Illinois case and continued pressing her point. The Senator shook his head, dubiously, "It can't be did," he said. Miss DuPont persisted, the Senator was exasperated. "It can't be did," Just preceding the Senate victory for the Reynolds 54 bill, the Cuyahoga County Woman's Suffrage Party held its second annual Convention. Victory was near and a jubilant crowd of 1,000 members, who represented the 10,000 members on the party roll, responded generously when speaker Florence Allen called for more funds to carry on the campaign. That night Florence Allen established her reputation as a fund- raiser, she asked for $1000 and got $4000. February 1, 1917, the Reynolds bill passed the Ohio House by 72 to 50; it also passed the Senate, February 15, by 10 to 16. This victory was of great significance to members of the Suffrage Party and friends of "Jimmy" Reynolds, but the serious and purposeful Party President, Mrs. Roger G. Perkins, announced that Cleveland suffragists would have no energy to waste in holding jollifications over the success of the Reynolds bill. Said Mrs. Perkins, "We are holding organization meetings in all parts of the city, paving the way for extending suffrage to let women vote for candidates for all offices." Nevertheless, for Elizabeth Hauser and others this victory was worthy of mention. Thanks and credit were due "Jimmy" Reynolds for his tireless devotion to the cause, and his success in putting the Reynolds bill through the legislature. In recognition of this accomplishment, Miss Hauser sent Jimmy a purse, which had been a gift to her from one of Cleveland's great early suffragists, Tom L. Johnson. War Service Shortly before the war, Mrs. Catt called a national suffrage Conference - to decide what service the women of the country could render, in time of war. This committee forwarded to President Wilson a program of definite war service for women.. Then, in April, 1917, when war was declared, Mrs. Catt offered 55 the President the full cooperation of the 2,000,000 members of the Association. But still, the suffragists were not united - even for the war effort. The U. S. declaration of war brought a defiant reaction from the militants of the Congressional Union and the National Woman's Party, who announced that war made it clear that the country needed women's votes in its political determinations. They set about organizing a more aggressive national campaign for the Anthony Amendment. In Cleveland, the Cuyahoga County Woman's Suffrage Party authorized Mrs. Perkins to offer the Mayor's War Commission the Party's full cooperation in the food conservation program. Under the chairmanship of Mrs. Walter B. Laffer, the Party, with the Federation of Women's Clubs, introduced a joint citywide food conservation program. Suffrage speakers - trained by Mrs. L. J. Wolf - added plugs for food economy to their speeches and passed out pamphlets which the Party issued on: How to Lower the Meat Bill; How to Save for Winter Use; Meat and Potato Substitutes; and Saving the Odds and Ends. These pamphlets were also circulated in other cities. Members of the Woman's Party also volunteered as speakers for the Liberty Loan drives. Mrs. Perkins took a leave of absence from the Party to help float the first Loan, and Mrs. Frank Muhlhauser and Mrs. William H. Weir did important state and local jobs with the Liberty Loan committees. Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride, a four minute speaker, worked almost daily at the recruiting office of YMCA, and Judge Mary B. Grossman vividly remembers her experience as a four minute bond speaker in the movie houses. On arriving at the theatre, she climbed the ladder to the operator's booth at the back of the theatre, then without words - for the operating machine made a 56 considerable noise - she gave the operator her slide, with her name and the subject of her speech. After that, in the semi-darkness, she found her way down front to wait for that "awful" moment when her slide would go on the screen and a spotlight would pick her out of the dark. When Belle Sherwin was named Ohio Chairman of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense, these well-organized Suffrage Party war projects came under Miss Sherwin's jurisdiction. And, so, the wartime women's organization inherited some of the interest and excitement of the suffrage movement. Miss Sherwin's committee acted as a clearing house for all women's war work; utilizing organizations and projects which were already in existence, and giving every woman an opportunity for patriotic service. Locally, Miss Sherwin named suffragists for all the top jobs in her organization - Mrs. A. B. Pyke, Mrs. Frank Muhlhauser, Mrs. Walter B. Laffer, Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride, and Mrs. Ernest Angell. Besides those who worked through the National Defense Committees, there were the suffragists who worked at war jobs in offices and factories, and also those who worked for the Red Cross. Mrs. E. E. Hill and Mrs. E. Scott Cannell were two outstanding examples of Red Cross workers who also carried heavy responsibilities in the district suffrage work. 1917 Campaigns Though the war effort came first with the Cuyahoga County Woman's Suffrage Party, Ohio suffragists were now called on to wag a defensive fight to prevent their Presidential suffrage right from being taken away from them. While the Ohio Legislature was acting on the Reynolds bill, the liquor interests and the anti-suffragists 57 has attempted to side-track the bill, proposing that a universal suffrage amendment to the state Constitution should again be submitted to the voters. Immediately after Governor Cox signed the Reynolds bill, these opposition forces circulated petitions for a referendum on the bill. Party Secretary, Grace Treat, and others examined 43 of these petitions and found that many of the signatures were fictitious, many appeared to be in the same handwriting and others were filled with names of dead voters. Judge Willis Vickery ordered some 8661 fraudulent names thrown out in the four counties where hearings were held. However, enough petitions were accepted in other counties to demand the referendum. And so, during the summer and early fall of 191, members of the Suffrage Party were involved in a three-ring circus: Mrs. Perkins had taken a leave of absence to organize the bond drive effort; Mrs. Laffer needed cooperation for the food conservation program; Florence Allen spent the summer in the courts fighting to get the fraudulent referendum petitions rejected; Mrs. L. J. Wolf was training speakers - for suffrage, for food conservation, and for bond selling; Mrs. Howard S. Thayer was recruiting members for the new Swedish, Italian, Polish, and Hungarian auxiliaries and directing the citizenship classes where alien women were given training for their citizenship examinations; and Mrs. A. B. Pyke, Mrs. C. E. Kendel, and Mrs. Maude Waitt were organizing an all-out campaign to get municipal suffrage for Lakewood. The Party now had 54,000 members and the 12 districts worked with click-like efficiency on their assignments. Still, these were difficult times to wage a suffrage campaign. Most women considered war work their first responsibility, and after the long-delayed 58 court decisions of the referendum petitions, there were only three weeks left to organize the local campaign to defend the Reynolds Suffrage Law. It was a losing battle. On November 7, the Reynolds Presidential Suffrage Law, which had been passed by the last General Assembly, was repudiated at the polls. Still gallant of heart, Ohio suffragists leaders interpreted this election as a suffrage victory. More than 100,000 votes had been cut from the adverse majority of 1914, when suffrage was last submitted to the voters for approval. And this same November election did record other, more encouraging victories for suffrage. Florence Allen chalked up a final victory in the East Cleveland case when the Ohio Supreme Court held that the Charter provision, giving suffrage to East Cleveland Women, was legal. Other cities with home rule charters now had the right to grant full suffrage in municipal affairs to women. Following in East Cleveland's footsteps, Lakewood passed a Charter Amendment giving Lakewood women the right to vote on municipal issues. Also at this same time the women of New York State won the vote by a 100,000 majority. After 69 years the New York battle was over, and the east was finally invaded - suffrage was no longer mere western propaganda. This victory gave 10% of the women of the U. S. the vote, and it was interpreted as the beginning of the end of organized opposition to the movement. The Militants Again After war was declared in this country, and the women of England were given the vote, the militants inaugurated more violent techniques in their anti- 59 Wilson campaign. They carried banners addressed to President Wilson and also the Russian mission in Washington: "President Wilson and Envoy Root are deceiving Russia. They say, 'We are a democracy. Help us win a world war so that democracies may survive!" We, the women of America tell you that America is not a democracy - 20 million American women are denied the right to vote." Such anger-provoking banners incited Washington crowds to tangle with the militants and caused the police to cart the suffragists off to jail for disturbing the peace. In jail the militants sang hymns like the suffrage martyrs of England, and went on hunger strikes. Even after President Wilson declared himself in favor of a Federal Suffrage Amendment and after the women of New York State were given the vote, strange "goings-on" continued at Lafayette Square. The non-militants, members of the National American Woman's Suffrage Association, agreed with the principle so aptly stated by Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, "You can never get anything by going after a man with a rolling pin." In her letter to the President, Mrs. Upton advised Mr. Wilson that the Suffrage Association was officially on record as disapproving the picketing tactics in Washington. She called the Lafayette Square actions of the militants "treasonable," and asked the President not to hold the members of the Association responsible for the acts of a few misguided, overzealous women. 60 League of Women Voters By early spring, 1919, only two votes were needed to pass the Anthony Amendment in the Senate, then it would go to the states for ratification. Without question, war was hastening approval of suffrage in the United States, as it had in England. Final victory seemed inevitable, yet there were many stumbling blocks in the way - the "states rights" die-hards, the liquor interests, the anti-suffragists, and the militants, whose brazen anti-Wilson tactics were now reaping a wave of unfavorable public opinion. At the 1919, Golden Jubilee Convention of the National American Woman's Suffrage Association in St. Louis, 98% of the suffragists of the United States again put themselves on record as disapproving absolutely the unnecessary picketing tactics in Washington. Public opinion supported the Association's contention that these tactics were holding up Congressional action on the Anthony Amendment. Important as these suffrage activities were, the major accomplishment of the St. Louis Convention was the beginning of the National League of Women Voters. At it inception, the League was the "brainchild" of the far-sighted Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt. It was conceived as the organization which would carry on the responsibilities of the Suffrage Association after women had the vote. Its announced first objectives were: - Putting through a program of needed legislation as rapidly as possible. - Educating and interesting women in their obligations as voters. - And promoting an active interest in all matters of government and public policy. 61 Many delegates to the St. Louis Convention objected to changing the name of the Association before the Anthony Amendment was passed by Congress and the states, but when it was decided that the name of the League would apply only to the women of enfranchised states, Mrs. Catt's plan was approved. The National League of Women Voters became a fact; hundreds of eligible women from the enfranchised states signed up for League membership, and Mrs. Charles H. Brooks, of Kansas City, Missouri, was elected Chairman to serve for one year. Preliminary organization that year included establishing Leagues of Women Voters in states in which women had already secured the vote and assembling a program of seven standing committees: child welfare, social hygiene, cost of living, women-in-industry, election laws and methods, American citizenship, uniform laws concerning women. Senate Action In June, following the St. Louis Convention of the Suffrage Association, President Wilson put himself squarely behind suffrage, urging the Senate to submit the Anthony Amendment to the states. Said the President, "I agree without reservation that the full and sincere democratic reconstruction of the world for which we are striving and which we are determined to bring about at any cost, will not have been completely or adequately attained until women are admitted to suffrage." When the suffrage amendment was again brought to the Senate floor, the galleries were packed with corsage bedecked women - non-militant and militant suffragists who wore yellow corsages and anti-suffragists who wore pink corsages. Quite unexpectedly, the President appeared in person to make his suffrage 62 appeal to the Senate. As "Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy" he declared suffrage to be vitally essential to the successful prosecution of the great war of humanity." Unfortunately, Republican and Democratic senators were sullen over this "unprecedented appearance of an American President before a single legislative body to urge it to enact a certain measure." The senators complained that their dignity had been affronted. And, though only two more votes were necessary for the two-third majority, the Amendment was killed, and the 65th session of Congress adjourned for the November elections. Members of the Suffrage Association were agreed that the President had done all in his power to push the Amendment. They were disappointed, but expected a victory in the next session of Congress. The militants, on the other hand, were infuriated that Mr. Wilson had failed to force the Senate to adopt the Suffrage Amendment. Marching to Lafayette Square, they burned copies of the President's European speeches, in what they called "Watch Fires of Freedom." For lighting these fires on government property, twenty-six militant demonstrators were arrested and taken off to jail, but they were later released when they refused food and went on a hunger strike. To call further public attention and sympathy to their martyrdom for suffrage, these same militant "jailbirds" made a trip from Washington to New York in a specially-equipped train with iron bars which they called, Democracy, Limited, Prison Special. Dressed in prison garb, they promised to reveal the secrets of the prison house - revelations which they guaranteed would freeze the feminine blood of the country. 63 Senate Victory. When the 66th Congress convened, President Wilson repeated his recommendation that a woman's suffrage amendment to the Federal Constitution be submitted to the states at the earliest possible moment. Once again the House passed a suffrage bill; this time with an overwhelming 304-89 majority vote. At last! after two previous rejections, the Senate passed this suffrage bill with the necessary two-thirds majority, by a 56-25 vote. Senate rules or no rules, when the victorious vote was recorded a ripple of applause in the galleries grew into a tremendous ovation. Suffragists "hugged and kissed and gave way to happy tears," as they fully realized that their long, hard fight was over. Newspapers over the country carried banner headlines of the victory - full-page stories and pictures of the long struggle of the suffragists from the days of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony to Carrie Chapman Catt, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, and Harriet Taylor Upton. It had been 41 years since woman suffrage was first proposed as the 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Now, if 36 state legislatures ratified the measure, woman suffrage would become the universal law of the country - the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. The States Ratify. In June, Illinois became the first state to ratify, but other states followed in rapid succession, and before the end of the month New York and Ohio became the fifth and sixth states to endorse the proposed Amendment. June 16, 1919 marked a dramatic victory day for Ohio suffragists. The Ohio legislature not only ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, but also passed the Reynolds-Fouts Presidential Suffrage bill, that same day. The House vote was 75-5, the Senate vote 27-3. 64 This bill guaranteed women a right to vote for President in 1920, in case ratification of the Federal Amendment was not completed. Joyful over this double victory, Cleveland suffragists tried to express how they felt: Said Emma Perkins of the College League, "I've been a suffragist all my life. My parents were suffragists. Julia Ward Howe and Susan B. Anthony were friends of mine. Victory in sight is the dream of a lifetime coming true." Said Mrs. Frederick Goff, "My mother, Mrs. Louise Southworth, was one of the early workers for woman suffrage. She was an active worker for 38 years before her death. I am proud that our cause has won in Ohio." During the fall and winter of 1919, many states called special sessions of their legislatures for the specific purpose of ratifying the Anthony Amendment. Nevertheless, final victory was to be long-delayed. The governors of the western states where women had had the vote for many years developed a "let's wait and see" attitude, and some of the western states were the last to get in line for suffrage. Finally, however, in February, 1920, Oklahoma and New Mexico ratified making the count 33. At this same time, the West Virginia Legislature was in a deadlock session over the question, making a possible 34th state. Headlines of the West Virginia contest filled the nation's newspapers when Senator Jesse A. Bloch made his spectacular 6-day, 3,000 mile ride from California to cast his vote for the Amendment and break the week- long deadlock. The Plain Dealer hailed Senator Bloch's ride as an "expedition of achievement," and compared it to the ride of Paul Revere. His special train from Chicago to Cincinnati was rumored to have cost 65 $5,000 and was believed to have established a world's record for passenger locomotives, making the distance of 290 miles in a fraction over five hours. With West Virginia's ratification, Mrs. Catt announced that the struggle was over, "Suffrage is won!" said Mrs. Catt, "Delaware and Washington (where special legislative sessions were scheduled for March) will be the next states to follow West Virginia." At the Chicago Victory Convention of the National American Woman's Suffrage Association, suffragists voted to disband and turn over their unfinished business to the recently-organized National League of Women Voters. Ohio Stumbling Blocks. Events proved that Mrs. Catt's victory announcement was somewhat previous. Delaware did not ratify the Nineteenth Amendment and the question of the legality of Ohio's ratification was still hanging in balance. If the United States Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Ohio Court in the Ohio Case, Ohio's ratification would not count. This case - State of Ohio vs. Hildebrand - held that in a referendum state like Ohio, ratification of a federal amendment would not be complete until the people passed on the action of the state legislature. The liquor interests were behind this Ohio Case which was concerned with ratification of the Prohibition Amendment. But since it would also apply to the Suffrage Amendment, the liquor interests were once again interfering with the success of suffrage in Ohio. However, on June 19, 1920 the United States Supreme Court ruled that there could be no state referenda on federal amendments, and this meant that the Ohio ratification of the Woman Suffrage Amendment could not be overturned. 66 The Cleveland League With Ohio's ratification upheld, and their right to vote for President in the 1920 election established by the Reynold-Fouts bill, members of the Cuyahoga County Woman's Suffrage Party voted to disband and to turn over the Party's membership roll (with its ' 80,000 names) to the new Cleveland League of Women Voters. Suffrage Party President, Mrs. Harris R. Cooley, and the last Executive Board: Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride, Mrs. Frank Muhlhauser, Mrs. E. S. Bassett, Mrs. E. Scott Cannell, Mrs. Phillip Merrill, Mrs. Ernest Joseph, Mrs. E. R. Findenstaedt, and Mrs. Clay Herrick resigned. Then Cleveland suffragists rang down the final curtain on their long campaign with a gala celebration. They squeezed themselves into the laced garments of the Victorian era and paraded in a pageant of women's fashions, Now and Then, directed by Ruth Feather. It had been 70 years from the time of Caroline M. Severance and the beginnings of the dress reform movement to 1920 and the postwar feminine modes, which were featuring "hobble skirt." This postwar return to extreme femininity infuriated the independent, soon-to-be enfranchised women, but generally speaking, women's clothes were becoming more sensible and reflected their newly won freedom. Since the 1870's and the days of Polly Squires and the Newbury Woman's Political Suffrage Club, women's political and economic status had changed considerably. An important last-chapter activity of the Ohio Woman's Suffrage Association was the pilgrimage to Newbury, Ohio, "out Punderson Pond way" in Geauga County. Newbury was holding a Memorial 67 in honor of woman suffragists and other early reform leaders of that community. In Newbury, under the oak tree where members of the Woman's Political Suffrage Club had buried their constitution and by-laws, over 100 suffragists from Cleveland and other parts of Ohio thought back over campaign memories - to the many disappointments, to friendships, and to important and amusing incidents of the long struggle to "Win the Vote." Mrs. Upton read a poem of that other era by the poetess of Newbury - a member of the Newbury Woman's Political Suffrage Club: "They ask only justice, no more, no less; Demand equal rights and equal redress. "The emblem of our righteous cause We plant as a protest to unjust laws. May it stand as a witness till woman is free; A monument grand, this centennial tree." 68 The First 25 Years of the League of Women Voters in Cuyahoga County With suffrage for women now almost a fact - awaiting only ratification by one more state - the Woman's Suffrage Party of Greater Cleveland looked through the smoke of the 70-year battle to "Win the Vote" to the years ahead. Having withstood ridicule, criticism, and opposition, from powerful interests, these women, following Mrs. Catt's thinking, saw the accomplishment of their dream as a beginning, not an end. The right to vote did not inoculate women with the knowledge of how to vote intelligently, of how to become independent thinkers. The lingering attitudes of timidity, of indifference, of "my husband votes and my vote isn't needed," had to be overcome. Thus, educating the woman voter to her citizen responsibilities became the first objective of this new organization - the League of Women Voters. Formal organization of the new group was undertaken at a meeting in the ballroom of the Hotel Hollenden in April, 1920. In large measure the early success of the League of Women Voters in Cleveland was due to the ability and the community influence of the League's first President, Miss Belle Sherwin, and other former suffragists who were members of the organization's early 69 Executive Boards: Mrs. Walter B. Laffer, Mrs. Harris R. Cooley, Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride, Mrs. E. E. Hill, Mrs. Alton Smith, Mrs. John W. Seaver, Mrs. Siegmund Herzog, Mrs. E. S. Bassett and others. The intelligence and diplomacy of these women established the local League not only as a non-partisan organization, but as a non-competitive group eager to cooperate with existing civic and state organizations to accomplish the League's three-fold purpose: education the woman voter, working for "needed legislation" and encouraging women to "get-into-politics." Even Miss Sherwin, who at the time she was elected President of the League, was also President of the Women's City Club, admits that in the beginning she did not visualize a long-time need for this League of Women Voters, but thought the job would be accomplished in four or five year. However, with her famous Sherwin efficiency, she worked herself out of other jobs she held at the time, to devote her entire attention to organizing the program of work for the local League. Get-Into-Politics. Taking first things first, she followed Mrs. Catt's advice and encouraged local League members to "get-into-politics." Since 1894, when Ohio women won the school vote, Cleveland suffragists had taken an active part in school board elections, and several women, including - Mrs. Arnold Green, Mrs. Norman Anderson, and Mrs. A. B. Pyke had served on local school boards. Nevertheless, it was taken for granted that regular politics were masculine and inclined to be "dirty." Suffragists had hoped that they would make a thorough "housecleaning" of politics when they got the vote, but bold as their promises were, it took great courage to get started in the parties. Both the Republicans 70 and Democrats reluctantly predicted final victory for suffrage before the 1920 presidential election, and both parties were at that time holding their gates hospitably open for the soon-to be enfranchised women. Mrs. Corina C. Warington, a representative of the National League office, came from Washington to add her encouragement to the more timid Cleveland League members and admonished, "Hold your noses, if necessary, but get into politics." No one knew quite what to expect of the woman vote, but everyone agreed that women would be a potent force in the political picture. If the necessary 36 states ratified the 19th Amendment in time for the November election, an estimated 20 million women would be eligible to vote for the next President of the United States. It was a great change. The men of both parties seemed eager to capture the woman vote. Democrats as well as Republicans included League planks in their platforms. Among these planks were: the re-establishment of the wartime Women's Bureau in the Department of Labor (which would concern itself with problems of women-in-industry); support of child welfare measures; equalization of the naturalization laws which would give independent citizenship to women. The Republicans however, held an early advantage with the women. Twenty-nine Republican states had ratified the Anthony Amendment and only six Democratic states, with a possible seventh (Tennessee), had approved the Amendment. The southern states had held the "states rights" approach to the suffrage question, placing the Democratic party at a definite disadvantage with the women. Nevertheless, in 1920 it was the Democratic party that gave politically- 71 minded women the best opportunity. At the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco there were 100 women delegates on the floor of the Convention, while there were only twenty-six women delegates at the G. O. P. Convention. In the Republican ranks, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton became the nation's leading Republican woman. She was Vice-Chairman of the Women's National Republican Committee, and in the first year of the Harding administration she was often mentioned as a possibility for the proposed cabinet post of Secretary of Education. As in suffrage days, one of Mrs. Upton's first assistants was Rose Moriarity, the long-time woman boss of Elyria, who became a field organizer for the Republican Women's National Committee and organized the women in Wisconsin and Michigan. Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride was appointed a member of the Republican County Executive Committee. Mrs. Maude C. Waitt, a prominent Republican of Lakewood, was Ohio's first successful woman candidate for the State Legislature. And Mrs. Carl F. Knirk was a Republican member of the Lakewood City Council. Florence Allen, Mrs. A. B. Pyke, Mrs. Harris R. Cooley, Mrs. Frances Bushea and Mrs. Minnie Siddall were early Democratic leaders. Miss Allen, who had been appointed Assistant County Prosecutor of the Criminal Court I recognition of her victory in the East Cleveland municipal suffrage case, was appointed to the Democratic National Committee. Mrs. Pyke, Chairman of the local Democratic Women's Executive Committee was an elected delegate from the 22nd Congressional District to the San Francisco National Convention. Mrs. Cooley was made a member of the Democratic State Central Committee. In 1922, 72 Mrs. Cooley, Mrs. Pyke, Mrs. Bushea and a Republican, Mrs. Nettie Clapp, were party-sponsored candidates for the State Legislature. And Mrs. Siddall was a Democratic member of the East Cleveland City Council. Suffrage Victory On August 20, 1920 Cleveland church bells rang out joyously; factory and steamship whistles blew, and Euclid Avenue was bright with flags to celebrate the announcement that Tennessee had ratified the 19th Amendment. Tennessee made the "Perfect 36" of the states needed to make woman's suffrage a national law, and Cleveland women of all ages joined in celebrating the end of women's 70-year "struggle" for political equality. When Secretary of State Colby signed the suffrage proclamation which gave the ballot to 25,000,000 American women, Miss Belle Sherwin, President of the Cleveland League of Women Voters, made a statement to the press, "Today will go down in history as women's commencement day; it marks the hour when women begin to take a hand in outlining the policies of the nation." Now, with the 1920 presidential election less than three months away, every effort would be expended in the League's first responsibility - educating the women to their new privilege and responsibility of voting, and carrying out the recently adopted League slogan, Every Woman an Intelligent Voter. The Cleveland League and the Ohio State League established a precedent for voters' information when they submitted questionnaires to candidates asking their stand on legislation which the League favored. This information was printed on candidates' information sheets and distributed to the voters. 73 Mrs. Alton Smith and her committee organized the first house-to-house campaign of the Cleveland League, using the old suffrage party organization. Meetings were held in the wards and rival candidates for office were given a chance to debate their views. Before the League of Women Voters was organized, rival political candidates never met on the same public platform. However, it soon became common practice when they discovered that failing to appear at League candidates' meetings was a political disadvantage. Mrs. Walter B. Laffer remembers presiding at one of those early meetings in the Normal School auditorium on Hough Avenue where she had to call time on two candidates who were angry enough to fight. As another voters' service, there were model voting booths downtown, where women were instructed in the techniques of registering and voting - a Cleveland idea which was later used in other cities. Candidate Allen. Though Miss Sherwin had encouraged Cleveland League members to "get-into- politics," she held the firm opinion that the non-partisan League of Women Voters could not afford to support individual candidates, even non-partisan candidates. Therefore, when she returned from a short stay in Columbus to find that the League's Executive Board (innocently enough) had announced League support for Florence Allen's candidacy for Judge of the Common Pleas Court (a non-partisan office) "there was the very devil to pay." Miss Sherwin pointed out that in spite of the fact that Common Pleas Judge was on the ballot as a non-partisan office, Miss Allen had been nominated at the Democratic primaries. Yet rather than lose face with the public, Miss Sherwin let this instance pass, announcing 74 to the papers that the Executive Board's endorsement of Miss Allen's candidacy was an unprecedented act in the League and the only reason it could be done was because Miss Allen was running on a non-partisan ticket. There were future attempts, as Miss Sherwin anticipated, when the League was "boarded by pirates" who intended to use the League as a political springboard; however, in this instance, the candidate - Florence Allen - was innocent of any maneuvering for support. It was just that members of the League of Women Voters, like members of the Business and Professional Women's Club (which according to Judge Mary B. Grossman was organized for the specific purpose of supporting Florence Allen's candidacy), wished to express their high respect and deep love for Florence Allen, the legal champion of the Cleveland suffrage movement. Incident followed incident, during those early years of the League, when the organization's non-partisan policy was put to a test. At another time, the local League received an unsolicited contribution of $100. This money was badly needed, for it was even more difficult raising money for the League than for the suffrage cause. Miss Sherwin, however, was not to be caught in a trap with political strings tied to it. Great as the temptation was, she sent the money back to the donor by return mail, with an accompanying note which explained the League's great need for the money. She thanked the man for his interest, but made it clear that if the League accepted the money, the League would have no future responsibility to him, other than assuring him that the money would be used wisely in support of the League's program. The money did not return to the League treasury. 75 Citizenship Schools. Another pre-election activity of 1921 was the Cleveland League's first annual citizenship school which was patterned after Mrs. Catt's demonstrated techniques at the 1920 Chicago Convention. this first citizenship school presented Raymond Moley, Western Reserve's Political Science professor in a series of Friday afternoon lectures on "basics in the science of good government." For practical "basics," Mr. Moley's course gave the new women voters of Cleveland the following information: how political parties are made up, how to file petitions, how to get into the political framework of the parties, how to use the parties to carry out an objective, the importance of the ward leader, etc. This League course was later incorporated in Mr. Moley's book, "Parties, Politics and People." Cleveland's citizenship school, together with the Voter's Service, "get-out-the-vote" campaign, and the encouragement given League members go "get-into- politics" attracted the attention of the National League. At the 1921 National Convention in Cleveland Miss Sherwin was named to the League's National Board, succeeding Carrie Chapman Catt as National Chairman of the Efficiency-in-Government Department. In the years that followed, many of the ideas and techniques which Miss Sherwin successfully experimented with in Cleveland were used as a pattern for other Leagues in other communities. National Program Mrs. Maud Wood Park, who was elected President of the National League of Women Voters when it was formally organized at the 1920 Chicago Convention, knew most of the "ins and outs" of the national government. But even with her lobbying experience 76 and background as Legislative Chairman of the Suffrage Association in its last two years, Mrs. Park was quick to admit that steering the League through unchartered seas with its all-inclusive "needed legislation" program would be a Herculean task. This original 20-plank program of 1920 was a cumbersome inheritance of suffrage days and women's war activities, and included "almost anything that women were interested in." There were seven standing committees: American Citizenship, Legal Status of Women, Child Welfare, Women-in-Industry (the rights of working women), Food Supply and Demand (the cost of living), Social Hygiene and Efficiency- in-Government. Though International Cooperation to Prevent War was not named as a separate committee until the fall after the 1921 Convention, "adhesion to the League of Nations" was one of the twenty items on the League's first program. Women's Joint Congressional Committee. Under the Child Welfare program, the League of Women Voters went on record at the Chicago Convention as favoring the pending Sheppard-Towner (maternal and infancy) Welfare bill. This bill provided a method of cooperation between the federal government and the states for public protection of maternity and infancy. During the summer of 1920, Miss Amy Maher, the Ohio League's first President who at that time was also chairman of the Ohio Welfare Association, was Mrs. Park's principal assistant in lobbying for this bill on Capitol Hill. The following spring, when League delegates met in Cleveland for the second National Convention, President Harding notified the League of Women Voters that he would sign the Sheppard-Towner bill if Congress approved it. In 77 1921, the bill passed Congress, was approved by the President, and sent to the states for implementation. Not a little credit for this success was due Mrs. Park, Miss Maher and other members of the League. Experience in working on the Sheppard-Towner bill and other items on the League's "needed legislation program" proved, however, that in some instances League work on Capitol Hill actually duplicated the work of other women's organizations. Because of this, Mrs. Park took the initiative in calling together the representatives of other national women's groups to plan for a cooperative lobbying unit. The 14 other national women's organizations that met with the League of Women Voters formed the Women's Joint Congressional Committee, which is to this day, the clearing house through which member organizations plan and delegate activities on Capitol Hill. The Y.W.C.A., the National Consumers' League, and the National Women's Trade Union League, are among the 15 member organizations. The Cleveland Convention As a tribute to the outstanding suffrage campaign Cleveland suffragists had waged, Mrs. Park chose Cleveland as the hostess city for the League of Women Voters' second National Convention in 1921. On the opening day of the Convention, April 11, some 2,000 delegates, alternates, and visitors registered at the Hotel Statler, the Convention headquarters. Those who had forgotten the warning, "hats are taboo of the floor of the Convention," checked their elaborate, fashion wise headgear with Miss Prudence Sherwin, who had the large responsibility of managing the hat check room. The nation's women leader of the day - lawyers, 78 welfare workers, and politicians, came to Cleveland to attend sessions of the seven standing committees or to give convention speeches. Carrie Chapman Catt, the League's Honorary Chairman; Jane Addams; Catherine Waugh McCullough (one of the foremost women jurists of the day) from Chicago, who met with other women lawyers of a committee on uniform laws concerning women; Florence Kelly of the Consumer's League attended sessions of the Cost-of- Living Committee; Mary Anderson, Director of the re-established Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor; Julia Lathrop, Director of the U.S. Children's Bureau; Mary Garrett Hay, the Convention's parliamentarian, who reported on a successful battle the New York League had just waged to keep the direct party primary; the gorgeously gowned, red-haired Mrs. Gifford Pinchot, who fought a continual battle for the rights of the working woman; Miss Ruth Morgan, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, Miss Grace Abbott, Mrs. Raymond Robbins, Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, (Director of the League's fourth region, which included Ohio) and others. In some respects the Cleveland National League Convention was an exciting and important as a national convention of one of the political parties. Women held a dramatic spotlight in the U.S. news. Now that they had the vote, the country watched to see what they would do with it. Front page headlines drew attention to stories of convention decisions; politicians waited to see if the League would drop its non-partisanship, and sponsors of the League of Nations, prohibition, and birth control waited to see what the League would do with their causes. The standing committees made their reports, there were threatened "walkouts" when a move was made to limit the League's welfare program so that more time 79 and energy could be spent for better government and a better informed electorate. Some former suffragists wished for the "good old days" when women were a closely knit group with a common objective - getting the vote. However, when the air cleared, with few exceptions, the 1920 platform was practically reiterated and included: - Support for world disarmament (replaced support for the League of Nations). - Continued support for the League's non- partisan policy. Child Welfare. A Leader's Policy Report called attention to the problems that had come up in the League's active campaign supporting the Sheppard- Towner maternal and infancy welfare bill. The Sheppard-Towner bill had proved to be a highly controversial measure. Several "stated rights" Leagues refused to give state support to the continuing campaign, objecting to the fact that after Congress approved the measure, the states must match federal funds with state appropriations. There were charges that funds used to support the campaign on the S-T bill came directly from Russia and the Third Internationale. Mrs. Ralph Kane, who was at that time a member of the League of Women Voters in Duluth, Minn., remembers hearing a congressman who was greatly disturbed over the propriety of such legislation say, "It is preposterous that Congress should be asked to approved legislation for maternity and child welfare. The very word 'maternity' is too sacred to be bandied about on the floor of the House of Representatives." The Ohio League was waging a successful campaign in support of the bill and Miss Maher had established the League's lobbying office in Columbus 80 (February, 1921) to bring pressure to bear in getting Ohio funds to support the measure. When the Cleveland Convention was called to order, however, divided sentiment within the League over the Sheppard-Towner bill was one of the National office's most pressing problems. One of the first acts of the Convention was a vote of confidence in the Leader's Policy Report which proposed that a strong membership should be the first aim of the League, even at the expense of promoting new legislation. But in spite of the League's internal difficulties over the campaign, passage of the Sheppard-Towner Act was considered a real victory for the National League of Women Voters. Peace Program By far the most spectacular event of the Cleveland Convention was Mrs. Catt's impassioned plea for peace which prompted the Convention to pass a national relations a permanent place on all future League programs. Mrs. Catt firmly believed that women were devoid of the war spirit. At St. Louis in 1919, when the League of Women Voters was informally organized, Mrs. Catt had stressed the fact that one of women's main tasks after they got the vote was to stop war. In St. Louis and again in Chicago support of the League of Nations was an item on the program. But 1920 was a presidential election year and the League of Nations was now becoming a partisan issue. It was the "big bone" that was picked to bits by presidential candidates Warren G. Harding and James M. Cox. When Mr. Harding announced that he did not 81 favor the League of Nations, not a few women voters followed Mrs. Catt's lead in bolting the Republican party. Said Mrs. Catt, "However painful it is to Republicans, it is clear that the path of greater promise for supporters of the League of Nations lies through Mr. Cox. Since he stands squarely for the League, his election would be an unmistakable mandate from the country, calling for participation in the League. I hold that there is but one course for those who believe in the League of Nations and its program, and that is to vote for Cox. This does not mean that I have allied myself with the Democratic party, for I am not a Democrat." Still, many women thought as Elihu Root (a pro- League Republican) that if Mr. Harding was elected, the pro-League Republicans would maneuver either an entirely new covenant of the League of Nations, or fundamental revisions of the present one. When President Harding refused to go along with the pro- League faction of the party, there was terrific disillusionment among those women voters who believed in the League of Nations. Many, however, hopefully followed the suggested path of Harding's new foreign policy - peace through disarmament. And so, world disarmament was the much-discussed foreign affairs topic of the day when delegates to the League of Women Voters' National Convention met in Cleveland. Nat Howard's front page story in the Plain Dealer asked, "Which Way Will the League (of Women Voters) Move? For or Against Disarmament?" Mrs. Catt was scheduled for a Convention speech on politics and politicians. But she was so moved by Will Irwin's plea to end wars, "we killed in retail in the last war, for we only killed about 10,000,000 persons 82 altogether. We will kill wholesale in the next war" - that she cast aside her set speech and led her audience of 2,000 women in a "spiritual crusade for peace": "The people in this room tonight . . . could put an end to war," said Mrs. Catt. "Let us take a resolution tonight, let us consecrate ourselves to put war out of this world. It isn't necessary for a Republican to turn Democrat or a Democrat, Republican. It is necessary that we rise out of mere shallow partisanship, that we act to put this terrible business out of the world." The next morning's Plain Dealer story was filled with the dramatics of Mrs. Catt's speech, "Not a woman stirred as the tall, majestic figure led them in a spiritual crusade against war. Like one inspired . . . like a superwoman sending her very soul out through eloquent eyes and organ-toned voice and outstretched hands . . . like the mother spirit of the world, Mrs. Catt commanded that wholesale murder cease from off the earth." There is no question but that Mrs. Catt was disappointed with the response to her plea for the League to lead a woman's peace movement. However, her speech did provoke the Convention to send a resolution to President Harding, promising League support to his proposed plan of peace through a disarmament program. And shortly after the Convention, Mrs. Park following a suggestion of Florence Allen and others, named a special committee on the Reduction of Armament by International Agreement (which in its early days, was sometimes called the International Friendliness Committee or the Disarmament Bureau). In October, following the Cleveland Convention, the chairman of this committee, Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser of Girard, Ohio, invited representatives of 16 other 83 women's organizations to join the League in laying the groundwork for the open move for disarmament. Pan American Conference. And so it was that planning for world peace became one of the major concerns of the National League of Women Voters. Miss Belle Sherwin of Cleveland (now second Vice- President of the National League) was charged with calling together a Pan American Conference of women, which would meet in Washington immediately following the 1922 National Convention in Baltimore. It was the League's hope, that through a united effort of women, the countries of the western hemisphere would come to a more peaceful understanding. Mrs. Catt and Jane Addams took a prominent part in this conference which the State Department in Washington hailed as an important international event. A gala display of flags on Pennsylvania Avenue welcomed the 31 women delegates from 22 governments of South and Central America and Canada, who had accepted Secretary of State Charles E. Hughes' official U.S. invitation to the Conference. In Baltimore, the stellar attraction of the League Convention was Lady Nancy Astor, who had recently won her seat as the first woman member of Parliament. Lord and Lady Astor came from England especially for this League Conference, hoping to win over the League of Women Voters' continuing support for U. S. membership in the League of Nations. According to newspaper reports, storms of applause greeted Lady Astor when she pleaded for American participation in the League of Nations. Said Lady Astor, "When America came into the war, Europe saw the dawn of a new hope - America in the war to end wars. Then America went out of the peace 84 and Europe was dumbfounded. Idealism took America into the war; idealism cannot take her out of the peace, no matter what politicians say. The League of Nations was started by America, or an American. Some seem to think only of the starter and forget it was the high purpose of his people who gave the impetus which brought the League from America to Europe. When we go for a great ideal we go for the ideal and not for the idealist. It's a principle we should follow and not be sidetracked by a personality." Eloquent as she was, Lady Astor failed to rally the Convention's major support for the League of Nations. An unscheduled pro-League of Nations dinner was held in Lady Astor's honor, but though over 100 delegates attended, no announcement of the dinner was made from the Convention platform and the event was more or less a clandestine affair - for the minority only. Harding-Hughes Plan. Few would question Lady Astor's charge that the League of Nations had become a partisan issue in the United States. President Harding continued to criticize the League of Nations and to refuse his support for U.S. membership. Everywhere in the country, Republican politicians like Ohio's Congressman, Theodore E. Burton, blasted away at the League of Nations. Said Congressman Burton, "The League has fallen short of its objectives, it has blandly and boldly used its mandates for the aggrandizement of its dominant