USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, Ohio, from the founding of Franklinton in 1797, through the World War period to the year 1920 > Part 11
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Three committees differently appointed for relief as soon as the need was seen to be im- perative were merged into one, with representatives of the Associated Charities, Chamber of Commerce, the city government and the citizens generally. A station for the gathering and distribution of supplies was established on Spring street; the flooded district was sub- divided, school houses and churches where available were used as stations for rescue and relief; over the Rich street bridge, when its safety was assured, came a stream of refugees who were registered at the City Hall and sent to temporary shelter on the East Side. Superintendent J. L. Fieser, of the Associated Charities, and his force of workers were in- valuable in systematizing the relief, while S. P. Bush, George W. Lattimer, W. G. Benham and others including Mayor George J. Karb and his official associates, lent themselves wholly to the great task. Robert F. Wolfe secured from Buckeye Lake numerous boats and, with a corps of helpers whom he himself gathered and directed, did everything that was humanly possible to save the lives of those who had been caught in the flood. School principals, teachers and janitors helped as they could. Churches and lodges gave money and service : in fact everybody helped where he saw the need and there was a greater demonstration of human brotherhood than had ever before been shown in the city.
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After the busy days and sleepless nights came the work of rehabilitation in which the National Red Cross supplemnted local workers with trained agents. A local rehabilitation committee and a special representative of the Red Cross worked together, giving discrimi- natingly to the sufferers in proportion to their needs. Legal aid was given free in necessary adjustments. The number of dwelling houses flooded was 4,071; number of persons fed from the relief supplies during the first days, 20,000; sufferers who owned their homes, 1,306, of which 733 were mortgaged; homes in which there was a total loss of furniture, 132; homes with a partial loss, 2,572. The Red Cross provided furniture in 2,363 eases; working equipment in 210; elothing and bedding in 286; repairs and building in 390. The amount of money spent in this way by the Red Cross was more than $170,000. There is no way of estimating the amount otherwise spent, but it was certainly as much more. The Council in April issued $25,000 for obligation relief, and the total of bonds issued by the eity that year for sanitation, reinstatement and repair on account of the flood totaled nearly $300,000.
A demand for adequate protection from flood was immediately made following this disaster, and the Council empowered the Mayor and Director of Public Works to employ competent engineers to report the best method to be adopted. John W. Alvord and Charles B. Burdick, of Chicago, were employed in May and in September submitted a report, pre- senting 10 different projeets and recommending two, either of which would eost, according to the estimates, more than $11,000,000. One of them proposed the abandonment of the old river channel around the bend and cutting a new channel to take the total flow across the West Side between McDowell and Skidmore streets. The other proposed detaining reservoirs above Dublin and Delaware and the substitution of a new straight channel for the old crooked one.
After an acrimonious discussion in and out of the publie press, in the course of which it was estimated that the city's share of the improvement by the favored plan would be $8,500,000 the question was submitted to a vote of the people and overwhelmingly beaten. In the fol- lowing Mareh, the General Assembly passed the Vonderheide act, creating flood districts with a commission by each to be appointed by the Common Pleas judges. The commission was instrueted to prepare plans which, after approval by the judges, were to be executed by the commission, to which was given almost arbitrary power in bond issuing. For this district, Julius F. Stone, George W. Lattimer and George E. Williams were appointed as the commission, or conservancy board. This body employed the same engineers who, after a more thorough study, found that a plan of detaining basins, combined with channel im- provements would afford protection, not only to Columbus, but also to the distriet north as far as Delaware and south as far as Chillicothe, and that it could be executed for about the same cost as the eut-off channel plan. There was then an effort to enlarge the distriet, but it failed, and it then appeared that the whole cost would have to be assessed on the bene- fited part of Franklin county. This, with so costly a project, it was held by many, would amount almost to confiseation of the property in the flood distriet, already much depreciated. On this proposition the conservancy board split, Mr. Lattimer agreeing with the objectors. The plan, nevertheless, was presented to the judges who disapproved it. Then began a movement to ignore the conservaney board and have the channel improved by the eity itself, and the city engineering division was asked to make an estimate on the cost of a 580-foot channel, substantially twice the old width. The first estimate showing that it could be done for $5,000,000, the Council direeted the preparation of plans which could be executed for $3.500,000. That was done and a hond issue in that amount was submitted at the elec- tion in November, 1916. The proposition was approved by a large margin, the contraets were awarded, the necessary property appraised and acquired by purchase of condemnation and the work of channel widening was begun in April under the direction of R. H. Simpson, of the city engineering division. In August, 1918, about $500,000 had been spent in aequir- ing the needed ground and $250,000 on contracts. With three-quarters of the first million used, the Federal Government authorized the issue of a second million as a wartime neees- sity. The city now owns every foot of the west bank of the Scioto from the mouth of the Olentangy to the sewage disposal plant and all on the east side for the same distance, except the strip between Broad street and Rich street-the old wharf lots which the city, through a short-sighted policy, sold some years ago. An earth levee was constructed along the west bank, except for a distance 1,200 feet north of Broad street where conerete was used. The
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bend in the river was made less pronounced. A proposition to issue bonds in a sufficient amount to recover the old wharf lots and create there a Victory park was defeated at the polls in 1919 and also in 1920. The channel improvement was estimated in May, 1920, to be 60% completed.
