a friend of the measure forced the reconsideration the next
day, and as this was lost by a vote of 24 to 10, the bill itself went
on record as having received the vote of the "wet" leader and having
passed by 20 to 16. Governor James M. Cox signed it Feb. 21.

Very soon the opponents opened headquarters in Columbus and circulated
petitions to have the Presidential suffrage bill referred to the
voters for repeal. The story of these petitions is a disgraceful one.
Four-fifths of the signatures were gathered in saloons, the petitions
kept on the back and front bars. Hundreds of names were certified to
by men who declared they saw them signed, an impossibility unless they
stood by the bar eighteen hours each day for some weeks and watched
every signature. Some petitions, according to the dates they bore,
were circulated by the same men in different counties on the same day.
Some of them had whole pages of signatures written in the same hand
and some had names only, no addresses. The suffragists copied some of
these petitions after they were filed in Columbus and although the
time was short brought suit to prove them fraudulent in six counties.
In four the court ordered all but a few names thrown out. In Scioto
all the names were rejected and in Cuyahoga county (Cleveland), 7,000
names were thrown out. The petitions in Franklin county (Columbus),
Lucas (Toledo) and Montgomery (Dayton) were unquestionably fraudulent
but the election boards were hostile to woman suffrage and powerful
with the courts and refused to bring cases. When suffrage leaders
attempted to intervene the courts declared they had no jurisdiction.

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