members." When President Harding proposed United States' entry into the World Court as the most promising means of preventing war, a big drive started within the League of Women Voters to gain support for the World Court (the permanent Court of International Justice). Early in 1923, a delegation of women from 85 the League of Women Voters of Minnesota descended on their representatives in Congress carrying a mile and a half long petition with 100,000 signatures favoring American participation in the World Court. Then, at the National Convention in Des Moines, Iowa, that year, the National League of Women Voters pledged "active support to the proposal of President Harding and Secretary of State Hughes (Harding-Hughes plan) for participation by the United States in the World Court." Miss Ruth Morgan of New York, who presented this World Court resolution to the Convention, was named chairman of the League's new department for International Cooperation to Prevent War, which took over the work of Miss Hauser's special committee on disarmament. For two years following the Des Moines Convention this department carried on an active campaign through state and local League committees - urging U. S. membership in the World Court. Outlawing War. During the nation-wide peace movement of the early 20's, Judge Florence E. Allen and the Cleveland League of Women Voters were dynamic forces promoting a plan for peace through "outlawing war" - by establishing a code of international law, by which the waging of war would be a crime, and for which suitable penalties would be prescribed for the offender. Predecessors and contemporaries of Judge Allen had championed similar plans for peace through "outlawing war"; nevertheless, it was Florence Allen who at this time popularized the idea not only with the Cleveland League of Women Voters, but with the Ohio League, the National League and with other national women's organizations. Judge Allen's proposals, 86 which later were incorporated in the Cleveland Peace Plan, were the main report of Miss Hauser's disarmament committee at the League's 1922 Convention in Baltimore. However, the "watered-down" resolution this report inspired merely pledged the League in favor of "abolishing war as an institution in the settlement of international disputes." Ohio League members were disappointed with this 1922 resolution, and at both the Ohio state and local conventions which followed, resolutions were endorsed favoring work to "outlaw war." That fall, Judge Allen was elected to the Ohio Supreme Court, but Mrs. Siegmund Herzog, chairman of the local League's international relations committee, continued to push the Cleveland Peace Plan. The peace resolution of the Des Moines Convention which favored "U. S. membership in the permanent court in international justice," cautiously included the phrase, "believing this to be the first step toward the outlawing of war." Yet this resolution did not go far enough. For the Cleveland Peace Plan, as outlined by Florence Allen, called for more than a World Court, it called for a code of international law which would make war a punishable crime. Once again, Ohio delegates went home disappointed and once again, the Ohio League stepped ahead of the National League's peace program. It resolved that the "ultimate aim of all efforts toward international peace should be to outlaw war and abolish it as a legalized institution" - through the establishment of a code of international law by which waging of war would be a crime and the offender punished. Women's Council for Prevention of War. Some say it was Mrs. Catt's Cleveland Convention 87 plea for peace that inspired organization of the Cleveland Women's Council for the Prevention of War - many still remember hearing Mrs. Catt's words as she threw aside her set speech and said. "The women in this room could stop war." Others say that it was the Quaker Executive Secretary of the National Council for the Prevention of War, Mr. Fred J. Libby, who on March 17, 1923, dramatically warned members of the League of Women Voters of the horrors of another war - "The next war will be a gas war. Whole cities will be wiped out in a few hours. We cannot leave that war as a legacy to our children." For this story it is not of great importance which speech brought about the formation of the Women's Council for the Prevention of War. What is important, is that both speakers were brought to Cleveland by the League of Women Voters, and that for several years the League played the prominent part in the women's peace movement of Cleveland. Shortly after Mr. Libby's speech, Mrs. Siegmund Herzog, chairman of the League's international relations committee, Mrs. Walter H. Merriam, President of the Y.W.C.A., together with Marie Wing and Alice Gannett, Director of Goodrich House, went to "talk things over" with the League President, Miss Belle Sherwin. One can almost hear Miss Sherwin encouraging these women to form a separate council for peace, not attached to the League of Women Voters. During her term as President of the local League, as National Chairman of the Efficiency-in-Government Department, and later as National President from 1924-1934, Miss Sherwin continually stressed her interpretation of the League - as an organization that could not afford to become too closely identified with any one special interest group. In the beginning, it was decided that this new 88 Cleveland peace organization would be called the Women's Council for the Prevention of War, but to strike a more positive note, the Council soon added to it's name, becoming the Council for the Prevention of War and the Promotion of Peace. Though she is not down on the books as an early officer, it was Miss Grace Treat, Executive Secretary of the Women's City Club, who persuaded Mrs. E. S. Bassett to be the Council's first Chairman. Florence Allen was named as Honorary Chairman, Mrs. Siegmund Herzog, the Vice-Chairman, and several other members of the League served on the first Executive Board: Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride, Mrs. Howard S. Thayer, Mrs. Charles H. Prescott, and Mrs. Charles Burt Tozier. (In fairness to the Women's City Club which was founded in 1916, it should be mentioned that for years the City Club and the League of Women Voters had inner-locking Boards and that most of these women could also be claimed as members of the City Club.) Mrs. Walter B. Laffer, who followed Miss Sherwin as President of the local League, says that the League not only pledged its womanpower to support the Council, but actually joined with several others of the women's organizations in contributing "cash" to get the Council started. Shortly after the Council was organized, Mrs. L. J. Wolf was recruited to train speakers for the cause. Her Wednesday morning speakers' training and study group which had been a tradition of the Cleveland Women's Suffrage Party and was for two years a part of the League of Women Voters, became the dynamic core of the Cleveland Women's Council for the Prevention of War (and the Promotion of Peace). The Big Peace Parade. Early in 1924, Mrs. Bassett and her Council committees made plans for Cleve- 89 land's big peace parade - May 18, 1924. Under the Council's leadership, the League was one of 250 Cleveland women's organizations who took part in the parade. This event is deserving of notice here, not only because practically every member of the League of Women Voters marched, but because this parade climaxed the women's peace movement of Cleveland, which began at the Cleveland Convention of the League of Women Voters. As events proved, marching for peace took as much courage as marching for suffrage. There was great opposition to the parade; charges were made that the parade was inspired by communists and that it was RED, and the newspapers were unmerciful in teasing the women. It was admitted that some of the "nicest" women in town were marching, but it was charged that they had been "duped." Mr. William Frew Long of the Chamber of Commerce made derogatory statements to the press concerning the women and their peace parade, and a Columbus representative of the American Legion called a special protest meeting to consider the Legion called a special protest meeting to consider the Legion's stand on the issue. They later approved the parade and sent a delegation to join in it. Everything seemed against the women and their plans for a glorious demonstration for peace. Said Mrs. Frances F. Bushea, the first Executive Secretary of the Council, "We didn't know who was coming. There were newspaper stories galore, and I didn't sleep the night before the parade, I was so worried." Even the elements were uncooperative! When May 18th finally came, it was a terrible day. Thunder, lightening and rain broke the sky. At the last minute hundreds of women who had promised to march backed out because the weather or because of adverse 90 public opinion. But still, over 3,600 women (and a few men) with their umbrellas formed ranks behind Marie Wing and "her fine prancing horse." When the parade was called to order, the skies cleared and the sun slanted through the clouds, convincing the women marchers that they had an omen of peace for the world. Cause and Cure of War. The same question, which was solved in Cleveland by the formation of the Women's Council for the Prevention of War and the Promotion of Peace, was now facing the National League of Women Voters, namely, would the League take the leadership in promoting the women's peace movement? From its beginning, the League had struggled with the responsibility of its all-inclusive program. The national leaders - Mrs. Park, Miss Sherwin and others, feared that assuming primary responsibility for the women's peace movement would swamp the League before it was established. Therefore, Mrs. Catt was encouraged to form a separate organization to unite the effort of other national women's organizations with the League of Women Voters in working for peace. Mrs. Siegmund Herzog remembers sessions at the 1924 League Convention in Buffalo when plans were made for calling the representatives of eight other national women's organizations together for the first National Conference (later changed to Committee) on the Cause and Cure of War. She also remembers being very proud to report how the Cleveland League had worked with other women's organizations in the community in helping to achieve success for the Cleveland Council on Promotion of Peace. Cleveland had established a local pattern of action for peace which 91 could be integrated into a larger organization on the national level. The National League's Chairman of International Relations, Ruth Morgan, who helped Mrs. Catt develop the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War, paid tribute to the leadership the Cleveland League had taken in furthering the peace movement. "The women of Cleveland have done a magnificent and outstanding piece of work in the peace movement and they are spurring the women of other cities in this great task of womankind." World Court 1925 was the climactic year of the postwar peace movement in the United States. Early that year, the League of Women Voters and other national women's organizations shared responsibility with Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt for calling together the first National Conference on the Cause and Cure of War. At the League's National Convention in Richmond, Va., delegates voted to adopt Mrs. Catt's proposals on how to achieve the peace (which she had outlined at the Cause and Cure of War Conference) as their international relations study program for the following year. These fourteen points included: study of the Geneva Protocol and the National Defense Act; work for the United States' participation in a disarmament conference when called by the League of Nations; measures for a permanent World Court; codification of international law and the outlawry of war. At the time of the Richmond Convention, the World Court bill had been stalled for many months in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Members of the Cleveland League of Women Voters worked 92 with the World Court Committee of Cleveland," and organization formed to petition senators and congressmen to remove the Harding-Hughes World Court bill from committee to the floor of the Senate. Even the Christian Science Monitor, conservative in its predictions, ventured the opinion that there was "every reason to anticipate President Coolidge's success in the struggle with Senator Borah over American participation in the World Court. Though on January 27, 1926 the Senate approved the Court protocol, Senator Borah's five reservations were included which made full United States membership in the Court virtually impossible. The League of Women Voters' nation-wide campaign for U. S. membership in the World Court ended in frustration. "Equal" Rights Winning the vote had not brought a happy reunion of the two branches of the suffrage movement. For the most part, the non-militants (members of the National American Women's Suffrage Association) became members of the League of Women Voters. But the militants, members of the National Woman's Party, continued their militant fight for other equal rights for women. These two organizations found themselves on opposite sides of legislation dealing with rights of women. Shortly before the Tennessee ratification of the 19th Amendment, Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont announced that after women were given the vote, the National Women's Party would continue to campaign for a 20th Amendment to the Constitution, a so-called "Equal" Rights Amendment, which would guarantee women equality with men. 93 The League of Women Voters recognized that legal and economic discriminations against women still existed after women got the vote, as evidenced by archaic marriage and divorce laws, laws regarding guardianship of children, wife abandonment, wife's interest in real estate and other property rights, women's right to serve on juries. Nevertheless, the League was opposed to any "blanket" legislation which would remove these discriminations, particularly the Women's Party's so- called "Equal" Rights Amendment. For, in addition to the righting of various legal discriminations against women which were included in the body of state laws, this proposed constitutional amendment would also wipe out the hard-won labor legislation that protected women workers - laws regulating wages and hours, night-shift work, the lifting of weights. Year after year the heavily-endowed "feminist" National Women's Party wages its militant campaign for this so-called "Equal" Rights Amendment. And year after year the League of Women Voters is forced to call its members to action in order to defeat this greatly-misunderstood issue. At the present time, there is no promise that this conflict in approaching the problem of women's rights can be resolved by a happy agreement. There is a basic difference of opinion between the two organizations. Protective Legislation For members of the League of Women Voters, the extensive use of women in industry during World War I had emphasized the need for labor legislation which would protect the woman worker. The Suffrage Association had approved the theory of "equal 94 pay for equal work" for women factory workers; in fact, during 1917, Mrs. Catt made a nation-wide lecture tour, presenting this doctrine. And in Cleveland, the League of Women Voters inherited a particular interest in problems of the woman worker from the Cleveland Woman's Suffrage Party. During 1918, when large numbers of women were laid off from their war jobs, a situation of national interest developed in Cleveland. Some 270 "retired" women street car conductorettes fought for the right to hold their jobs in the postwar period, and for the right to unionize with men. The Cleveland Woman's Suffrage Party backed the conductorettes in their fight; in fact, Rose Moriarity and Florence Allen were key figures in the controversy, which involved a National Labor Relations Board decision, and brought the country's top labor experts to Cleveland. The conductorettes lost their jobs, and Cleveland Woman's Suffrage Party became so involved in this case that "problems resulting from the wartime use of women-in-industry" were the major concern of the Party's fourth annual Convention program. To see that existing state laws protecting women workers were observed, the Suffrage Association and later the League of Women Voters supported the re- establishment of the wartime Women's Bureau in the U.S. Department of Labor. This was one of the few platform promises the Republicans made to the League of Women Voters that the Harding administration carried out. In 1920, Miss Mary Anderson was named Director of the new Bureau. Minimum Wage. From the beginning of the League, support for state minimum wage legislation for women was included in the national and state League programs. In the spring of 1922, the Ohio 95 League President, Miss Amy Maher, who was at the time also Chairman of the Ohio Council of Women and Children in Industry, gave speeches throughout Ohio urging support for the second in a series of minimum wage bills which were presented to the Ohio Legislature in 1919, 1922, and 1923. Miss V. Freda Siegworth and other early workers of the Cleveland League's women-in-industry committee took their part in rallying Cleveland public opinion to support minimum wage legislation in Ohio. From 1923 to 1933, however, there was little encouragement for state minimum wage campaigns because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Adkins case, which found a minimum wage ruling of the District of Columbia unconstitutional. With the depression, many more people recognized the depressive effect of low women's wages on the entire wage scale, and there was increasing public support for minimum wage legislation. 1933 was the year when Felix Frankfurter, a Professor of Harvard Law School, drafted a model minimum wage bill for the National Consumers' League. This bill "went around" the 1923 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Adkins case by emphasizing a fair return for services rendered intend of the minimum wage based on the cost of living. Using the Frankfurter model bill, New York passed its minimum wage law. Immediately after that, President Roosevelt sent a telegram to the other states encouraging them to pass similar minimum wage legislation. At the same time, Cleveland public opinion was incensed by low wage evidence revealed in a court case against a Cleveland hat manufacturing company. One girl testified that she had worked three days and was paid 89c, another told of working 22 1/2 hours for 94c. Bill 96 Lovell of the Plain Dealer helped win new friends for Ohio minimum wage legislation with his stories of this case and similar situations in other Cleveland plants where women worked for ridiculously low wages. In April and May, 1933, the League, one of 40 member organizations of the Ohio Labor Standards Committee, helped conduct the short but effective campaign for legislative approval of the Pringle-O'Neil minimum wge bill. Early one morning at 5 o'clock, Mrs. McBride set out for Columbus with two girls who had been involved in the Cleveland millinery case. These girls repeated their low-wage testimony before a hearing of the House Labor Committee. After the long, hard campaign for minimum wage legislation in Ohio, it ws startling and almost an anti-climax when the bill was reported out of committee and passed the Legislature June 8, 1933, by a unanimous vote. BING SCHOOL ATTENDANCE LAW. When Ohio women got the vote, the Suffrage Association passed on to the League of Women Voters the primary responsibility for improving school attendance and child labor legislation. For some years before World War I, Ohio had had a progressive labor law for children, a law providing that boys must attend school until 15 years of age and girls until 16. Nevertheless,wartime labor conditions accentuated the need for more protective legislation for children, and in 1918 when Lucia Johnson (Bing), Child Welfare specialist of the Ohio Institute, made her 14-month survey of illiteracy in Ohio (as a part of the U.S. Children's Bureau's "Child's Year" Program) she uncovered facts about school attendance in rural Ohio. 97 On the basis of the Ohio Institute report, a member of the Legislature, Mr. S. H. Bing, proposed a bill for recodifying Ohio's school attendance and child labor laws, a bill which the League of Women Voters and other women's organizations of the State banded together to support. After this bill became a law, Miss Grace Abbott of the U.S. Children's Bureau said that she considered the Bing School Attendance law the most progressive child labor and school attendance law in the country. This law removed the school attendance issue from the politics of the local communities, making it compulsory for both boys and girls to remain at their studies until they reached the age of 16 years. It also provided that in order to join the work force upon reaching the age of 16, a boy or girl must secure a work and health certificate and be employed in a non-hazardous occupation. The part Lucia Johnson Bing played in helping Ohio take its progressive step forward in child labor and school attendance legislation was lauded by the League of Women Voters. Her experience was invaluable during her term as chairman of the local, state, and national child welfare departments. Even after it was on the statute books, however, the Bing law needed the continuing watch-dog protection of the League's child welfare committee. IN the 10 years that followed, repeated efforts were made in each session of the Legislature to undermine it. There is a romantic side-light on this story--the marriage of Mr. S. H. Bing, who introduced the bill in the Legislature, to Lucia Johnson, who furnished Mr. Bing with facts to back up his proposal. LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE. Encouraged by the success of the joint effort of Ohio's women's organizations which was responsible for getting the Bing law approved, the Cleveland League experimented in calling together a legislative committee. It was composed of representatives of Cleveland women's organizations who were interested in current legislative problems. These organizations--The Council of Jewish Women, the Y.W.C.A., the Women's City Club, the Democratic Women's League, the Junior League and others,each sent two representatives and the League of Women Voters planned the discussions. Miss Margaret Johnston, Executive Secretary and Director of the Cleveland League, a later Secretary of the National League, a later Secretary of the National League, was the leader of this committee. The Committee worked to keep the women of Cleveland better informed concerning national and state legislation, and helped to further carry out the League's slogan, Every woman an intelligent voter. CHILD LABOR LAW The climax of the U.S. Children's Bureau's wartime program to improve conditions for America's children was the nation-wide campaign to include a child labor amendment in the U.S. Constitution. The Child Labor bill of 1924 was an enabling act which set up a minimum standard for child labor. It was passed by Congress and was endorsed by President Coolidge, but when it got to the State Legislatures it ran into an unprecedented storm of opposition. The skillfully-organized opposition included employers, farm organizations and a religious group. Employers had resented the 1816 child labor law which was morally effective in that it caused state enforcement authorities to keep an eye on employers who were inclined to exploit children. After the 1916 law was declared unconstitutional, employer's organi- [organi]-zations like the National Association of Manufacturers carried on a campaign to defeat another such child labor law. Farm groups were misled to believe the false accusations of the opposition that children on farms could be prevented from helping with the chores. Some went as far as Chester A. Dyer, overseer of the Ohio Grange, who maintained that if Ohio ratified the proposed Child Labor Amendment such a law "would set aside the fundamental American principle of state rights, destroy parental control and commit the United States to the socialistic system of nationalization of children." Against this strong opposition, the League of Women Voters joined with church,welfare and labor organizations in what became a vicious campaign, the nation over. All other League activities took second place during 1924 and early 1925 while the League campaigned for the new Amendment to the Constitution. IN Ohio, Miss Juliette Sessions, President of the Ohio League and Chairman of the Joint Council for Ratification of the Child Labor Amendment,led Ohio's valiant right for state ratification. In Cleveland, Mrs. Kepple Hall, Mrs. Charles Denney, Mrs. Benjamin P. Bole, Mrs. Arthur Judson, Miss Selma Sullivan, Mrs. Charles E. Pope and others were members of a League committee to investigate hours of work and conditions of labor for children under 18 years of age. The League presented the results of this survey to the public hoping to arouse favorable attention to the Amendment which was pending before the General Assembly. But in spite of the effort