The fifth war episode in Columbus history was that of 1916 when the Ohio National Guard was summoned to Columbus to participate in the protection of the Mexican border. The civil war in the neighboring republic had left it without a responsible head and raids across the border had indicated that something must be done for the protection of Americans whose homes were in peril and that perhaps intervention would be necessary. The state military authorities chose for the camp a site at Upper Arlington which was elaborately pre- pared under the direction of Adjutant General B. W. Hough and named for the Governor Camp Willis. The Eighth regiment, Colonel Edward Vollrath, arrived at camp- July 29. That was followed on succeeding days by the Fifth regiment, Colonel Charles X. Zimmer- man; the Fourth, Colonel B. L. Bargar; the Sixth, Colonel W. V. McMaken; the Second, Colonel G. D. Deming; the First squadron of cavalry and First battalion of field artillery. Physical examinations of the men began at once and were so rigid that of the 11,000 men who responded only about 8,000 were mustered into the federal service. Weeks of wait- ing followed, and there was much uncertainty as to how and where the Ohio troops would be used. A general railroad strike threatened and added to the uncertainty. But on August 29th, the Fifth regiment left for El Paso and by September 6 all the troops had entrained for the border, the Eighth, Fifth and Fourth regiments, being brigaded together under command of Brigadier General John C. Speaks. The troops all went to El Paso and the news from the Fourth on the 17th was that the regiment was at Camp Pershing.
The camp site here was at once abandoned and its equipment sold at auction. There had been a misunderstanding between the War Department and the state military authorities, the former never intending, it seems, that the camp should be permanent. The latter had proceeded on another theory and had spent over $200,000 in preparing a camp for continuous use. Mess shacks, store houses, latrines, shower baths, etc., had been con- structed, roads built and gas, water and sewers installed.
By act of the General Assembly, March 29, 1917, appropriating $5,000 for the purpose, a Mexican border service badge was struck for every man in the Ohio military organizations. It consisted of a bar, showing the national shield, stars and the Roman fasces, from which was suspended the medal proper. One side bore the seal of Ohio, surrounded by the words, "Mexican Border Service, 1916-1917." On the other side was inscribed, "Presented by the State of Ohio."
Woman Suffrage Movement.
For the following acount of the woman suffrage movement in Columbus, the author is in- debted to Dr. Alice Mandane Johnston :
The agitation for woman's rights began in Columbus in 1843-44, after Abby Kelly Foster lectured on anti-slavery and human freedom, a cause in which Ohio, because of its geographical location, was a storm center. Mrs. Rebecca A. S. Janney was the original local suffrage leader, and her mantle fell on Mrs. Elizabeth Coit, and hers in turn on Mrs. Belle Coit Kelton.
The first woman suffrage petition ever presented to a governing body here was read in May, 1850, before the Ohio Constitutional Convention. A suffrage memorial was submitted March 23, 1854, to the General Assembly-the first of a long line. Among the prominent advocates of suffrage who appeared before legislative committees in the early days were Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Anna Dickinson, Dr. Anna Shaw, Sojourner Truth and Mary A. Livermore.
