The suffragists were on duty in Columbus from January to October,—long, weary, exciting months. It was clearly proved in the cases brought that the petitions were fraudulently circulated, signed, attested and certified. In the course of an attempt to bring a case against Franklin county a ruling of the Common Pleas Court was that the Secretary of State should be restrained from counting the signatures from seventeen counties because the Board of Elections had not properly certified them. The Secretary of State telegraphed these boards and they certified again, although there is no constitutional or statutory provision for recertification. Nevertheless when these corrected certifications were made the Judge dissolved the injunction and 17,000 names were restored to the petition. U. S. Senator Warren G. Harding in a Decoration Day speech at Columbus declared himself decidedly opposed to accepting this referendum.
Cases were brought to the Supreme Court via the Court of Appeals, one a general suit demanding that petitions from certain counties be rejected because they were fraudulent and insufficient, the other to mandamus the Secretary of State to give the suffragists a hearing to prove their charges. The first was dismissed, the Supreme Court saying it had no jurisdiction over a case which had not been finished in the court from which the appeal had been taken. They returned to the Court of Appeals and tried one case on the constitutionality of the law of 1915, which gives the Board of Elections and Common Pleas Judges the right to examine the petitions and pass upon their validity, instead of the Secretary of State. The court decided to give no decision as election was so near at hand.
The law made no provision to meet the expenses of petition suits and the suffragists had to bear the cost, no small undertaking. The election boards which were dominated by politicians who had been notorious for their opposition to suffrage, interposed every possible obstacle to the attempt of the suffragists to uncover fraud. In some counties it was impossible to bring cases. Women were absorbed in war work and thousands of them bitterly resented the fact that at such a time their right to vote should be questioned. The referendum was submitted with the proposal so worded on the ballot that it was extremely difficult to know whether to vote yes or no.
At the election in November, 1917, the majority voted in favor of taking away from women the Presidential suffrage. The vote for retaining it was 422,262; against, 568,382; the law repealed by a majority of 146,120. More votes were polled in 1917 than in 1914. The law was upheld in 15 counties, in 11 of which suffrage had then carried three times.
Ohio suffragists now turned their attention entirely towards national work. It was apparent that while the liquor interests continued their fight, women with a few thousand dollars, working for principle, could never overcome men with hundreds of thousands of dollars working for their own political and financial interests. Intensive organized congressional work was carried on henceforth for the Federal Suffrage Amendment. When the vote on it was taken in the House of Representatives Jan. 10, 1918, eight of Ohio's twenty-two Congressmen voted for it. Three years before, Jan. 12, 1915, only five had voted in favor. In the U. S. Senate, Oct. 1, 1918, Senator Atlee Pomerene voted No; Senator Warren G. Harding paired in favor. On Feb. 10, 1919, Senator Harding voted Yes; Senator Pomerene No.
The Legislature in 1919, Republican by a large majority in both Houses, endorsed the Federal Amendment by a vote of 23 to 10 in the Senate, 79 to 31 in the House. When the vote was taken in the National House of Representatives, May 21, 1919, only two Ohio members voted No, one a Democrat, Warren Gard of Hamilton, one a Republican, A. E. B. Stephens of Cincinnati. When the final vote was taken in the Senate June 4, 1919, Senator Harding voted Yes, Senator Pomerene, No.
Ratification. The Legislature was so eager to ratify that it had only recessed instead of adjourning so that it could come together for that purpose whenever the amendment was submitted. Representative Reynolds had again introduced a Presidential suffrage measure, and C. H. Fouts of Morgan county, to carry out the Republican platform, had presented a full suffrage proposal. Both were held back until the fate of the National Amendment should be known. The legislators assembled to ratify on June 16 and the House vote was 76 ayes, 6 noes. In order that the women might be sure of a vote at the next election the Presidential suffrage bill was immediately passed by a vote of 75 ayes, 5 noes. The House was in an uproar, cheering, laughing and talking. Then a committee came to the suffrage leaders who were now on the floor, always heretofore in the gallery, and escorted them to the Senate through the legislative passage way which had always before been closed to them. The Senate ratified by a vote of 27 ayes, 3 noes. The Presidential bill was read, debated and passed by the Senate late that night by 27 ayes, 3 noes.
Never was there a finer example of cooperation than in this ratification of the Federal Amendment. The adoption of the joint resolution was moved by the Republican floor leader and seconded by the Democratic floor leader. The same spirit characterized the passage of the Presidential suffrage bill. Mr. Reynolds, fearing some prejudice might attach to it if it bore his name, as he was a minority party member, proposed to the Republican leaders that the name of Speaker Kimball be substituted. The Speaker replied: "No, you deserve to have it go through with your name attached." Mr. Reynolds then asked that the name of Mr. Fouts be added because he had introduced a full suffrage measure, and it became the Reynolds-Fouts Bill. Miss Hauser, editor of the Bulletin, official organ of the State Suffrage Association, said in it: "We had just witnessed a perfect exhibition of team work and a demonstration of loyalty to a cause and to each other by members of opposing political parties that was heart warming. We had finished the suffrage fight in Ohio as Mrs. Upton had always wanted to finish it, with love, good will and harmony in our own ranks, and, so far as we were able to judge, with nothing but good will from the men with whom we had worked since the present stage of the contest was inaugurated in 1912."
The suffragists believed the fight was over, not so the opponents. They at once secured referendum petitions on both ratification and Presidential suffrage. In 1918 the Home Rule Association (the liquor interests) had initiated and carried at the November election an amendment to the State constitution providing that Federal amendments must be approved by the voters before the ratification of the Legislature was effective. This was designed primarily to secure a reversal of prohibition in Ohio but also to prevent ratification of the suffrage amendment.[143]
In collecting their petitions the same old tactics were employed. The personnel of the workers was largely the same, with the addition of a State Senator from Cincinnati as general manager. The money to finance the campaign came principally from that city and this time members of the women's Anti-Suffrage Association were contributors. The saloons were now closed and pious instructions were given not to have the petitions circulated by saloon keepers or bar tenders. Nevertheless nearly 600 of them were circulated by men who had been connected with the saloon business, some of them now conducting soft drink establishments, and the signatures were plainly of the most illiterate elements.