of the League of Women Voters, the National Consumers League and other organizations, the opposition forces were too powerful. Ohio joined the 12 other states which rejected the child labor amendment that year--either by referendum or vote of the legislature. At this time only two states--Arkansas and California--had approved the measure. OHIO RATIFIES. Though the League of Women Voters announced ti would carry on the battle for ratification of the Child Labor Amendment, it was recognized that future odds were against this greatly misinterpreted proposal. The League continued to back "Jimmy Reynolds'" succeeding attempts to get the Ohio Legislature's approval of the Amendment. Years later, in 1933, when Joseph Cassidy of Cuyahoga County introduced his bill for ratification of the Child Labor Amendment,even the agricultural organizations who had most violently opposed Ohio's ratification in 1925 had all but forgotten the arguments supporting their opposition. On March 21, 1933, by a vote of 26-2 in the Senate, Ohio became the 10th state to ratify the U.S. Child Labor Amendment. PITFALLS OF POLITICS Though the League of Women Voters had chalked up many local and state victories by 1926, the national defeat of the Child Labor Amendment and the unhappy end of the campaign for United States' membership in the World Court re-emphasized the need for women to "dig deeper" into politics, and the need for a greater number of informed women voters. As starry-eyed political hopefuls, many of the new women voters, who followed the League's advice to "get-into-politics," had met with discouraging "pitfalls." Party leaders had called the eager women "meddlers" and "busybodies" and for the few suc- cessful candidates like Mrs. A. B. Pyke, leader of Cleveland's Democratic women, Judge Florence E. Allen, Judge of the Ohio Supreme Court, and Mrs. Maude C. Waitt, Republican State Senator from Lakewood, there were many unsuccessful would-be women politicians. The charge was made by some that women were welcomed into the parties as mere "window dressing." When the always-colorful Lucia McBride made known her resignation from the Cuyahoga County Republican Committee, it was in a dramatic speech before a meeting of the Republican women of Ohio. "We women are on the outside of politics. The men on the inner circle don't care a nickel for us. They don't take us seriously. We trot around and get out votes for an organization of whose inner workings we know nothing. There is not a bit of sense in our standing like beggars at the outer court. It's either get inside the works and get in now, or quit the force." Previously, a group of 40 women Republicans and members of the League of Women Voters had resigned from the Republican party in New York calling the Governor's attention to the fact that for them "experience within the party's organizations has been a humiliating one, there is no real equality in the management of party affairs." Perhaps the women had set their expectations too high; they wanted to see the results of their political efforts too quickly. In 1905, Tom Johnson, one of the first men of rank in political life to campaign for equal suffrage, had warned women suffragists against expecting to see the immediate results of their new political power. "Equal suffrage will bring about a gradual elevation of the ideals of politics," said Mr. 102 Johnson, "But don't look to any immediate or startling changes." Nevertheless, though only a comparatively small number of women had been successful in getting into politics, the number of women candidates for political office was increasing each year. In the fall election of 1926, the National League of Women Voters estimated that an unprecedented number of some 500 American women were actively engaged in seeking political offices. In Wisconsin, the center of western liberalism, there were 43 women candidates for sheriff that year. Voters' Service - 1927. Besides being concerned with the difficulties League members were having in their attempts to work into the political parties, it was a major concern for Miss Sherwin, the League's National President, that women had failed to exercise their right of franchise, and that the woman vote had fallen off steadily since the 1920 election. In 1927, Miss Sherwin called on all member Leagues to intensify their pre-election campaigns, stressing the fact that "getting-out-the-vote" continued as the central aim of the League of Women Voters. That year, the national office conducted a survey of voting habits in selected states, and for a period of eight months before the presidential election in 1928, the National Broadcasting Company cooperated with the League in presenting a series of weekly radio programs "to present all sides - and to promote none." The National office also issued a publication, "A Handy Digest of Election Laws in the Forty-eight States." In Cleveland, where the woman vote fell off from 73,311 in 1920 to 35,274 in 1923, the League was also concerned with its responsibility for Voters' Service. 103 Various theories had been advanced to explain the diminishing woman vote, but both facts and opinion substantiated the belief that the short ballot and permanent registration of voters would increase the vote. In addition to a National League Survey, the results of a local house-to-house canvass for reasons why people did not vote (put to Cleveland voters in the early fall of 1926) showed that the problems of registration and the long complicated ballot were high on the list of reasons for non-voting. Then, at the Ohio League's 1927 Convention, where such Voters' Service problems were discussed, Newton D. Baker agreed with the League that to overcome non-voting the task of the voters must be simplified by the short ballot. Said Mr. Baker, "The League of Women Voters will be of service in drawing attention to the fact that there is no abnegation of the democratic principle in limiting the number of elective offices." The College Leagues. This League campaign to increase the number of women voters included a drive to organize branch Leagues in the colleges and universities. Converting the "flapper" to a realization of the importance of politics had an important place in the program of the 1926 National Convention which was held in St. Louis. Western Reserve organized a branch of the League of Women Voters and Cleveland sent ten of Ohio's 24 college delegates (the largest state group attending the convention) to St. Louis where one hundred girls represented 49 colleges. Visualizing this experiment as a further hope for democracy, Miss Sherwin told these new voter, "Strong faith in education in politics is the right road toward realization of true democracy." At a later date she expanded this idea 104 to say, "The League is an experiment in political education. I sometimes call it a dogged overture in patriotism. It exists to exercise a counter influence to the wholesale practice of persuasion or propaganda." Local Government Cleveland's glorious era of good city government under Mayors Tom L. Johnson and Newton D. Baker came to an end. Reportedly, a period of bad government followed 1912. Professor A. R. Hatton, Political Science professor of Western Reserve and "father" of the city-manager charter, charged that from 1912 to 1920 "the city debt was practically doubled and largely for operating expenses; the police force was demoralized by personal and partisan interference; service rendered the people declined both in quantity and volume; and the entire city service was debauched with spoils politics." The voters of Cleveland elected a commission including: Mr. Hatton, Mayo Fesler of the Citizens League, Peter Witt, Newton D. Baker, Malcolm L. McBride, Bascom Little, E. W. Doty, Edward W. Williams and others who were responsible for drawing up a new city charter. The Charter these progressive business and professional men proposed was most revolutionary. It abolished the wards as councilmanic election districts, provided for a city council of 25 members elected from four districts by proportional representation and turned over the entire executive responsibility of running the city to a city-manager who was to be hired by the city council. There was great enthusiasm for this new plan of government. Though no local party was formed to support the new Charter (as in Cincinnati), both political parties pledged their support to the plan and 105 the old Civic League of Cleveland was re-organized as the Citizens League in 1921, for the purpose of putting over the city-manager plan. Members of the League of Women Voter who were early members of the Citizens League's Executive Board were: Mrs. Walter B. Laffer, Mrs. Maude C. Waitt, Mrs. Addison C. Waid, and others. Before the 1921 Charter election, Miss Sherwin made a statement to the newspapers in the name of the officers and directors of the League of Women Voters: "The time has come for the citizens of Cleveland to choose their own mayor. The League of Women Voters believes that the people of Cleveland are tired of voting for hand-picked candidates of the party bosses." Further explaining the League's stand, Miss Sherwin said, "We do believe that the time has come, in view of all the agitation and discord now current in view of all the agitation and discord now current in our municipal affairs to do our part in getting good men for office. We want men who will look after the best interests of the city in preference to looking out for the private interests." Following the League's policy of studying a problem before taking action, an executive committee including: Mrs. Frank A. Muhlhauser, Mrs. Albert Levy, Mrs. Alton H. Smith and others considered the principle of the city-manager form of government for cities and recommended action the League would take toward endorsing it. Members of the League would have preferred a smaller city council, elected at large (like the Dayton plan). They were wary of the district plan which they thought would tend to accentuate differences between Cleveland's nationality groups. Nevertheless, the League backed the new Charter, claiming it a big step toward more representative and efficient city government. 106 The voters of Cleveland approved the city-manager, proportional representation Charter, but it was November, 1923 before a city council was elected under the new Charter. Before the election that fall, the League of Women Voters held a two-day institute on municipal government. Professor Charles E. Merriam of the University of Chicago, one of the nation's leaders in the movement for more scientific public administration, added his support to the Cleveland plan and called upon League members "to learn how Cleveland should be governed, think how Cleveland should be governed, and to vote how Cleveland should be governed." The League for P. R. According to the provisions of the new Charter, there was no primary run- off before the election, and in each of the city's four districts there was a large number of councilmanic candidates on the ballot. In the third district, for example, Marie Wing (Cleveland's first city councilwoman) was one of 18 candidates competing for six offices. After results of the 1923 election were tallied, old- line politicians were disgruntled that 14 of the 33 old wards had no councilmen and that 62% of the voters had given their first-choice votes to council candidates who lived in other wards. Consequently, before the first council elected by proportional representation had selected a city-manager, the drive was already under way to undermine the new plan of government. Joly 7, 1925 when the Cleveland League of Women Voters announced its "fight to the finish" campaign to save proportional representation (P. R.), the Cleveland Press gave the story a banner headline on the first page - "Women Gird for Battle for Retain- 107 ing P. R." Using the old suffrage campaign techniques, Miss Laura Heller, President, reorganized the League into districts, and announced the following plan of attack: - Members of the League would wage an educational campaign in every district in order to thoroughly acquaint women voters with the merits and demerits of P. R. so that at the polls, in August, every woman voter would give the question intelligent consideration. - Miss Elizabeth Hunkin, chairman of the efficiency - in - government committee, was organizing a "get-out-the-vote"" corps of 20 motor cars to take voters to the polls on August 11th. - The League announced a series of outdoor debates on P. R. to be held at Wade Park, Gordon Park, and Edgewater Park. No open air meetings for suffrage were more colorful than these League-sponsored debates on the P. R. system. At Wade Park, city councilman, A. R. Hatton, opposed former city councilman, John F. Curry, and repeated his charge that after 1912 Cleveland had experienced some of the worst government in its history. He further pointed out that this condition was aided and abetted by the old ward council, for, under the old system, the machines were in a position to deal out punishment to any member who opposed them. At Gordon Park the fiery Peter Witt took part in a "raging" debate for P. R. against Ray T. Miller. According to report, this was one of the most torrid forensic spectacles ever witnessed in Cleveland. The crowd of 2,000 was so much with Witt (who allowed that a vote for the proposed Amendment would be 108 a donation toward an oriental rug in the palatial home of a political boss) that two uniformed policemen escorted Mr. Miller - the anti-P. R. speaker - to his "machine." Contending that P. R. was too complex, Mr. Miller had told his audience, "All you've got to do under the ward plan is to mark a cross." A spectator in the crowd yelled back at the speaker, "And the bosses do the rest." When the votes were tallied, August 11, P. R. won by a narrow majority of 804 votes. Plain Dealer Headlines read" "Voters Repulse Party Leaders' First Attack On City's New Charter Though Professor Hatton was credited with almost singlehandedly whipping the campaign into shape through the Charter Defense Committee, the League of Women Voters' debates and other campaign activities helped keep news of the P. R. campaign on the front pages of the city's newspapers. Certainly this campaign proved that the Cleveland League of Women Voters could be an effective political organization. Davis Amendment The outcome of this election did not settle the question of Cleveland's new government for long. Grumblings against proportional representation continued, and in 1927, a second attack proposed to defeat the entire city-manager Charter. On April 20, 1927 Peter Witt charged that Harry L. Davis, former Mayor of Cleveland and Governor of Ohio was behind the move to "oust" the city-manager plan. The Cleveland League of Women Voters was ready for this new attack. Thanks to Mrs. Max Hellman 109 and others, League study groups had continued studying the problems of government in the metropolitan area of Greater Cleveland. The League was not only ready to re-state its stand that P. R. and the city-manager plan should be retained for a longer trial period, but also to advocate that a charter commission should be named to consider a city-unit plan. Such a plan would solve the problems of overlapping services such as transportation, sewerage, etc. in the governmental units of Greater Cleveland. The League of Women Voters went on record as favoring these further reforms in local government: - A metropolitan area plan in Cuyahoga County (the League was sponsoring the borough plan.) - An impartial and efficient Civil Service Commission. (The League opposed the current administration of the Cleveland Civil Service Commission, deploring its "partisanship.") - An impartial Board of Elections. - Honest municipal elections. Three months before the election which would decide the fate of the city-manager government, 700 members of the League cheered Professor Thomas H. Reed, (municipal government expert of the University of Michigan,) when he warned that adoption of a metropolitan area plan for greater Cleveland depended on the city-manager plan being retained. This speech helped stir the League to immediate action. The Cleveland League of Women Voters served notice that it would fight to the last ditch to save the city- manager form of government and to defeat the Harry L. Davis Charter Amendment, which would 110 replace the city-manager with an elected mayor and would abolish proportional representation. Suffrage Technique. In the first five years of the League, the local committees - efficiency-in- government, international relations, child welfare, cost of living, etc. - had become cohesive units, united by their own special interests and zealous of their position on the League program. Even the fight to retain P. R. in 1925 and the revived district organization of suffrage days had failed to unite all members of the League into one unit for "action." However, this 1928 campaign to save the manager plan succeeded in breaking down committee barriers. Mrs. Ralph Tyler, President of the League, announced that the League would lay aside all other work until after the April primary and would devote its entire attention to defeat of the Davis Charter Amendment. In the previous campaigns, the League of Women Voters had acted in a supporting role, but this time the League "took its nickel" (a favorite McBride expression), stepped out in front, and almost single handedly fought for retention of the city-manager form of government. Working against the open hostility of many politicians who had enjoyed special privileges under the old mayor plan of government, the League developed an effective charter defense against what looked like hopeless odds. Miss Virda L. Stewart of Western Reserve conducted a speaker's training class; League workers made a house-to-house canvass; broadsides were printed and distributed with pertinent campaign slogans: "Which Way Cleveland? Keep Cleveland Progressive! Strive for Stability in Government! Save Money for Cleveland! 111 Maintain a low city tax rate!" League-sponsored meetings were organized to inform more workers on the basic facts of Cleveland government under the city-manager plan. League members got them selves deputized as watchers and deputy sheriffs to see that the votes were honestly cast and counted at the polls. This 1928 campaign was successful. Once again the anti-charter forces were defeated. This time the Davis Amendment lost by 3,232 votes. Newspapers, politicians and other organizations like the Citizens League who helped in the fight gave the League of Women Voters major credit for the victory. The League's National President, Miss Belle Sherwin, hailed the Cleveland campaign as the first genuine civic work the League had ever attempted. Because they had waited behind in Cleveland for the outcome of the election, the leaders of the League's campaign against the Davis Amendment, Mrs. Ralph Tyler and Mrs. Malcom L. McBride, chairman of the campaign, were several days late for the League's National Convention in Chicago. However, news of the victory preceded them to Chicago, and when these two campaigners entered the open session of the Convention, the delegates stood and cheered their tribute to the Cleveland victory. Later, members of Cleveland's delegation were honored for their spectacular victory at a carnival. "Never before had the National League bestowed such honors on an individual League." "3-D" Amendment. The forces opposed to the manager plan kept "forging away," and again in 1929 a "3-D" (Davis, Downer and Danaceau) Amendment was forced to a vote in a special August election. This amendment was practically the same as the one 112 which was defeated in 1928, in fact, it was reported to contain most of the typographical errors of it predecessor." Having spent about $8,000 on the 1928 campaign, the League of Women Voters could not afford to take the lead in the 1929 fight. Moreover, since it was now evident that the charter needed a special committee to carry on the fight, a Progressive Government Committee was organized for the 1929 defensive. Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride, Mrs. Max Hellman, Mrs. J. A. Reaugh and Miss Selma Sullivan, members of the League's Executive Board, helped organize the new committee and also served as its vice-chairmen. It was reported on good authority that Mrs. McBride worked daily at the new committee's headquarters. She took a leave of absence from her job with the League to devote her entire energy to the cause. This campaign again organized the wards and precincts according to the League techniques, with many League members serving as captains. Mrs. E. E. Hill organized District 2; Mrs. Helen H. Green and Mrs. Carrie A. Lewis (who had organized the church work in the League Campaigns) did the same jobs for the Progressive Government Committee. The League pitched its camp besides the new committee and other League members who contributed much to this well-organized, well-financed drive were the following: Mrs. Cora C. Cooley, Mrs. Bernice Pyke, Mrs. Louis J. Bing Jr., W. J. Bushea, Mrs. J. F. Coulston, Mrs. John W. Seaver, Miss Susan Rebhan and Mrs. W. J. Schneider. Though it was recognized that there were certain defects in the Charter which should be changed, the League of Women Voters advocated that these changes should be made a section or two at a time, and recommended that a competent charter commis- 113 sion should be elected which would hold public hearings for citizens' opinion. The League objected to the "3-D" Amendment, not only because it would return the city of Cleveland to the mayor form of government with its spoils system, but because it would enlarge the council by nine members, increasing the cost of the council without adding to its efficiency. Furthermore, it would not only give the mayor control of administration but also of civil service and the awarding of contracts. In short, the "3-D" Amendment proposed a return to the old graft-providing, inefficient type of government abandoned by Cleveland citizens in 1921. Quoting from the League Voter: "In our opinion, the city-manager plan should be continued. Under it Cleveland has had the best five and one half years of government it has ever had. Let us keep our gains and vote 'no.'" That year, the charter defense forces were victorious again, with a 3,004-vote majority. Little by little, however, the opposition was whittling away the small advantage. The Progressive Government Committee reported that it had spent more than $70,000 in its campaign - a rather handsome sum compared to the $8,000 the League of Women Voters had spent winning the 1928 campaign. Election Reform. These charter defense campaigns had accentuated the need for local election reforms and for the re-codification of Ohio's election laws. At the League's tenth annual city Convention Judge Edward K. Jarecki's speech on the "Whys and Wherefores of Vote Frauds" inspired the League to send a resolution to the Cleveland Board of Elections. This resolution asked for a board rule that election 114 booth officials be certified every two years from an accredited booth procedure training school. One election later, after the defeat of the manager plan, the sadly-wiser League urged the Cleveland Board of Elections to buy voting machines, the election reform which the League of Women Voters has since advocated as the best guarantee of honest elections. The Last Fight. By 1930, the anti-charter fight had become an anti-manager Hopkins fight. That year the League of Women Voters pointed out that the issue was not even William R. Hopkins, but whether of not even William R. Hopkins, but whether or not the position of city-manager was to be a "political plum" awarded to the party that controlled the majority. In January, a public demand was rising to protest the ouster of city-manager Hopkins. The League of Women Voters made a joint statement with the Women's City Club, proposing that the dismissal of manager Hopkins should take place after hearing the charges against him, rather than before. But these protests were in vain; Mr. Hopkins was dismissed and Daniel E. Morgan installed as the new city-manager. February 25, 1930, a committee of the League of Women Voters, one of the three organizations still on record as supporting the manager plan, presented the League's views to the Charter Revision Committee. Both Miss Polly Prescott, President of the League, and Mrs. Max Hellman advised a reduction in the size of the council-at-large and removal from the council of the power to elect the Civil Service Commission. The following year, 1931, the League again rallied to the last defense of the Charter. Harry L. Davis,, leader of the fight against the manager plan had retired, but Saul Danaceau presented a similar amend- 115 ment. This was one of the worst years of the depression and old-time politicians were "hungry for jobs." The National Municipal League opinioned that if the Cleveland city-manager plan were abandoned that year, "The action would probably have no more significance than that the average citizen of Cleveland was so discouraged by present business conditions that he just had to give vent to his spleen one way or another." The Citizens League was still for the manager plan and their bulletin listed facts to prove statements that Cleveland's government