In 1875 Frances Willard, at the home of a Columbus temperance crusader, Mrs. Eben Sargent (mother of Mrs. D. C. Beggs) first consecrated herself to the woman suffrage cause, and a franchise department was added to the Women's Christian Temperance Union- Mrs. L. B. DeSelm, leader of the crusade, Mrs. Anna Clark, Mrs. Mary Castle, Mrs. Sarah Innis and Mrs. James Taylor being among the local suffrage workers of the time. In 1884 Mrs. Elizabeth Coit organized a local suffrage association which for many years met monthly at her home. In 1884 Rebecca A. S. Janney called a state suffrage convention in Columbus, the local delegates being Mr. and Mrs. O. G. Peters, Mrs. Elizabeth Coit, Mrs. Belle Coit Kelton, Judge John T. Gale and his mother, Mrs. Mary J. Gale. In 1885 Mrs.
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Coit was chosen treasurer of the State Association, held office for 14 years and in 1900 was made honorary president.
In 1888 Dr. Anna Shaw and Susan B. Anthony visited Columbus and held numerous suffrage meetings, the former addressing a committee of the General Assembly. The first result of the long agitation was in 1894 when the right to vote in school elections was granted to the women of Ohio. In the same year the right of Ida M. Earnhart, wife of State Senator M. B. Earnhart, to register as a voter was sustained by the Ohio Supreme Court in a test case brought by the suffrage association.
The Columbus Equal Suffrage League was organized in 1907 at the home of Mrs. O. G. Peters, and has held monthly meeting continuously to the present time. Among the early officers were Mrs. Belle Coit Kelton and Mrs. Charles Lentz. In 1909, under the manage- ment of Dr. Sara Fletcher, then president, the league conducted the successful campaign of Mrs. Dora Sandoe Bachman for member of the Board of Education; at that election 300 votes were cast by women. The league also aided in the election of the following women to the board: Miss Ella June Purcell in 1911; Mrs. Bachman and Mrs. Cora Mae Kellogg in 1913, Mrs. Kellogg in 1915, Miss Kate M. Lacey in 1917 and Mrs. Wm. McPherson in 1919.
On May 3, 1912, the Ohio Constitutional Convention voted to submit to the eleetors the question of omitting from the constitution the vital words "white male." This was the suf- fragists' opportunity and they went zealously into the campaign. The Franklin County Woman Suffrage Association was organized, Mrs. Wm. Neil King president, Miss Jeannette Eaton secretary, with headquarters in the Chamber of Commerce building. Two suffrage weeklies appeared-Everywoman edited by Miss Sarah Swaney and Miss Mary Toole, and the Ohio Woman edited by Miss H. Anna Quinby. There was street speaking by women, and there were meetings in factories and at picnics; literature was widely distributed and at a mass meeting in Olentangy park under the auspices of the Woman's Taxpayers' League, Belva Lockwood spoke to 10,000 people. As a part of the Columbus Centennial celebration in 1912, there was a stately and beautiful suffrage parade, organized by Mrs. Julius F. Stone, Mrs. Herbert Brooks and others, and at Memorial Hall in the afternon of August 27, Dr. Anna Shaw, Mrs. Raymond Robbins and Mrs. Ella Reeves Bloor made pleas for suf- frage. At the special election following, woman suffrage was defeated in the State by 87.455 votes. Franklin county voted 12,284 for and 11,851 against suffrage.
But the fight went on. Mrs. Snowden, wife of a member of the British Parliament, Jane Addams and Mrs. Emmaline Pankhurst came at different times in 1913 to speak. Petitions for another submission of the question were circulated in Franklin and 72 other counties and 131,000 signatures were secured. These were presented to the General Assem- bly July 30, 1914, and supported by many arguments. The Franklin County Woman Suf- frage Association, Mrs. Julius F. Stone chairman, Dr. Alice M. Johnston secretary and Miss Lueille Atcheson executive secretary, conducted a vigorous campaign of appeal to the con- sciences of men and there were many meetings with both local and outside speakers. At the election in 1914, suffrage was again defeated.
A month later Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, at the convention of the state association. summoned the women to another effort. The Columbus branch of the Congressional Union, whose aim was to secure the adoption by Congress of a resolution submitting to the states a suffrage amendment to the Federal constitution, was organized June 25, 1915, and there was much activity to secure suffrage by that means.
After the national election of 1916, a bill was introduced in the General Assembly granting to women the right to vote in presidential elections in Ohio. After much discussion the bill passed the House February 1, 1917, and the Senate two weeks later. On the 21st it was signed by Governor James M. Cox who declared in a speech in May that he would do everything he honestly could do to prevent the referendum on the act that was then being urged by its enemies. Nevertheless the question was submitted and the aet was disapproved.
