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retaining it was 422,262; against, 568,382; the law repealed by a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