under the manager plan was more economical; that larger constructive improvements had been made (the Stadium, Public Hall); and that service rendered by city departments had been more efficient. But the Citizens League was not a campaigning organization. All three newspapers - The Plain Dealer, the Press and the News were still behind the plan. The Press printed City Hall financial figures which showed conclusively that the cost of city government was higher under the mayor system. The News editorialized, "are we going to keep a modern form of government designed for efficiency, or throw the city wide open to inefficiency and spoils. "The Plain Dealer called attention to the fact that the new city manager, Daniel E. Morgan, was doing a good job. Still this support was not enough. There were now many prominent opponents of the mayor-council plan. Men like Newton D. Baker, the former Secretary of War, who in 1927 had opposed seeing "the government of the city made a football of the political ambitions of anybody," joined the opposition. The League called him for his "about face," but in that year the entire Democratic organization which 116 had backed the plan in 1927, 1928 and 1929 joined the opposition forces. There were rumors of foul play, of a Republican- Democratic agreement which divided all city jobs. Councilman Peter Witt who "espoused the plan in 1921 and three times voted against change," charged in a Press interview October 26, 1931 that under the Hopkins administration, the local Republican and Democratic leaders, Maurice Maschke and Burr Gongwer, had agreed to a 60-40 division of jobs. Former City-Manager Hopkins was running for the Council in 1931 and the bitter verbal attacks between Hopkins, who was stumping for the plan, and Maschke, who admitted that he was the man "who picks city-managers from the street and puts them back in the street again," was most unfortunate. It gave the public a picture of the political intrigue that goes on behind the scenes at the City Hall and did the fight for the manager plan no good. The League's energetic and most capable Executive Secretary, Mrs. Annetta Gross Zillmer (Fuchs), a recent graduate of Western Reserve where she was a member of the Western Reserve College League of Women Voters, recruited campaign speakers. Miss Polly Prescott, League President, was also a very young recent college graduate, but with exception of a few names - Miss Kay Halle, Mrs. Charles Patch Jr., and Mrs. John W. Brown Jr. - most of the workers in 1931 had helped the League defend the manager plan in previous campaigns. Included in this list were: Mrs. Max Hellman, Mrs. H. L. Beavis, Mrs. Louis Bing Jr., Mrs. J. Paul Wilkes, Mrs. J. F. Coulston, Mrs. W. J. Schneider, Mrs. John W. Seaver, Mrs. Frances J. Bushea, Mrs. J. A. Reaugh, Mrs. E. E. Hill, Mill Selma Sullivan, Mrs. H. A. Dooley, Mrs. Earl L. Shoup, Mrs. Walter B. Laffer, Mrs. T. H. Burgess, 117 Mrs. Walter Bissell, Mrs. E. E. Oviatt, Mrs. Edward J. Schweid (Marjorie Stern), Mrs. J. E. Bahner and others. A Committee of 100 women and a Charter Defense Committee - a non-partisan organization of "distinguished Democratic and Republican men" was also organized to aid the League fight. But, the Progressive Government Committee which had taken the lead in saving the plan in 1929 was not revived and once again the Cleveland League of Women Voters had the major responsibility for the campaign. Again, League interviewers set out on a house-to- house canvass. They pointed out that this campaign against the manager plan, the eight years under the new government were better than any similar period of time under a mayor form of government. Moreover, the League was firm in its belief that the failures of the plan were not sufficient warrant for scrapping the plan before it had been given a fair trial. City-Manager Out. According to the League of Women Voters, the Danaceau Amendment of the 1931 election was "the most dangerous and costly" of all the charter amendments which had been proposed as alternatives to the city-manager form of government. The League charged that this Amendment was a frank return to the old "spoils system." Exposure of the "60-40" job deal in the bitter Maschke-Hopkins fight caused the manager plan to lose face with the voters. At this time, many organizations and important citizens went over to the anti- charter forces. Cleveland's City-Manager plan was defeated at the polls November 4, 1931. 118 Members of the League of Women Voters were greatly disappointed with the repudiation of the city-manager government, which the League had fought so valiantly to defend. Looking backward, the League opinioned that from the beginning the plan had been doomed by the large council of 25 members. Said Mrs. McBride: "The fact that the 25 councilmen were elected from four districts was the fatal thing. As it turned out, proportional representation turned people against the manager plan and in Cleveland the four districts plan of P. R. accentuated nationally and racial conflicts." Looking on the brighter side, Mrs. Max Hellman made this comment, "That long fight for the city- manager plan put the League of Women Voters on its feet locally." Two years after this defeat and the return to the mayor form of government, the League renewed its allegiance to the city-manager plan, with a small city council, elected at large. Jury Service Reform Though 1931 brought the defeat of the city-manager plan, members of the Cleveland League helped to celebrate a significant victory that year. On May 1st at 4 p. m. a jury wheel was installed with appropriate ceremony at the County Court House, marking the final success of the League campaign to improve the caliber of jury service in Cuyahoga County. Ohio women had been fortunate, in that ratification of the 19th Amendment which had made them voting citizens, had also made them eligible to serve on juries. In New York and in more than twenty other states women were still fighting for that right, and so, for Cleveland women, being called for jury 119 service was a great honor. It was such an honor that the Women's City Club had an Honor Roll in the main lounge with the names of Club members who had been called for jury service. Once inside the Court House, Cleveland women jurors saw the crying need for reform in the method of choosing juries. For at that time, it was common practice to pick jurors from the "hangers-on" who reported to the Court House from day to day, awaiting to be called for jury service. Judge Mary B. Grossman, Mrs. Gertrude V. Handrick, Mrs. E. E. Hill and other League members in co- operation with Judge Homer Powell of the Common Pleas Court succeeded in reforming this system. A jury wheel was installed in the Court House from which names were chosen in an orderly and representative manner. the many League members who attended this achievement to continue pressing the League campaign to make jury service the patriotic obligation of the citizen, not an unpleasant duty. More Reform Needed. Having succeeded in reforming the method of choosing the juries, the efficiency- in-government committee made an eight- month survey to investigate conditions under which the indigent were tried in the county courts, not only in Ohio but in other states. In making this study, Mrs. W. J. Schneider, Mrs. Charles J. Patch, Jr., Mrs. E. E. Hill, Mrs. Walter B. Laffer, Mrs. Max Hellman and others interviewed judges, lawyers and prominent citizens of the community. They found that county money was being wasted in hiring lawyers for the indigent, that there was too much politics in justice for the poor. This League committee recommended that the laws should 120 be changed so that common pleas judges might be appointed for life (by the Governor of the state) and that a committee of citizens should be named to pass on these appointments. Issues Not Candidates A less fortunate aftermath, of the League's successful 1928 campaign to save the charter, was a threatened division within the ranks of the local League when an officer and member of the Executive Board announced her candidacy for the bi-partisan Board of Elections. Previously when the League Board (without Miss Sherwin's approval) had voted to support Florence Allen's candidacy for Judge of the Common Pleas Court, the local League had firmly established its stand that officers and board members of the League do not seek office. League members were free to act as they chose as individuals, but they must take a leave-of-absence from their League jobs to engage in political activity. Nevertheless, in spite of established precedent, this League member refused to resign her League job after announcing her candidacy for office. The League refused to support her campaign. The local newspapers picked up the story and gave it prominent heading. There were, of course, rumors that the League of Women Voters was breaking up. Beyond doubt, this fight was good for the League, for it established more firmly the League's policy of supporting issues, not candidates. A later attempt by several League members to use the League as a political springboard was "nipped in the bud." Since its beginning, when the League was organized to further citizen participation it had been difficult 121 for the public to believe that the League would hold to the revolutionary idea that issues were more important than people. No one thought that an issue could have virility if was on a non-partisan basis. However, successive campaigns had established the fact that the League of Women Voters could be an effective political force, even though non-partisan. Muscle Shoals During World War I, at a cost of $150,000,000 in public funds, Muscle Shoals in the Tennessee Valley was developed by the government for the production of nitrates which the United States urgently needed for making explosives. After the war, the plant remained idle while congressmen wrangled over its disposition. The question was, should it be leased out for private operation or continued as a government- owned-and-operated project? Back in 1922, at the League's National Convention, the Cost-of-Living (Food Supply and Demand) committee had suggested that the government promote the use of available water power at Muscle Shoals for the production of agricultural fertilizers. It had created some sensation on the floor of the convention when the proposal was made that the government be asked to accept the offer of Henry Ford for the Muscle Shoals plant. It was in 1925 that the economic- minded Mrs. Edward P. Costigan, Chairman of the National Cost-of-Living committee and the League's first, first Vice-President, proposed that the League indorse the Norris Bill, which called for government operation of Muscle Shoals. She contended that Muscle Shoals should also be developed to provide wide and economical distribution of electric power and said, "Between government operation and governmental development at the expense of the public taxpayer 122 for the ultimate profit of private interests, the Muscle Shoals struggle represents more than a conflict over this one piece of property. It is a struggle which will not be rightly settled until women lend their hearts and thoughts to economic problems as well as humanitarian needs." For several years, however, the League continued to study the problems of Muscle Shoals, carefully avoiding the issue of government operation by advocating the development of this project as a national asset without specifying the method: "to provide wide and economic distribution of electrical power, to provide for the production of chemical and agricultural fertilizers, and to serve the people's interest and safeguard their perpetual rights." Then in 1927, the National League adopted a resolution recommending the "Development of Muscle Shoals as a national asset through legislation which provides for the continuation of government operation as required by the national Defense Act of 1916 - through a non-political government corporation." On March 4, 1928, the National office sent out its first definite request for action on the Norris Bill, which provided for continuing government operation of Muscle Shoals. League members were encouraged to write their senators urging support of the measure. The following month when the League's National Convention met in Chicago, the Cost-of-Living committee added to its 1928-30 study program "regulation of public utilities." Those League members who were greatly concerned over government operation of "anything" in time of peace, were reassured by Miss Sherwin that Muscle Shoals was the only utility for which the League recommended government operation. 123 Through local and state cost-of-living committees, the League continued to inform its membership and the public on the advantages to be gained from government operation of this project. In 1930, Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride made this statement: "The disposition and control of water power in this nation is of increasing concern to women in particular. We are getting more and more requests for information on the subject, especially in relation to its effect on electric rates to domestic users. The League has taken no stand as yet on the question of public ownership of power generation and distribution. We did back U. S. Senator George W. Norris' bill to keep operation of Muscle Shoals in the hands of the government. We felt that as the government owned the development, it should keep it and run it." Everywhere - in Leagues throughout the country - the depression pushed cost-of-living committees into a more prominent position. By 1931, for example, the Cleveland League's cost-of-living program included the following items for study: monopolistic control of public utilities and federal regulation; city utilities such as gas, electricity, telephone, transportation and street railways; housing and zoning problems, tariff and the consumer, farm relief legislation, and market research agencies. When Miss Sherwin spoke at the Ohio Convention that year, she stressed the importance of the League's support of legislation calling for government operation of Muscle Shoals as a part of the legislative program needed to meet the specific needs of the economic crisis. Said Miss Sherwin, "Legislation to develop Muscle Shoals in the interests of the public is primarily forward looking in its purpose to discover lower costs of an essential commodity. The League is determined to secure such legislation, in the name of 124 women voters, and the economic interests of the public - especially of that larger section of the public which bears the burden of the crisis." At this time, Muscle Shoals was a very "hot" issue. the power companies, backed into a corner by adverse publicity on the fall of the Insull utilities empire, waged a vicious battle against Senator Norris' proposal that Muscle Shoals continue under government operation. Many succumbed to the propaganda of the utilities companies, and opposed government operation of Muscle Shoals as a threat to private enterprise, but not the League of Women Voters. The private utilities companies had ignored the League's questionnaire, when the Cost-of-Living committee undertook to find out how much electricity cost and what part it played in the cost of living. When the National Convention met in 1932 the necessary majority of the delegates voted out the following resolution on Muscle Shoals: "Muscle Shoals should be operated under government supervision for the purpose of providing cheap power, low- cost nitrogen and the profitable exploitation of the natural resources of this region for the benefit of all the people of the United States." And so, Muscle Shoals became the League's "yard- stick" for measuring private utility rates. The Muscle Shoals project was the basis for the larger development known as the Tennessee Valley Authority. One of the pens used by President Roosevelt in signing the Tennessee Valley Act in 1933 was presented to the League's National President, Miss Belle Sherwin, as a symbol of appreciation for the League's continued support for Muscle Shoals. 125 At the League's National Convention in 1934, David E. Lilienthal, one of the first directors of the T. V. A., pointed out that T. V. A. would be the future "yard- stick" by which to measure the fairness of electric rates. He praised the League very highly for its work in support of government operation, saying, "The League of Women Voters played an important part in the development of Muscle Shoals and the T. V. A. program . . . There can be no question but that without the support of organizations of your prestige, Senator George Norris might have fallen short of victory in his decade-long fight to retain the great hydro-electric properties at Muscle Shoals, for the use of all the people." Cleveland Power Rates. Besides campaigning for government operation of Muscle Shoals, the Cleveland cost-of-living committee, under the very able leadership of Mrs. J. W. Ellms and Mrs. Arthur E. Petersilge made a special study of the Cleveland municipal light plant and its rates. It was the League's decision that the 3¢ rate, which was declared impossible by private power companies when the plant was built in 1914, had proven a challenge to private industry. Mrs. Ellms and her committee were ready to act, January, 1933, when the League protested hasty action of the city council in approving a utility contract with a private power source. Several city councilmen cooperated with the League and succeeded in stalling the council's action on the grounds that the 10-year franchise - at a rate lower than the municipal light plant rate for the small consumer - was an attempt to sabotage the municipal light plant. Said Mrs. Petersilge of the League, "If all customers using less than 20 kilowatts through the municipal 126 plant dropped the municipal service, where would the municipal plant be?" The League recognized the desire of the private supplier to make a slight reduction to the small consumer, but requested that the Council delay its action on the contract until a thorough investigation of the rate base and operating base of the company could be made. The League suggested that a greater saving might be given the average consumer, and certainly a shorter contract of five years would be less of a gamble on future costs and would be better for the city and the company. Once again, the Cleveland League of Women Voters made the headlines. "Delay in the electric rate contract is probably justified if for no other reason than that the League of Women Voters asks it," said the Cleveland Press. Social Security During her ten years as National President from 1924-1934, Miss Belle Sherwin stood adamant against any threat to established League procedure - study before action. For example, it is reported that when Miss Sherwin asked the League's 1932 Detroit Convention to support a system of federal, state and local unemployment relief, pointing out that "government has an ultimate responsibility in a crisis to ensure provisions for relief," she hope the Convention delegates would approve a study program which would call for investigation of proposed unemployment systems. Therefore, when Miss Gertrude Ely and Dr. Mollie Ray Carroll of the Women-in-Industry committee proposed from the Convention floor that the League give its immediate support to national employment 127 relief, Miss Sherwin was not pleased. In final form, the "platform for the times," adopted by this Convention, stressed the need for a coordinated system of federal, state and local employment services, adequate to the needs of the times. The Convention also went on record as favoring further study of pending plans for payment of unemployment compensation. In spite of the fact that Miss Sherwin held the League firm to its pattern of study before action, change came so fast in 1933-1934 in N. R. A. Washington, that it is understandable how the Cuyahoga County League often found itself studying Washington's social and economic thinking after proposed theories became laws. The Social Security Act's provisions for child welfare and public protection of maternity and infancy were familiar and most welcome reforms, and the Ohio League members still had many questions as to the operation of these social insurance plans, such as, "Who is eligible for unemployment compensation benefits, etc.?" To answer these questions the economic welfare committee made a two- year study of the Social Security Act in operation. Mrs. Roger J. Herter led this local group according to a questionnaire on unemployment compensation, and did a rather thorough job by informing ourselves on how the Social Security Plan worked," said Mrs. Herter. This 1934-38 Social Security study program prepared the way for later action. In the fall of 1939, Mrs. Henry Sayles Francis organized the Cuyahoga County League's part in the State League's all-out campaign to defeat the Bigelow amendment, a proposal 128 which would have extended Ohio's old-age retirement system and guaranteed $50 a month to every Ohio resident 60 years and older, not gainfully employed. Several years later, during the summer of 1943, the County League again emphasized a program of Social Security study. Mrs. Brooks W. Maccracken, and members of her committee - Mrs. Earl L. Shaner, Mrs. Gordon W. Clarke, Mrs. E. J. Kenealey and others - planned program sessions and study periods on proposals which advocated additional social security coverage: the Wagner-Murray-Dingle bill with its provisions for medical insurance and the report of the National Resources Planning Board. These study programs followed what was by now a well-established League pattern: - Recognition of the problem. - Assignment to a committee for study. - Thorough and extensive research on the problem. - Committee report to the entire organization. Taxes and Trends For eight years prior to the 1934 National Convention, the League of Women Voters had been making an exhaustive study of the subject of taxes. That year the League published Miss Katherine A. Frederic's report on Taxes and Tax Trends. An all- department conference at the 1934 Boston convention made the following report: "Unless the American people can be aroused to a determination to reorganize in its entirety our antiquated tax system, and thus distribute equitably the cost of our government, there will not be the necessary money for our schools, our welfare services, our 129 public health program or for any orderly and well- directed social life." Cleveland's efficiency-in-government committee under Mrs. Hellman had studied the need for a special city tax levy the year before, and now, with the additional armor of the National League's inclusive tax study, the local League was ready to take its first stand on taxes. The Cuyahoga County League of Women Voters announced its opposition to Mayor Harry E. Davis' proposed $4,000,000 city deficiency bond issue. The League had requested Mayor Davis to hold an open meeting to tell how he would spend the money. When he declined, the League refused to support his bond issue. On the state level, the League worked for the allocation of funds necessary to finance legislation which the League supported - welfare services; the school foundation program; the mental health program; public libraries, etc. The 1932-1934 state program included a study of Ohio's taxation system directed toward a reform of tax laws to provide adequate revenue and equalization of the tax burden. Subsequent state programs have included study items on problems of financing the state and local governments. Currently, the League is pressing for an integrated system of taxation in Ohio and its political subdivisions, with special attention to the source and distribution of revenue. During the war years, More and Better Taxes was the tax theme the League advocated for the National government, stressing the advisability of meeting current expenditures necessary to carry on the war. Civil Service The use of civil service examinations in the selection of government employees was established as a 130 League program item by the 1920 National Convention. Suffragists and early League members in Cleveland had a first-hand knowledge of the reported "spoils system" practices of Cleveland's city government after 1912. But it was hoped that the Cleveland city-manager plan would be a scientific method of government which would eliminate patronage and other malpractices of the machine-ridden city politics. Therefore, when the manager plan was defeated in 1931, the Cleveland League turned an alert and watchful eye toward the patronage "goings on" at the city hall. Early in 1932, the League charged Mayor Ray T. Miller's administration with violating civil service laws and with the wholesale dismissal of city employees. About this same time, the League supported the case of Miss Louise Dewald, the dismissed Commissioner of Cemeteries. Presenting the Civil Service Commission with a resolution asking the Commission to grant the right of appeal to all employees under civil service - a right denied Miss Dewald - the League charged that the Dewald case was an evasion of the law. Civil service reform was not a popular cause. A Plain Dealer story of December 8, 1932, credited the Miller administration with being so successful in lifting jobs out of civil service classification and placing them under the Board of Control, that even Republican councilmen had largely ceased to champion the cause of civil service. The Cuyahoga County League of Women Voters, however, was not an organization to shirk a grim responsibility. With Mrs. McBride, as its spokesman, the local League began working for the extension of the merit system in public 131 employment, and the elimination of the "spoils system." The following year (1933), when Harry L. Davis returned to office as Mayor, the League President, Mrs. Charles Patch Jr., sent him the following message: "The League of Women Voters viewed with grave concern the past practice of getting around the civil service provisions by dismissing city employees, and then hiring others for political reasons to do the same work, with the name of the position slightly changed." National Campaign. Another story preceded the National League's nation-wide campaign for a merit system in all branches of civil service. The civil service plan for the selection of government employees came into being in a time of national crisis. When President James A. Garfield was shot by a disappointed office seeker, the public was awakened to the evils of the patronage system and to the need for bringing into government service, serious-minded, well-qualified public servants. The Spellman Fund had authorized a $150,000 study of civil service as it operated in several European countries. This study was compiled by a fine committee with Professor Charles E. Merriam of the University of Chicago as its Chairman. The committee's report was printed in four or five volumes and cost about a quarter of a million dollars. Conclusive evidence was given in the report of a greater need, in the United States, of government- trained personnel - workers who had planned and studied for a career in government. 