This was followed April 16, 1917, by the adoption by the City Council of a resolution, offered by Couneilman J. C. Nailor, granting to women the right to vote in municipal elec- tions. This was submitted to the people in August, 1917, following a spirited campaign and was approved-8618 to 7687. Three suffrage organizations are maintained: The Franklin County Woman Suffrage Association, Mrs. Wm. P. Halenkamp president, and the Columbus Equal Suffrage League, Mrs. Charles Lentz president, and the Columbus branch of the Con- gressional Union, Mrs. Florence Ralston Warren chairman.
CHAPTER XI.
FIRST YEAR OF THE WORLD WAR.
Review of the City's Activities-Spirit Before the Declaration of War-Council of National Defense-War Gardening-l'isit of Marshal Joffre and Viviani-Early Recruiting- Y. M. C. A. Campaign-First Liberty Loans -- War Chest of $3,000,000-"Call to the Colors" Day-Ohio National Guard Mobilizes and Departs-Naval Hospital Unit-Ohio State University's Part-Red Cross and Other Relief Organizations- Women's Committee for Food and Other Conservation-Food and Coal Prices-Colum- bus at the Officers' Training Camp-War Savings Stamp Campaign-Draft Boards Work-Community and Training Camp Service-Pro-German Sentiment.
At the declaration of war with Germany, April 6, 1917, Columbus sprang promptly and enthusiastically to the defense of American principles of national liberty and international good will. Sentiment, created by a patriotic press and pulpit and the thoughtful expression by citizens of all classes had kept well abreast of the national administration, and the only question was whether America had acted soon enough. Grateful for all the President had done to keep the nation honorably out of the war in Europe, the General Assembly, which had convened the preceding January, so expressed itself, February 20, declaring also its con- fidenee in his high purpose. Later, when it appeared that this nation must enter the war, it sent a message of cheer to him and the great majority of Congress which was standing behind him with heart and vote. It had also thanked the Ohio National Guard for its services on the Mexican border in time of national peril and appropriated $5,000 to fur- nish each officer and enlisted man a badge of honor emblematic of that service. It had codified and revised the military laws of Ohio so as to bring them into conformity with the laws of the United States and had appropriated a lump sum of $126,712.10 for the maintenance of the Guard because it could not know exactly what the requirements of the new national army law would be. It had also authorized the Governor to make a military eensus of men in Ohio between the ages of 18 and 15 years and had voted to him an emer- gency fund of $250,000 to be used for the enlistment of men in the army and navy, in case of war, or otherwise, in co-operation with the President, for the protection of the nation. And to the Russian people it had sent a message of congratulation on the overthrow of autocracy.
In both official and private life the conviction had steadily grown that war must come and ought to come. On April 2, a mass meeting was held at Memorial Hall. The audi- torium was packed and thousands were unable to gain admission. Mayor Karb. Professors J. A. Leighton and Edward Orton, jr., ex-Governor James E. Campbell, Martin J. Caples, Rev. A. M. Courtenay and Rabbi Joseph S. Kornfeld spoke. Resolutions reeiting the wrongs of this country at the hands of Germany were adopted, and a committee consisting of J. A. Leighton, Max Morehouse and John T. Gale was sent to Washington to assure the Presi- dent of the support of Columbus in any action he might take in defense of the country.
Plans were at once laid to recruit the Fourth regiment, O. N. G., to full war strength of 2,055 men and officers. President W. O. Thompson acting for the trustees and faculty of Ohio State University, wired to President Wilson an expression of abiding confidence in his high purpose and an offer of the resources of the university in men and in scientific and research laboratories, and on the very day of the declaration of war by Congress, enlistment offices for the army, the navy, United States Marines and Fourth regiment were opened. With Troop B as a nucleus, recruiting was also at once begun for the "Governor's Squadron" of cavalry, the Second Field hospital and the Second Field ambulance. The Athletic Club pledged to the United States an armored motor car, with a crew of 12 men.