132 The Merriam Committee's report, however, seemed doomed for the use of the research scholar alone until representatives approached Miss Belle Sherwin and suggested that perhaps the League could put it into use. The League accepted the challenge of putting this material "into action." The Spellman Fund agreed to pay for reprinting a digest of the report which would sell in small, booklet form for 35¢ a copy. Because of the poor caliber of job seekers who had pushed themselves into public offices, the League had found, over the years, that the task of getting needed legislation through the channels of local, state and national government was a frustrating experience. Even among the taxpayers, there was a growing realization of the lack of fitness of many persons for their public positions. At the League's National Convention in Boston - the week of April 25, 1934 - the Efficiency-in-Government committee reported that "unless the citizens of the country awakened to the appalling waste in every unit of government and the menace to every needed public service caused by the "spoils system," the American form of government was doomed." The Convention appropriated $500 (a magnificent sum) to a special National committee of five members, including the following: Mrs. George Gellhorn, Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride, Mrs. Jasper King. This committee was given the responsibility of putting into motion the campaign on behalf of Better-trained Personnel in Government Service. How to arouse the public on the question of civil service? How to get a popular understanding of the issue? How to put over the fact that something could be done about it? - were a few of the problems this committee set out to solve. 133 A slogan competition was launched - nation-wide, to help publicize the campaign. It brought forth the slogan: "Find the job for the man, not the man for the job." Each local League organized its better government personnel committee. Speakers' training classes were held, and months before the Republican and Democratic Conventions, in 1936, Leagues throughout the country circulated a quarter of a million pledge cards. Mayors, city council members and members of the National party committees were asked to sign in support of the merit principle of appointment to public service. Many of those approached were definitely reluctant to sign these pledges, but could not say "no" to the groups of women who "descended" upon them. The Republican Party planned to hold its Convention in Cleveland. Mrs. McBride was put in charge of "operation-pledge cards display," and it was her especial assignment to see that these cards were presented to the Convention in an effective manner. Re- enforcements were garnered from every corner. Unfortunately for her husband, Mrs. Howard F. Dugan was legislative chairman for the League: fortunately for the League, Mr. Dugan was manager of the Hotel Statler. The result of this happy combination were two hard-to-get, strategically located convention rooms. Mr. Zimmer, President of the Central Outdoor Advertising Company, deserves great credit for his help in working out a spectacular pledge card display. This consisted of an illuminated, rolling wheel calling attention to the many thousands of pledge cards already signed. In an advantageous spot just inside the hotel's main entrance, the League 134 booth commanded attention. A large sign urged all delegates to sign up for civil service reform. Daily, the League added prestige to its cause with the signatures of governors, senators and congressmen. Two members of the League's National Board presented the League's platform on public personnel to the Republican Resolution Committee. This "action" pattern at the Republican Convention was so successful that the illuminated wheel was repeated at the Democratic Convention which followed in Philadelphia. Though it had never before been a popular issue, the League of Women Voters was succeeding in the impossible - a mounting enthusiasm was rolling up for civil service reform. Calling on all its resources, the local League asked Mrs. L. J. Wolf to train members of the civil service speakers' bureau. Mrs. Robert M. Hornung, Mrs. Charles Patch Jr., Mrs. L. Scott Isham, Mrs. Earl L. Shoup, Mrs. U. V. Portman, Mrs. James Stewart, Mrs. J. Paul Wilkes, Mrs. Paul Q. Quay, Mrs. Bernard Winterick, Mrs. Ralph Kane, Mrs. James T. Hoffman, Mrs. B. C. Goss, Mrs. Herman Kraeft, Mrs. G. Carleton Robinson, Mrs. Walter B. Laffer and Mrs. Richard E. Stifel were a few of the many members who helped make this campaign a success. Public Personnel Day. To celebrate the grand climax of the League's two year campaign for Better Government Personnel and to emphasize the interstate character of the campaign, the National League set aside January 29, 1936 as Public Personnel Day. On that day, church groups, schools, and colleges were asked to join with the League of Women Voters in simultaneous celebration. In Cleveland, 600 women attended a "terrific" luncheon in the Hotel Statler 135 ballroom. Speeches from Washington were broadcast to the League's nation-wide audience. There was real cause for celebration, for there was now evidence that this League campaign was a success: - A poll of the American Institute of Public Opinion announced that 88% of the people of the U. S. were against the patronage system and were in favor of civil service. - Pressure brought by the League had encouraged both political parties to adopt merit system planks in their 1936 platforms. - President Roosevelt made his civil service recommendation to the 1935 special session of Congress. - Representative Ramspeck had introduced legislation which would put first, second, and third class postmasters (the "small change" of the patronage system) on permanent civil service status. Also, a proposed Logan bill in the Senate would put practically all government jobs under civil service. - An editorial in the Washington Post commended the League of Women Voters for the educational techniques being used in the national campaign against the "spoils system" - for the "thoughtfully prepared handbills and intelligent radio broadcasts." "A refreshing departure from the emotional chiffon propaganda, which is all too prevalent today in patriotic feminine societies," said the Post. 136 State Action. There were also significant gains in the states, which could be credited either directly or indirectly to the success of the League's nation- wide civil service reform effort. Before 1935, only nine of the 46 states had more than a pretense of civil service, but in 1937, merit system bills were being considered by 24 state legislatures. In Ohio, the League's major campaign got under way in 1935. That year, the County League studied the Sherrill report on Ohio Civil Service. Then, after the political parties included civil service promises in their 1936 platforms and the election was a past event, Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride, Ohio chairman of the campaign, met with 15 Ohio state legislators. Mrs. McBride told Women Voters and the other Leagues of Ohio would make a special effort to secure a larger budget for the state Civil Service Commission, and would support legislation to restore to classified service certain state positions which, though intended for classified service, were actually placed under patronage. While the 1937 General Assembly was in session, Mrs. L. Scott Isham, President of the Cuyahoga County League, called members of the Ohio Senate to task for ignoring their 1936 platform pledges for civil service. During this same legislative session, the Leagues' "always alert" state legislative chairman, Mrs. C. C. Shively, helped to block three specific attacks on the Ohio civil service system. Opponents of the civil service made a three-pronged attack whereby: - The state administration would have "forgotten" to specify civil service workers' compensation in the general appropriations bill. If that "happy" 137 idea had slipped through, employees under the merit system could have been elbowed out of their jobs by the simple device of reducing their pay to the starvation point to make way for political favorites. - Certain department employees would have been removed from the protection of civil service. The League helped kill this bill in committee. - A division of public assistance would have been set up in the state welfare department, thus extending political control and weakening civil service. The Leagues helped defeat this proposal in the Senate. The next year, the Cuyahoga County League again announced its concern over evidences of the general breakdown of the civil service system in Ohio: the increased effort to exert political pressure on civil service employees; the tendency to lower standards in selection of employees charged with administering social security; and the failure of the legislature to provide adequate funds for operation of civil service. In one instance, the League disapproved the appointment of Charles F. Leisure as State Unemployment Compensation Commissioner on the grounds that Mr. Leisure had attempted to inject politics into the appointment of persons to civil service positions. The League called a state conference of 16 organizations to consider these inroads against the state civil service system. At this meeting, Mr. Robert A. Weaver, of Cleveland, was named Chairman of a new organization called the Ohio Civil Service Council. This Council had as its immediate aim the drafting of 138 merit system legislation for submission to the General Assembly. Though the Ohio League later withdrew from the Council, members of the League of Women Voters continued to serve as members. In April, 1941, the League got reports that state workers were to be assessed 5% of their salaries for five months to create a campaign fund for Governor Martin L. Davey and other candidates for nomination to state office. Legislative chairman, Mrs. C. C. Shively, requested the Attorney General to seek an injunction to prevent the levying against civil service employees of what was called "an assessment for a campaign fund." Less than a month later, the Leagues of Ohio were rallied in opposition to the Boyd Bill. This bill, if it had passed, would have undermined the entire state civil service system. In 1944, Mrs. Shively made this statement, "In working for Civil Service reform, we have won much recognition, particularly in exposing violations and in some cases in being the sole agent to detect them. While our reform measures in the form of bills have not had significant success, I believe that it would be generally conceded that the Ohio League of Women Voters has been out in front in this field and sometimes quite alone." Local Victory. The defeat of the city-manager government brought to light certain defects in the Cleveland civil service law which, 50 years before, had been considered progressive. The Cleveland League of Women Voters protested when Mayor Harry L. Davis and his successor. Mayor Ray T. Miller, made war on Cleveland's civil service system. A headline lead to a story in the January 4, 1933, Cleveland Press read: 139 "League Demands Mayor Keep Promise and Protect City Workers" It had become a customary practice to add hundreds of new unskilled employees to the city pay rolls three months before an election. These unprotected jobs were the politicians' "stock in trade' - at the expense of the taxpayer. Through this same loophole in the civil service system, men could be employed as laborers and then given the duties of classified civil service employees. Although civil service conditions did improve somewhat under Mayor Burton's administration, the League of Women Voters was not willing to leave the fate of civil service to the discretion of the Mayor. Some city employees were encouraged to form a Civil Service Employees Association and secured Wendell A. Falsgraf as their counsel. In cooperation with the Citizen's Civil Service Committee and the Citizens League, the County League of Women Voters helped organize an intensive campaign to extend civil service provisions of the city charter to give protection to some 5,000 unskilled city jobs. Two attempts to amend the civil service provisions of the Cleveland city charter failed. But finally, in 1938, despite under-cover opposition from the political parties, an amendment which put unskilled jobs under civil service was passed by a narrow margin. Future Action. In the Cleveland City Council, in the Ohio Legislature, and in the Congress in Washington there always have been and probably always will be traditional opponents of the merit system. League experience has proved that guarding against a return to the "spoils system" of government is a never-ending job. 140 Food and Drug Act The League's nation-wide campaigns for the Child Labor Amendment, and for Better Personnel in Government pointed out that, nationally-united, League action could be a most powerful political weapon. The National League used this know-united, League action could be a most powerful political weapon. The National League used this know-how for political action in its 1937-38 campaign for a modern Food and Drug Law. For several years before 1937, Mrs. Harris T. Baldwin and a National League committee on Consumer Protection had studied needed changes in the 1907 Food, Drug and Cosmetic Law. Then came a series of tragic deaths resulting from elixir of sulphanilamide poisoning which shocked the nation. These deaths could have been avoided by stricter food and drug legislation. With this added impetus, the League of Women Voters intensified its campaign for up-to-date food and drug laws. In Cleveland, Mrs. Arthur E. Petersilge, chairman of the local consumers' protective organizations in the community, telling them of the Ralph Kane, one of the local committee's most diligent workers, remembers giving 90 such five-minute talks, herself. At first, members of Congress tried to ignore this League campaign, but when the League succeeded in enlisting the support of other women's organizations and congressmen were buried in an avalanche of letters, they began to take notice of the growing clamor. Like the suffragists, the League's strongest weapon in this campaign was in never giving up. In commenting on this League technique, Leyton Carter, 141 Director of the Cleveland Foundation, said, "The League of Women Voters has perfected the art of attrition." (ed. note: wearing down the opposition) Remarking on the difficulties of this campaign, a representative of the National office said, "the most formidable lobby ever massed against a piece of legislation was organized against this bill . . . It worked quietly . . . the fate of the bill hung at times on complicated questions of legal procedure, court review, multiple seizure and injunctions." When Congress passed the 1938 Food and Drug Act the League of Women Voters was given great credit for the victory. County Home Rule While campaigning for better city government for Cleveland, the League's efficiency-in-government committee continued to study and work on the problems of better county government for Cuyahoga. In 1932, Cuyahoga County was a metropolitan area with 4 cities, 35 villages, 15 townships and 52 school districts with 60 different tax rates. In addition to the unnecessary expense and duplication of services of these overlapping governments, each year the City of Cleveland - then as now - lost more and more of its citizens to the suburb. A majority of these people living in the metropolitan areas of Cleveland earned their livelihood within the city's boundaries; they used its bridges and its streets; but as suburban residents they contributed nothing to the city's maintenance. This flight to the suburbs created many problems in government for the metropolitan areas of the State. Provisions of the Ohio Constitution had been modernized regarding city government, in 1912, with the passage of the City Home Rule Amendment. 142 However, there were no such provisions for modernization of county government. Several attempts to amend the Ohio Constitution by act of the Legislature, giving Ohio counties the right to reorganize their governments failed. Blocked in this approach, a special Cleveland Committee of 400 which included Charles Taft, Harold H. Burton, Mayo Fesler, Leyton Carter and other prominent citizens determined to introduce a county home rule amendment by the initiative and referendum method. So it was, that the Cleveland League asked for and got the support of other Leagues in the state in securing signed petitions (in the 88 counties) which would put such an amendment on the state ballots. Having long studied plans for reorganization of county government, under the leadership of Mrs. Max Hellman, the Cleveland League was ready to vantage of centralizing responsibility for county government: - by creation of an executive officer in the county; - by reduction of the number of offices and boards in the county; - by grouping activities in a few departments on the basis of functions, together with provision of sufficient flexibility to permit adjustment to meet the needs. Early in 1932 when the Ohio League announced its state-wide campaign for legislation which would permit the reorganization of county government, the Cleveland newspapers welcomed the announcement. Said an editorial in the Cleveland Press, "The League of Women Voters goes after its jobs with thoroughness and direction, and it has a record of sticking longer and more persistently than most men's organi- 143 zations . . . People are tired of the nests for political leeches which we maintain in our populous areas under the names of counties, municipalities and townships . . . Now (in the depression) with taxes a desperate problem, simplifying government is a pressing personal problem to all taxpayers." Leagues throughout the state circulated petitions to get this Home Rule Amendment on the ballot. In Cleveland, members of the Board, and many of the same workers who had gone "all out" to save the city- manager plan in 1931 helped in this campaign: Mrs. Hellman, Mrs. B. F. McQuate, Mrs. W. J. Schneider, Mrs. Earl L. Schoup, Mrs. J. Paul Wilkes, Mrs. Charles Savage, Mrs. George Bellamy, Miss Selma Sullivan, Miss Polly Prescott, Mrs. John W. Seaver, Mrs. E. E. Hill, Mrs. Frances F. Bushea, Mrs. Charles J. Patch Jr., Mrs. H. L. Beavis, Mrs. M. A. Dooley, Mrs. J. F. Coulston, Mrs. Richard E. Stifel, and others. After getting the amendment on the ballot, the League took a major part in the campaign to get the Amendment approved. Its provisions represented a sincere attempt to be absolutely fair to the small municipalities by including the following four hurdles through which a county charter must pass if it vested any municipal powers in the county: it must have the approval of a majority of those voting thereon (1) in the county, (2) in the largest municipality, (3) in the county outside of such municipality, and (4) in each of a majority of the combined total of municipalities and townships in the county (not including within any township any part of its area lying within a municipality). At the time, the League believed with others that the four hurdles were unavoidable, and campaigned for adoption of this compromise Amendment. However, 144 when Cuyahoga County's Charter Commission was elected and began its deliberations, it was found that by including the four hurdles, the League had helped set up an almost insurmountable barrier to reorganized county government. On November 5, 1934, two League members, Mrs. Max Hellman and Mrs. B. F. McQuate were elected to serve on this Cuyahoga County Commission. However, true to its principles, the League had given its pre-election support to the issue (county home rule) but not the candidates. For, while making a point of the fact that the League believed that women should be named to serve on the Commission, the League did not support the candidacies of Mrs. Hellman and Mrs. McQuate. During its working year, 1934-1935, the Charter Commission received suggestions from interested organizations like the League of women Voters. The League also sent its personal representative, the ever- vigilant Mrs. James King. By not including any municipal functions in the proposed charter, the Commission hoped to by-pass the formidable four hurdles. Such a charter would need only the approval of a simple majority of the voters within the county. In the election, the Charter, which was considered a very good Charter, did receive a majority of the 19,000 votes in the county (the first hurdle), and a majority in the City of Cleveland (the second hurdle). However, it did not pass the third and fourth hurdles, and when the Board of Elections refused to certify the Charter, the case, (State, 4 rel., Howland v. Krause) was taken to the Supreme Court. Long before the case was decided, rumor had it that the Charter was "doomed." 145 Cuyahoga Charter Unconstitutional. In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that in numerous instances the Charter proposed for Cuyahoga County took over municipal powers vested in municipalities by the Constitution or laws of the State, i.e., the initiative and referendum; power with reference to the Civil Service Commission; provision for a director of public safety (with all the powers of the sheriff). Finally the court ruled that the charter could not be adopted because it had failed to receive the four majorities (four hurdles) required for a charter which assumed any municipal powers. Great effort had been invested in this campaign to reorganize the government of Greater Cleveland, and members of the League were bitterly disappointed with the results. The League fully realized that any future reform of county government would meet with the same down-state opposition. The four hurdles had proved an almost impossible obstacle. Looking back on the "terrible price" the League and other organizations lie the Citizens League paid to get a county home rule amendment, Mrs. McBride said, "we all collaborated, and we were all dumb. By accepting the four hurdles, as a noose, we hanged ourselves." State-Written Charters. After 1936, there were several efforts to get partial county home rule. Section 1 of the Home Rule Amendment provided that a county could adopt a state-written charter if such a charter were approved by a majority vote at a special or general election. In 1937, a County Optional Plans bill, providing for two types of county reorganization was supported by the Ohio League, but failed even to reach the floor of the House. A similar bill, advanced by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce 146 in 1941, provided for three optional forms of county government. - County Manager (manager appointed by Board of County Commissioners) - Elected Executive - Commission Under the county manager or elected executive government, the county manager or the executive would appoint all other administrative officials. Therefore, either of these plans which proposed to cut down the number of elected county officials, would have been a progressive step toward better county government. However, once again a loaded "down state" legislature refused to pass legislation which would allow metropolitan counties, like Cuyahoga, to modernize their governmental structure. Future Action. To date, attempts to simplify and integrate the cumbersome structure of our many units of government in Cuyahoga County have failed, but the fight is not over. In the past, Cleveland citizens have willingly shared their technical knowledge, their business experience and their interest in finding a solution to the many problems which beset this large metropolitan community. Without doubt, the "civic-mindedness" of Cleveland's citizens will inspire a continuing campaign for county government reform. Today, many League members feel that because the Ohio League of Women Voters was so instrumental in getting the Home Rule Amendment adopted, it is the Leagues' inherited responsibility to continue to work for county government reform. Opinions differ, however, as to the best method of approaching the problem. Mrs. Max Hellman and Mr. 147 Wendell Falsgraf believe that the first step is partial reform through a state-written charter (as provided in the County Optional Plans bills of 1937 and 1941). Some think a quick, though partial solution to the acute problem of sewage disposal, water and transportation lies through the establishment of municipal authorities. With legislative approval and the voluntary cooperation of various governmental units within the metropolitan area, Greater Cleveland could set up such authorities. A good example of a successful authority is the New York Port Authority. Others who have given this problem considerable thought and attention, believe that it is the League's responsibility to propose a substitute county home rule amendment at the next Constitutional Convention. This amendment would propose to eliminate the insurmountable four hurdles. Members and Money Before 1939, the Cuyahoga County League supported itself and also contributed its shar financially to the Ohio State League office and the National office. Funds were obtained from its annual membership dues, calendar sales, annual thrift sales and special "extra curricular" benefit events like garden parties, country fairs, bridge teas and theater nights. Remembering the depression years when it was a hectic struggle to make both ends of the League treasury meet, Mrs. Charles Patch Jr. says, "It is amazing to me, that year after year League members managed to carry on a sizable program, which won the respect of the legislators and the community, and had energy left to replenish the treasury by efforts such as - minding babies and ducks at country fairs, dancing, sorting old clothes, and playing bridge." A public appeal for funds was made in 1930 for the 148 suffrage memorial fund which celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the National League of Women Voters. However, since the main support for this cause came from families and friends of prominent suffragists, it could be said that before 1939 the League of Women Voters had made no open request for public financial support for its own activities. But after almost 20 years of proven service to the local community, the state and the nation, "not for the advantage of its own membership, but in behalf of the community," the League of Women Voters recognized its right to ask the public for financial support. Locally, the Cuyahoga County League had proved its value to the community through its non- partisanship participation in political campaigns. Not infrequently, however, a depleted treasury had forced the League to take an inexpensive back seat in an important local campaign. Nationally, congressmen, professors and students had learned to rely on the publications of the National League of Women Voters for facts and resource materials. Important League publications like: Disarmament and the World Conference, Taxes and Tax Trends, and Better Government Personnel had established a scholarly reputation for League publications. But too often a restricted budget had limited their distribution to the public. Then too, in every "League serviced community" in the country, League publications, study groups and public meetings had developed techniques, materials and leaders which helped to promote the American democratic system. Through its service to the public, the League of Women Voters had proved its worth to seek public financial support for its vast program of work on the local, state and national levels. 149 With the slogan - "More members, more money - for Democracy," the National League office took full advantage of this expansion campaign to further the League's 1939 foreign policy program of "selling Democracy." Miss Marguerite M. Wells, who in 1934 succeeded Miss Belle Sherwin as President of the National League of Women Voters, repeated again and again, during this campaign, the responsibility League members must take in making Democracy work in this country - "helping the U. S. set an example the world could follow." World Disarmament To bring the activities of the international cooperation committee of the Cleveland League up-to- date, we must go back somewhat in the story. After 1923, when the Cleveland Woman's Council for Prevention of War (and Promotion of Peace) was organized, the local League of Women Voters turned over its leadership in the women's peace movement to this new organization. Before the Women's Peace Council merged with the Adult Education Association to become the Foreign Affairs Council, the League of Women Voters was one of the several organizations sponsoring the annual Foreign Affairs Institutes. Though the Cleveland League continued to have a separate international relations cooperative committee, there is little question but that the active interest of both the local League and the National League in the peace movement and world affairs subsided during the late 1920's. Then came the Manchurian incident of 1931 which shocked a "laissez faire" world and reawakened the League to its responsibility to think and study about the problems of peace. 150 Before the Geneva Disarmament Conference in February, 1932, the League of Women Voters helped in the drive to enlist the united support of the women of the world behind the plan for peace through disarmament, which was organized by the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War. As National President of this Committee, once again Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt took her place as leader of the women's peace movement in the United States, declaring, "the future world peace is a woman's task and that peace will be assured only when the reduction of armaments has been attained." Locally, Mrs. John W. Brown Jr., organized Cuyahoga County's first foreign affairs study group, and Mrs. F. F. Griswold, who succeeded Mrs. Brown as chairman of the League's international relations committee, planned the local League's part in Mrs. Catt's campaign. All other League activities were shelved for the month of December, 1931. Armed with petitions, a committee of 30 League members went out to other organizations in the community, to secure 1000 signatures on their roster favoring peace through disarmament. These, added to those of other Leagues, made up the 6000 signatures which were to be forwarded to the Geneva Disarmament Conference. To stimulate the thinking of Cleveland women on the problems of peace and disarmament, Mrs. M. F. Bixler led a series of six round table discussions which were jointly sponsored by the League and the Y. W. C. A. (another of the nine original member organizations of Mrs. Catt's Committee on the Cause and Cure of War." Once again, the League of Women Voters was assuming a more active role in helping to shape U. S. foreign policy. The extent of this role was defined at the 1932 National Convention in Detroit, where in a 151 surprise move, Mrs. A. J. McGuire of St. Paul, Minnesota introduced a League of Nations resolution from the floor. As a result, the League voted to urge the United States to join the League of Nations. This was a momentous departure, for though the League of Nations was no longer a partisan issue, the fact that the League's standing committee on International Relations had failed to propose a League of Nations' platform proves that it was still a most controversial issue. Giving support to the League of Nations, this Convention also reaffirmed the League's faith in other efforts for world peace - the Kellogg pact and the World Court - urging the United States to participate more actively in international efforts to restore peace in the Orient. High Tariff. Delegates to this Detroit convention did not go back to their states waving a noble banner for peace, like delegates to the earlier League Conventions of 1921 and 1922 had done. Instead, League members began to point out that a relationship existed between world peace and world trade. This stand was based on a study of "economic factors involved in perpetuating the depression." When a post-convention committee was named to formulate a program on which the full force of the League might be concentrated "to meet the challenge of the present economic emergency," the point was definitely made that the league's stand on foreign affairs, which was originally based on humanitarian grounds, had now taken on an economic cast. A newspaper report of this session stated, "The support of the disarmament efforts of the League of Nations was discussed, not only as a preventative of war, but also as a relief of world-wide industry through the removal of the necessity of economic self-sufficiency in 152 wartime, which is held to be a reason for the tariff wall." Two years before the Detroit convention, Cuyahoga County's cost-of-living committee made a tariff study. And it was on the basis of this study that Mrs. McBride introduced a tariff resolution from the floor of the Convention - a resolution calling for the "immediate repeal of the Hawley-Smoot tariff law and the reduction of the tariff schedule in this country." Though the post-convention session recognized the relationship between itself had not been ready to act against the high tariff wall, this "most controversial" resolution died in committee. Nevertheless, on the local level, the Cleveland League continued to carry through with "action." At the annual city Convention that year, the League stressed international tariff reduction as one of its main objectives. Study Groups. When Mrs. F. F. Griswold stepped up as state chairman of foreign relations early in 1934, Mrs. J. Preston Irwin succeeded her as county foreign relations chairman. That fall, Mrs. Irwin organized the Lakewood foreign affairs group and also helped start similar groups in Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights. Mrs. B. C. Goss's group in Shaker Heights continued to meet for several years. The Lakewood Library group, which was led first by Mrs. Irwin, and then by Mrs. Clyde F. Varner, is "still going strong" today. The Cleveland Heights group, however, got into trouble. Locally, foreign affairs study groups were a new League technique and no hard and fast rules had been established for their procedure. This particular group 153 wandered so far off the League's program of study, that in 1937 the county Executive Board took direct action to "pull in the reins." There was a reorganization of the foreign affairs study groups, and County President, Mrs. L. Scott Isham, announced to the newspapers that in the future, League of Women Voters' study groups would be "for members only" and would follow an outlined study program in conformity with the work of the League. Reciprocal Trade. In 1934 and again in 1936, the National League Conventions continued to vote support for the League of Nations, but the line was now being drawn between those League members who clung to the hope of peace through isolation and those who believed that the best hope was in collective security. There was a tense debate at the 1936 Cincinnati Convention before a majority of the delegates approved the League platform item - "downward revision of tariff by Reciprocal Trade Agreements." As in the fight for support of the League of Nations, support for Mrs. Hull's trade agreements program was a major victory of those advocating a more aggressive League of Women Voters' foreign policy program. In 1938, when the National League President, Miss Marguerite M. Wells, addressed a full session of the 13th National Convention in St. Louis, she told League members that the Reciprocal Trade Program (which was extended in 1937 for a three-year period) was the major world attempt to stem the tide of economic nationalism. Said Miss Wells, "Tariff barriers, so evident since World War I, have admittedly played a major role in developing current international friction and accompanying war preparations." By 1939, the National League of Women Voters 154 was advocating that the President should have the power to put embargoes on aggressor nations. Mrs. Louise Leonard Wright, the National League's Foreign Policy Chairman and only woman adviser sent by the U. S. to the Lima Peace Conference, was making an exhaustive speaking tour, attempting to unite League opinion behind a foreign policy program of collective security. Collective Security. Those who favored a more aggressive foreign policy program for the League of Women Voters won a "turning point" victory at the 1940 New York Convention when a majority vote approved "a foreign policy as a non-belligerent which permits discrimination against an aggressor and favors the victims of aggression." Shortly after this, when the National League urged President Roosevelt to repeal the Arms Embargo provisions of the Neutrality Act, the local League Board sent a letter to Cuyahoga County Congressmen, urging them to support repeal of the Arms Embargo: "The vast majority of our people are known to favor the English and French belligerents . . . It is possible that very disastrous conditions will occur if we deprive these belligerents of necessary commodities, should the situation become desperate. The prospects of peace were growing darker, and as the storm clouds of war tumbled closer to the U. S., League members of Greater Cleveland gave more attention to the problems of the world situation. A succession of skillful chairmen -Mrs. Clyde F. Varner, Mrs. U. V. Portmann, and Mrs. Charles Bang, planned foreign affairs quiz-bees, lecture series and study group programs, on the "Monroe Doctrine," trade relations, collective security, and related subjects. 155 In the months immediately proceeding Pearl Harbor - December, 1941 - League members helped to further "the new U. S. policy of aiding the democracies." There were public meetings and lectures to call public attention to the desperate need to win the "Battle of Production." Mrs. Harold G. Whitcomb worked tirelessly to rally Cleveland's support in this campaign. After Pearl Harbor, a special Council meeting in Indianapolis decided that the League of Women Voters had a wartime role. That it was a League responsibility, as Miss Wells said, ". . . to convey bits and pieces about current government to busy men and women in each community." "Let the People Know." To reach a larger wartime audience, the National office developed new tools and techniques. One of the League's new tools was the "broadside." These bright-colored, single information sheets with their catchy, thought-provoking titles covered a few simple facts about a subject. League members were urged to take these "broadsides" in hand - Two Fronts; War and Postwar; Bigger Taxes are Better Taxes; Subsidies and Price Control - to engage the milkman, the butcher, and the taxicab driver in casual face-to-face conversations. Under Mrs. Charles Bang's dynamic leadership, Ohio Leagues took their part in the 1944 nation-wide campaign to "Let the People Know" (the League's war service slogan) about Dumbarton Oakes and Bretton Woods. With her sincere interest in the necessity of defeating isolationist forces within the country and the need to plan ahead for a United Nations organization, Mrs. Bang, who was elected President of the Ohio League of Women Voters in 1943, was a well-chosen leader for the times. 156 She encouraged local Leagues to organize neighborhood discussion groups, to use this new National League technique for reaching a larger, more available audience. (ed. note: Those were gas rationing days.) Mrs. Kenneth Donnald, County foreign policy chairman, Mrs. Winford Grieling, discussion group chairman, Mrs. Roger J. Herter, Mrs. Ralph Kane, Mrs. Clyde F. Varner, Mrs. Walter Sicha, Mrs. A. R. Morrill, Mrs. P. S. Kingsbury, Mrs. Gordon W. Clarke, Mrs. Lowell Raymond, Mrs. S. Burns Weston, Mrs. Paul Eden, Mrs. William Southward and Mrs. S. Wise were among those who attended leaders training classes where Mrs. Bang and others gave practical demonstrations of discussion group methods. The Lakewood study and discussion group continued to meet at the Lakewood Library, and in 1944, Mrs. Bang organized her Shaker Heights foreign affairs discussion group. County Program. The Cuyahoga County League's war service program was a full schedule of work. In addition to carrying forward the campaign for postwar planning for the peace, and contributing dollars to the war effort through savings bonds (a League job most capably handled by Mrs. John T. Oertel, war service chairman), the County League Board and the branch Leagues of the County held themselves responsible for continuing other long-time program items: helping to hold up Ohio's maximum hour standards for women workers (which were threatened by the Ross bill); planning for postwar urban redevelopment; studying postwar social security plans; waging a campaign for better welfare services for children and helping put the Ascherman Act into effect, which would help solve Ohio's problem of the mental delinquent. 157 Welfare Administration A succession of committee chairmen from the time of Mrs. Lucia Johnson Bing, Edith Mason and Parmelia Shields in the 20's to Mrs. James T. Hoffmann, Mrs. Orrin L. Douglass, Mrs. Charles Patch Jr., Mrs. James Stewart and Mrs. Reed Rowley in the 30's directed the County League's efforts to improve the welfare of children and to solve the problem of caring for mental delinquents. Increased welfare loads during the depression and provisions of the Social Security Act had accentuated the inadequacies of the existing welfare structures, which had become a "hodgepodge" of overlapping state-county-and-municipal services. With thousands of dollars in public funds being recklessly spent because of duplicated responsibility; with no clear line authority; and with any counties needing child welfare boards; there was a dire necessity for investigation and action which would overhaul Ohio's services offered to children. Following the report of a Governor's Commission, which included a representative of the League, Mrs. N. M. Stanley of Dayton, the League of Women Voters supported legislation for the reorganization of the county welfare services in 1935, 1937 and 1939. Bringing this question up to date, it is significant to note that Cuyahoga County implemented the 1943 County Welfare Services bill January 1, 1948. Moreover, in spite of the fact that the appointment of the County Welfare Board is still pending, Cuyahoga County has coordinated its program for aid to the blind, dependent children and county poor relief. A separate Cuyahoga County Child Welfare Department and separate municipal relief agencies still make for a 158 "hicklety-picklety" system of welfare administration, according to Mrs. Lucia Johnson Bing, who is now with the Cleveland Welfare Federation. "But," says Mrs. Bing, "we are working hard to get all municipal welfare departments coordinated with the county departments, and eventually we are going to get it." Children's Code In January, 1940, President Roosevelt called a "White House Conference of Children in a Democracy." This conference, like the U. S. Children's Bureau's "Child's Year" program of 1918, stimulated the country's interest in the problems of children. Mrs. James t. Hoffmann, the National League's Child Welfare and then Social Welfare Chairman from 1939-42, was one of the National League's two representatives to this Conference. In looking back on the White House Conference, Mrs. Hoffmann recognizes that it was this conference that inspired her to work so hard for the revision of the Ohio Children's Code. 1943, the year the County Welfare Reorganization bill was approved, was also the year that the Ohio League did its big job in educating the voters of the state on the need to revise the Ohio Children's Code - Ohio's body of laws regulating adoption of children, foster home care, the protection and care of the homeless, dependent, and neglected children. Mr. Hal H. Griswold, Chairman of a Governor's investigating commission, advised the League in its campaign to inform the public on the need to revise Ohio's laws: on the miserable condition of foster home placement in some of Ohio's counties; of the thousands of dollars in public funds needlessly wasted because of overlapping responsibility; and also, the 159 problems of administration of laws when there was no established line of authority. The newspapers helped in this campaign, bringing to light conditions in non-certified foster homes. And a public desire to know more of these sordid conditions regarding the welfare of Ohio's children furthered the campaign for improved legislation. At a League of Women Voters - Women's City Club meeting, Mrs. Hoffmann, Mr. Griswold, Mrs. Arthur H. Van Horn and others, explained the need for revising the Children's Code to attending state Legislators. During this campaign, League leaders gave numerous speeches throughout the community and there was a big League-sponsored public meeting.' In 1945, the General Assembly approved the County Services bill for children (recodification of the Ohio Children's Code.) Among other provisions, this law made it mandatory for all Ohio Counties to establish child welfare boards. Previously, in 1929, Cuyahoga County had voluntarily established a Child Welfare Board under permissive legislation passed in 1921. Ascherman Act For years, Ohio's care and treatment of mental defectives with known records for sex offenses against children was a "touchy" subject, and a political football. The courts shrugged off the responsibility, explaining that the State government made no provision for housing such delinquents. And few state legislators had Margaret Mahoney's fearless determination to help solve the problem. Judge Mary B. Grossman and others of the Cuyahoga County League who had studied the subject were 160 familiar with the pattern of the defective's repeated offenses. They advocated that the state provide special hospitals and clinics for defective delinquents. In 1937, a series of child murders in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County shocked the public into awareness that in the majority of cases such crimes were committed by mental defectives with known records of previous offenses. The League took quick advantage of this opportunity. Backed by the state League, the Cuyahoga County League of Women Voters rallied support for the Ascherman Act - legislation which would provide for the commitment of mentally defective prisoners. For several years, the Ascherman Act was on the books, but it was an ineffective law. The League had recognized that this legislation did not provide "indeterminate" sentences for mental delinquents or housing for their confinement. Nevertheless, the League supported its passage, believing it to be a good step in the right direction. No cases were committed under the Ascherman Act until 1943. That year a new wave of public indignation swept Cleveland, when Edward J Ralph, a defective parolee was found guilty of the rape-killing of a 5 year old girl. Once again, the League took advantage of the public's interest in the problem. Mrs. Charles Bang, State President of the Ohio League, called together a committee of citizens - States Senators Margaret A. Mahoney of Cleveland and P. H. Rogers of Lorain; City Welfare Director Edward L. Worthington; and Municipal Judge Stanton Addams of E. Cleveland. This committee conferred with State Welfare Director Herbert R. Mooney in Columbus, and Mr. Mooney agreed to reverse the previous policy 161 of the state penal institutions and accept prisoners under the Ascherman Act. Immediately after this conference, the Cuyahoga County League President, Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride, named a special League committee on defective delinquents which included: Mrs. Reed Rowley, social welfare chairman and the chairman of this committee, Judge Mary B. Grossman, Senator Margaret A. Mahoney, Mrs. Jules Eshner, Miss Mary Nixon, Miss Florence Judkins, Mrs. A. R. Morrill, and others. In August, 1943, the County League, on the recommendation of this special committee, requested Governor John Bricker to set up a commission to study and recommend a long term program for mental hygiene in Ohio and to fill the office of Mental Hygiene Commissioner, which had been vacant for two years. Subsequently, Governor Bricker created such a committee for mental health and appointed a Mental Hygiene Commissioner. The League's special committee became a permanent committee on defective delinquents, and sometimes as many as 30 members attended its monthly sessions. Lt. Col. Royal Grossman, medical and psychiatric authority on the psychopathic offender, spoke at a League-sponsored public meeting, which was called to interest citizens and public officials in the problem. There was a thorough