Soon after the declaration of war, Governor Cox appointed the following to constitute the Ohio branch of the Council of National Defense: A. A. Augustus, Cleveland; Samuel P. Bush, Columbus ; ex-Governor James E. Campbell, Columbus; Martin J. Caples, Colum- bus; Fred C. Croxton, Columbus; Thomas J. Donnelly, Columbus; Frank P. Donnenwirth, Bucyrus; C. M. Eikenberry, Hamilton; James W. Faulkner, Columbus: Paul L. Feiss, Cleveland; H. S. Firestone, Akron; John P. Frey, Cincinnati; Gen. J. Warren Keifer,
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Springfield; B. H. Kroger, Cincinnati; John Moore, Columbus; Frank E. Myers, Ashland; Joseph R. Nutt, Cleveland; John J. Quinlivan, Toledo; S. O. Richardson, Toledo; Daniel J. Ryan, Columbus ; J. V. B. Searborough, Cineinnati; W. S. Stone, Cleveland; L. J. Taber, Barnesville; Colonel H. E. Talbott, Dayton; Dr. W. O. Thompson, Columbus; W. W. Thornton, Akron; David Tod, Youngstown; James Wilson, Cineinnati. These men were chosen as representatives of capital, labor and the great forees engaged in transportation, manufacturing, education, agriculture and publieity.
The eouneil organized at once and inaugurated movements to increase erop production; to educate more housewives in eanning fruits and vegetables; to seeure the labor needed for the construction of the cantonments and for the cultivation of the fields, as well as the mak- ing of munitions; to prevent strikes and fires; to secure justiee between employers and em- ployes by the enforeing of the labor laws, and to guard the health of the soldiers in the eamps. The agricultural division, by gubernatorial appointment consisted of Dean Alfred Vivian, of the College of Agriculture, President W. O. Thompson, of the Ohio State Uni- versity ; Louis J. Taber, of the Ohio Grange; Clark S. Wheeler, of the University Exten- sion department; C. G. Williams, of the Wooster Experiment Station. Fred C. Croxton was made the head of the labor-supplying division; and James W. Faulkner, head of the publieity work; and other committees were appointed to organize and inspire the state for its great task.
A crop commissioner was appointed for every county, the counties were organized into distriets, each with a supervisor, all eo-operating with the central unit headed by Dean Vivian. As a result, according to the estimates of State Secretary of Agriculture N. E. Shaw, the wheat and eorn erops were increased about one-third each and the oats erop was inereased by one-fourth. The potato erop was doubled and the ordinary garden erop was quintupled. The wheat erop was estimated at 31,000,000 bushels and soon after harvest the Council launehed a campaign for the production of 60,000,000 in 1918.
The State Free Employment Bureaus were all reorganized and revitalized till they reached out into every seetion of the State for men to meet the demand for labor. From May 1, 1917, to the following January, the number of persons for whom employment was found was 229,886; about 14,000 were sent to the farms and nearly 25,000 to Chillicothe for the constrnetion of the eantonment, the building of which was well under way July 15.
An agricultural survey of the State was made, discovering the needs of the farmers and reporting their acreage. The Couneil encouraged with liberal prizes the organization of boys' corn elubs and, in co-operation with the Publie Utilities Commission, hastened the railroad movement of fertilizers, farm supplies and other wartime commodities. It made a survey of the coal mines and fuel supply and took up the important work of eon- serving both fuel and food and regulating their use in the common interest. Mr. Croxton's work in food conservation later resulted in his appointment as State Food Administrator.
In all this activity Columbus promptly joined. Extraordinary efforts were made to in- crease the number of vacant lot and backyard gardens, which for some years had been a means of partial loeal self-supply. The newspapers gave free publicity to the movement. Arthur W. Raymond, director of the Recreation Department; James W. Wheeler, of the Godman Guild, and other social workers and publie-spirited citizens entered energetieally into the food campaign. Real estate men and individual owners offered lots for cultivation, the King G. Thompson Co. giving nearly 100 aeres for that purpose: and a traet of land near Shepard belonging to the city was turned over to the Reereation Department for cultivation. Twelve plowmen were employed by the city to plow and harrow the lots, and the Interna- tional Harvester Co. donated two tractors, with an operator for each, which plowed and harrowed 115 acres. The city paid the plowmen and charged the gardener only when he was able to pay. Garden seeds, secured from the government through Congressman Clement Brumbaugh, were given away and what the eity had to buy was sold at eost. Everywhere it was recommended that only staple products such as potatoes, tomatoes, eorn and beans be planted, and the advice was very generally followed. Government bulletins on gardening were given out and there was some volunteer instruction of the uninformed, as well as official and other supervision of gardens. The Mayor proelaimed that pilfering from the war gardens would be severely punished, and there was little interference with " the growing foodstuffs.
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