study of the Ascherman Act and how it could be strengthened; some cases were followed through the courts; and an attempt was made to get legislation in action to back a sound welfare building program, with adequate personnel and preventive measures. Mrs. Reed Rowley has this to say of the League's accomplishments in this field: "With the aid and advice 162 of a distinguished, well-informed and faithful committee, the League's social welfare department had the satisfaction of watching public indifference toward the defective delinquent and related problems change to indignation and determination to correct conditions in the community and state. It can be a lasting satisfaction to the League to have played a real part in helping to raise Ohio from 44th place in care of its mentally ill, to a position more comparable with its wealth and prestige." Voters' Service Year after year, and election after election, there were the traditional Women's City Club-League of Women Voters' candidate meetings. Through the years, conscientious voters had come to depend on the Voters' Service information prepared by the League. It would be impossible to mention these campaigns in detail or to name the many Voters' Service chairmen. However, in 1944, the League marked up such an outstanding pre-election campaign that it cannot be overlooked. Many factors combined to make the 1944 election important: the war, the anticipated problems of the post war peace, food shortages, the much-debated vote of the absentee soldier, etc. "Profoundly shocked," in 1943, when the Senate killed a federal soldiers' vote bill, the Cuyahoga County League had asked Ohio congressmen to urge Congress to establish federal supervision of absentee voting. When the soldier vote was left to the discretion of the states, the League recognized that there was a job to be done in translating Ohio's complicated absentee voting procedure - into words of less than six syllables. Mrs. Ralph Kane led the 1944 Voters' Service brigade which included: Mrs. J. C. Poffenberger, Miss 163 Mary E. Crawford, Mrs. Louis Scher, Mrs. George Boeddiner, Mrs. John L. McWhorter, Mrs. S. Ward Balkwill, Mrs. Frank Buck, Mrs. John T. Oertel, Mrs. Fred C. Baldwin, Mrs. Herman Kraeft, Mrs. Earl L. Shaner, Mrs. Edmund Smircina, Mrs. Henry L. Brandt, Mrs. Gordon W. Clarke, Mrs. H. r. Davies, and others. Once again a house-to-house doorbell ringing campaign had all the enthusiasm of suffrage days, for besides "getting-out-the-vote," these canvassers were taking a public opinion poll on important issues of the day. In 1944, the League sponsored not one, but four pre-election candidates meetings. Workers distributed the new Voters' Primer, a booklet summarizing Ohio election laws and voting procedures which was compiled by Mrs. Charles Bang and Mrs. Paul C. Roundy; a short digest of how absentee soldiers could vote in Ohio; a booklet on voting for new citizens; and the regular state and local "Voters' Information Service" - candidates answers to questionnaires. Voters' Schools for high school students and interested citizens were held in several neighborhoods. And, "at the last minute," League volunteers turned out to "man the election booths," when the Board of Elections called for League aid to relieve an acute labor shortage. Totaling the record for the State Leagues' 1944 pre-election activities, State President, Mrs. Charles Bang announced that 31,200 copies of the state candidates' "Voters' Information Service" had been distributed throughout Ohio. League Reorganization When Miss Marguerite M. Wells became President of the National League of Women Voters in 1934, she began stressing her conviction that "less study and 164 more action" would make the League a more effective organization. Whether one concurred with Miss Wells' plan for reorganizing the basic structure of the League of Women Voters or not, most members of the League agreed that the League's too-long program and its rigid departmental structure needed to be streamlined. Each year the barriers between League departments had become more insurmountable and it was understandable how a member of the League of Women Voters could be a specialist in child welfare or one of the other five major departments without having any idea of the League's other programs of work. The first step in reorganization was the amalgamation of several departments under economic welfare and social welfare. This was a welcome reform and one that had been contemplated for sometime. The success of three nation-wide campaigns: Better Personnel in Government, food and drug legislation and the 1939 drive for "more members, and more money," together with the new demands of the wartime situation, encouraged the National office to propose more radical reforms in the League's tools and techniques. To get a clear picture of how succeeding plans for altering the basic structure of the League of Women Voters affected the Cuyahoga County League, we must go back in our story, to 1920. Branch Leagues. Shortly after the greater Cleveland Woman's Suffrage party re-organized as the Cleveland League of Women Voters, a group of Lakewood suffragists - Mrs. A. B. Pyke, Mrs. C. B. Johnson, Mrs. Jesse Woods, Mrs. C. E. Kendel, Mrs. H. B. 165 Mallett, and others founded the Lakewood League of Women Voters. This League continued as a separate organization until May, 1933, when it merged with the Cleveland League, becoming a branch of the Cuyahoga County League of Women Voters. This merger not only increased the membership of the League of Women Voters in Metropolitan Cleveland, but also brought many outstanding Lakewood leaders into the larger sphere of work on the County level. Among these leaders were three future County League Presidents - Mrs. James T. Hoffmann, Mrs. Harold G. Whitcomb and Mrs. Arthur H. Van Horn; Mrs. Ralph Kane and Mrs. Roger J. Herter who were particularly interested in problems of economic and social welfare; Mrs. J. Preston Irwin, Mrs. Clyde F. Varner, Mrs. P. S. Kingsbury - foreign affairs; Mrs. John H. Devlin - child welfare; Mrs. Henry Brandt - voters' service, and others. Other League study branches had a long-time if somewhat less continuous history. After the Cleveland League of Women Voters was organized, there were repeated and often successful revivals of the old suffrage district groups - Northeast, West Side, Cleveland Heights and East Cleveland. Sometimes several years intervened between organized sessions of these study branches, and since there were many complete changes in membership it is difficult to establish an exact time when any one of these groups had its beginning. Yet disrupted as their history was, one is safe in saying that together with Lakewood, Shaker Heights and University Heights, these study groups started the momentum which brought about the eventual reorganization of the Cuyahoga County League of Women Voters. After 1928, Mrs. Annetta Gross (Zillmer) Fuchs, 166 with the able assistance of Mill Irma Milde, encouraged a more active branch League program. At that time, Mrs. J. Paul Wilkes, Mrs. T. A. Struggles and Miss Bertelle Lyttle organized an East Cleveland study branch; Mrs. Arthur Shaw revived the West Side group; Mrs. John W. Brown had her foreign affairs study group at the Public Library; and the business and professional women had a group which met in the evening. The Shaker Heights League was formally organized in 1932, when Mrs. Arthur E. Petersilge with Mrs. S. Burns Weston, Mrs. Carl Narten, Mrs. B. C. Goss and others saw the need to investigate high utility rates. That same year, Mrs. Goss, first Shaker Heights chairman, began her foreign affairs study group. In 1938, Mrs. W. J. Schneider with the help of Mrs. Max Hellman, Mrs. Edward L. Viets, and others revived a Cleveland Heights branch. About this same time the League's Executive Secretary, Mrs. Andrew Lenga who lived in Berea, started a Berea branch League. League members living in Chagrin Falls - Mrs. O. M. Knutsen, Miss Elsie Fuller, Mrs. George under the guidance of the County Board. And in 1943, Mrs. Brooks W. Maccracken, Mrs. H. G. Sheakley, Mrs. John L. McWhorter, Mrs. William H. Woodside and others formed a University Heights branch League. It would be impossible to name the many women who contributed to the development of the local League branches, however, in addition to those who have been named above, these women should be mentioned for their consistent interest in the branch League program: Northeast: Mrs. E. J. Kenealy, Mrs. Edmund Smircina, Mrs. Virgil Allen, Mrs. A. B. Cun- 167 ingham, Mrs. Dan Cull, Mrs. P. A. Geier, Mrs. K. G. Reider, and Mrs. James Brown. West Side: Mrs. J. W. Ellms, Mrs. Dora Sicha, Mrs. Emma Williams, Mrs. Harry Askew, Mrs. Arthur Shaw, Mrs. C. M. Hitchings, and Mrs. Gertrude Wild. Cleveland Heights: Mrs. Earl L. Shaner, Mrs. Walter Sicha, Mrs. R. G. Blum, Miss Elizabeth Gourley, Mrs. P. Jerome Pasch, Mrs. Lowell Raymond, Miss Mary Elizabeth Crawford, Mrs. Herman Kraeft, Mrs. J. C. Poffenberger, and Mrs. Andrew Meyer. Shaker Heights: Mrs. A. A. Treuhaft, (member of State Board), Mrs. William J. Piwonka, Mrs. Bernard Winterick, Mrs. Louis Scher, Mrs. Kenneth Donald, Mrs. S. Burns Weston, Mrs. Carl Narten, Mrs. B. C. Goss, Mrs. Louis Bing Jr., and Mrs. Charles Bang. Lakewood: Mrs. Mark Schinnerer, Mrs. James N. Wychgel, Mrs. B. F. McQuate, Mrs. Gordon W. Clarke, Mrs. Minor Allen, Mrs. Paul Reese, and Mrs. Frank Nase. Better Integration. After 1938, several factors contributed to a general increase in League membership, the country-over. With the war in Europe, new voters and women who had not fully realized their citizenship responsibilities, when they got the vote in 1920, were now joining the League of Women Voters. Women joined the League because it was a thriving, healthy organization with a record of important accomplishments. With its consistent non-partisan record of political study and action, the League had proved itself and was ready to step to the front in a position of nationwide leadership, to meet the wartime emergency. The 1939 nation-wide League expansion campaign added momentum to an increasing membership trend which was already underway. 168 This increasing membership created organizational problems for the Cuyahoga County League. In 1940, the local group was most willing to experiment with a National League plan for organizing the study groups into branch Leagues. This plan, which was introduced in Cleveland by Mrs. Walter K. Fisher -a member of the National Board ---- continued the Country Board's authority for directing programs of the branch Leagues, but gave the local groups some autonomy in that they could elect their own officers. After the 1940 New York Convention approved a more aggressive foreign policy position for the League, the National office quickened its campaign for better League integration to meet the wartime emergency. The campaign within the League to popularize this idea of better integration was as well-organized and as well-planned as a campaign for needed national legislation. Mrs. James T. Hoffmann, who as a member of the National League Board, attended the Indianapolis Council meeting immediately after Pearl Harbor, Says, "It was at the Indianapolis meeting that the League of Women Voters turned itself into a single purpose organization, with a wartime role." It was Miss Well's wise leadership that recommended the necessity of uniting all League effort into a "wartime service program." She adjusted the League's old-time pattern for study and action to the needs of war emergency. She advised new League tools and techniques. OHIO ACTS. IN 1943, a majority of the delegated to the Ohio State Convention in Columbus approved the National League's proposed next step for "better integration," by voting to discard the long-established state departmental structure. 169 Miss Eleanor Dennison, spokesman of the National office, explained this new "experiment," most deftly. She pointed out that the National office advocated the change in the basic study group organization on two grounds: that a smaller group could get the information quicker than a bulkier study group; that the entire League Board would pass on every issue before it was brought up for "action." In 1944, National's proposed step for "better integration" was less acceptable to the Ohio League of Women Voters. Several months before the Chicago Convention, all Ohio League members were informed that the National League would recommend that the Convention change the National by-laws and abolish the state Leagues. Ohio had one of the strongest state-level organizations in the country. It had been effective not only in its legislative accomplishments but in encouraging the growth and development of new local Leagues. Fortunately, Ohio had strong leaders to defend its right to continue as an important link in the League program. With very few months to work, Mrs. Charles Bang, Ohio State President, Mrs. James T. Hoffmann, State Vice-President, and Mrs. A. A. Treuhaft, State Secretary, the other members of the Ohio Board and members of the Ohio Leagues organized a defensive force "to save the state Leagues." At the Convention there was a free and open discussion of the proposed by-law changes. Mrs. Walter K. Fisher, who had helped Miss Wells frame the several changes in the over-all structure of the League, urged the Convention to adopt the by-law changes and explained, 170 "it would give the National League a more direct contact with the local Leagues and would eliminate time and expense in transmission of directions, first, through the State Leagues and then to the actual membership." Adding her approval, the nominated President- elect had this to say of the National League's proposal. "It would be a means of bringing the members closer to the National office in Washington. There is too much organization between the two parts of the League." (ed. note: the National office and the general membership.) After these statements, the Ohio League signaled its opposition forces. For the first time in the history of the League, a substitute candidates' slate was presented from the Convention floor. Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride nominated Miss Anna Lard Strauss for President. Mrs. W. H. Peterson was nominated for Treasurer and Mrs. Daniel E. Earley, of Cincinnati for Secretary. This substitute slate was approved by a representative majority of the Convention. County Re-Organizes. After 1939, the Cuyahoga County League of Women Voters enjoyed a steady increase in membership. In the year 1945-46 alone, for example, the County League's annual report showed a membership increase of 30%, and the budget was increased 40%. This tremendous growth in membership, however, created further organizational problems on the local level. For some years, a continuing committee conferred with other Leagues in the country and studied possible methods for changing the structure of the local League. Members of this committee included: Mrs. W. J. Schneider, Mrs. E. J. Kenealy, Mrs. Walter Sicha, Mrs. James Harger, Mrs. Arthur H. Van Horn 171 (1944-45 League President) Mrs. Charles Bang and Mrs. A. A. Treuhaft. This investigation, which started in about 1940, proved that the Cleveland League's problems were unlike any other metropolitan area in the country. Some of these were as follows: - Greater Cleveland included 55 municipalities (approximately 10 times the maximum number of municipalities of any county in the country, where the League of Women Voters was organized). Practically speaking, it was an impossibility for one County League Board to evaluate and act on the local problems of these many municipalities. - As an appendage of the Cuyahoga County League, the local branch Leagues had little prestige in their local communities. - The branch League program - as decided by the County Board, did not provide for sufficient "action" on local problems of the various municipalities of the county. - There was also criticism of the fact that strong leaders of the branch Leagues were persuaded to take on full-time jobs for the County Board. - The County Board in 1945-46 sometimes included as many as 40 members and according to Mrs. W. J. Schneider, County League President, it was generally recognized that the County League was getting too big to operate effectively. - There was too little participation in the League program by the general membership, with too much responsibility vested in the members of the County Board. 172 Though the County League recognized the need for change, the immediate action which preceded the reorganization of the Cuyahoga County League of Women Voters was a ruling of the 1946, Kansas City National Convention. This ruling stated that in the future there should be no more than one League in a city. One month after the National Convention in May, Cleveland's annual city Convention voted approval of the plan for reorganizing the County League of Women Voters. This plan called for the reorganization of the branch Leagues as independent autonomous groups, with an interlocking Cuyahoga County Council. As the County Council now operates, it is responsible for coordinating study and action programs of the seven local Leagues on problems of county-wide interest: finance, voters' service, public relations and county reorganization. These independent local Leagues are: Lakewood, Shaker Heights, Cleveland, (formed from the nucleus of Northeast and West Side branches) Cleveland Heights (a combination of University Heights and Cleveland Heights branches) East Cleveland, Westlake, and Bay Village. "Every Woman" Organization Thus closes the first twenty-five years of an organization which, at the time of its founding, had a life expectancy of four or five years. In the last years of the suffrage movement, over 80,000 women of Cuyahoga County were united for a single cause - "Votes for Women" - however, only a comparatively small number of these women " carried on" as members of the League of Women Voters. The record shows how this new organization set out to accomplish its goals - to educate women not 173 only to use the vote, but to use the vote intelligently. It also shows how early League members made up the handicap of a modest budget by giving unselfishly of their service to the cause of more democracy and better government. The League of Women Voters profited by its experiences, both good and bad. And gradually, as League members gained confidence in their knowledge on matters of government, they broadened the scope of the League program. In addition to the traditional fields of women's interests, the League gave consideration to weightier matters like taxes, tariffs and international relations. During the war years, the League's study and action pattern for attacking a problem proved a dependable and adaptable "yardstick" for measuring the emergencies of the war-time world. And in those years, the League won the advantage of a larger participating membership. Today, the League of Women Voters in Cuyahoga County is a group of seven, independent and autonomous local Leagues. The League is not just a board of important people, it is an "Every Women" organization. With its open membership policy, there are no barriers of race or creed. Yes, the record proves that in Cuyahoga County as else were in the country, the League of Women Voters has more than lived up to the expectations of its founder, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt. Each passing year has added to the League's influence and strength in the community, in the Legislature, and in the Congress. 174 Leaders Predict Promising Future for League Current leaders have this to say about the reorganization and the future of the League of Women Voters in Cuyahoga County: "Autonomy for the League of Women Voters of Lakewood has furthered unity of membership; a closer contact with the State and National Leagues; and has developed a 'grass roots' sense of responsibility." Mrs. Paul E. Frederick, President, League of Women Voters of Lakewood "It seems to me that forming separate Leagues in the municipalities of Cuyahoga County has made two real contributions to our community life: One I, that a larger group of women are familiar with the problems of holding elections, conducting public schools and supplying the services of City Government. The second is, that public officials are encouraged by the intelligent, considered attention League women bring to community problems." Miss Mary Elizabeth Crawford, President, Cleveland Heights League of Women Voters "The increase in the number of Leagues and the number of League members, and in member participation, are all evidence of the advantages of dividing the old County League into small, autonomous groups. The present organization plan is ideally suited to the League's purpose of developing responsible citizens." Mrs. Charles Bang, Shaker Heights representative to the County Council Member of State Board, Voters' Service Chairman. 175 "This reorganization period of the League has naturally presented difficult and challenging problems. Arriving at the seemingly best solutions has necessitated the willingness to cooperate, patience, compromise, objective thinking, and vision on the part of all. The satisfactory progress to date, fortifies our belief in the wisdom of the decision to reorganize, and it is with great confidence that we look to the future." Mrs. Edward J. Kenealy, President, Cuyahoga County Council Member of State Board. "Reorganization has presented an entirely new picture, emphasizing the importance of the individual in the scheme of government, from the local scene in the foreground through the vast world panorama." Mrs. Cronje Carnahan, President, League of Women Voters of East Cleveland "Since reorganization, the members of the Cleveland League have a vehicle of their own through which they can actively participate in the municipal affairs of their city, and yet maintain, through the County Council League, close contact with the members of other local Leagues. Mrs. Richard M. Bourne, President, League of Women Voters of Cleveland "The establishment of the League of Women Voters of Shaker Heights, as an autonomous unit made the League a true and vital force in the community. Because the local program is devoted to local governmental matters - those matters closest to our members - there has been an active and intense interest in them. Because of this interest, the weight of opinion of League members is becoming increasingly felt in the community. The growth in membership (more than doubled in three years) has come about because the League of Women Voters of Shaker Heights deals with those governmental matters which are on every Shaker 176 citizens' doorstep. This awareness among our members of their responsibility as citizens, is the first step toward extending their interest to state and national matters. The rock on which a strong League is built is the percentage of active members within that League." Mrs. A. A. Treuhaft, President, League of Women Voters of Shaker Heights Member of State Board. "Perhaps the change in the local organization of the League was too rapid, but we have grown by leaps and bounds since. Furthermore, I think that for county-wide problems, such as county reorganization or voting machines, seven local Leagues present a stronger front on the county level, since all the local Leagues can bring concentrated action on the city councils." Mrs. Ralph W. Kane, Lakewood Representative to the County Council "Looking backwards, to legislation in the national congress and in the state, which the League has fought for and supported, some victories have been won; some are still to be won. It is my conviction that local League Boards are obligated to keep their members informed of our past record and our platform, so that when the need arises, those members will be ready to fight to sustain our accomplishments and to support measures not yet achieved. We must never desert our past objectives as we press forward to meet newer ones." Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride, Member, State Advisory Board 177 SOURCE MATERIAL Cuyahoga County Suffrage Movement 1911-1911 (A series of 20 scrapbooks of newspaper clippings available in the Cleveland Public Library.) The Woman Movement and other publications of the U.S. Women's Bureau. Mary E. Robinson A History of Suffrage in Ohio. (A well-documented manuscript.) Judge Florence E. Allen History of Suffrage in the United States. (A Series of newspaper articles published in the Cleveland Press. November and December, 1911.) Elizabeth J. Hauser Woman as Force in History Mary R. Beard The League of Women Voters - 1920-1945 (A series of 25 scrapbooks of newspaper clippings available in the office of the Cuyahoga County Council of the League of Women Voters, Society for Savings Building, Cleveland, Ohio.) Publications of the League of Women Voters: A Brief Legislative History of the League of Women Voters - 1920-46 Mrs. Charles Bang Mrs. Paul Roundy Mrs. C. C. Shiveley Chicago to Chicago. (A legislative review.) Mrs. Harris T. Baldwin 25 Years of a Great Idea. (History of the National League of Women Voters.) Mrs. Harold A. Stone A more complete bibliography will be available after September, 1949, in the Cleveland Public Library. 178 Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.