PUBLIC CAREER
James M. Cox’s public career commenced in a small way when he was
working for his brother-in-law, Mr. Baker, on the _News-Signal_ in
Middletown, Ohio. Political events were always the most important
events in Ohio. Hence to be a successful reporter to an Ohio paper,
required a political sense of fitness and knowledge of things. This
sense young Cox readily developed.
It was this interesting political work which he had in Middletown that
was lacking in Cincinnati. Altho the job on the _Cincinnati Enquirer_
paid much more and would have been preferred by many men, it did not
appeal to Cox on account of it lacking constructive interest. Mr. Cox
never showed much interest in business for the sake of making money.
He seemed always to like to do things--the harder the better.
WORK IN WASHINGTON
The political life of James M. Cox really began when he reached
Washington one morning in 1894. This was a real event for him, and
altho disappointing in many ways, gave him an insight into political
life which he had never been able to have before. Washington impressed
him with the great possibilities of service thru holding a public
office but he felt any such office was beyond him. Hence he returned
to Dayton because he believed it gave him greater opportunities for
usefulness.
The first editorials which he wrote for the _Dayton News_ were in the
interests of the people of Ohio. He apparently grasped every
opportunity to fight for legislation which would make the great mass
of people healthier, happier and more prosperous. He was not a part of
the vested interests which were so strong in Ohio. On the other hand
he did not put forth the radical propaganda of which many writers are
guilty. From the time Mr. Cox first reached Washington in 1894, he was
a close student of national political affairs. He however, took no
public part until after returning to Ohio and fully establishing
himself in the newspaper field.
CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN
The first office which Mr. Cox sought was as Congressman from the
Third District of Ohio. This was in 1908, about ten years after he
came back from Washington as Secretary to Congressman Sorg. He tells
me that his great difficulty was then in connection with making
speeches. He seemed at first unable to make an extemporaneous speech.
His early speeches were read like Sunday sermons, much to the
amusement of his opponents. Finally, some of his friends used to get
his written speeches away from him and hide them. He was then forced
to talk directly to his audiences. After being thrown overboard, he
apparently was able to swim and he never returned to the written
speeches. Mr. Cox now has a delivery much like the Roosevelt delivery.
It is very vigorous and determined. He grows red in the face and
violently brings down his fist upon the desk or table in front of him.
He is intensely earnest in all he says and convinces his hearers of
his earnestness.
He was first elected to the Sixty First Congress. He was re-elected in
1910 by a majority of 12,809 votes. Under great difficulties he made
himself felt. This was at the time when all important legislation was
put thru by the caucus system and a lone Congressman had very little
opportunity to express himself. In his first campaign, he was opposed
by Frizelle and Eugene Harding; and in his second campaign by Judge
Dustin. The Congressional Directory of those days shows that Mr. Cox
served on the District of Columbia Committee during his first term and
on the Appropriations Committee during the second term. He attracted
attention by his fight against the Payne-Aldrich Bill--which was
afterwards rejected by the people--and for his efforts to have the
Federal Government inaugurate a Children’s Bureau. He was one of the
first to urge Congress to appropriate money for aeroplanes and to
investigate the conduct of the National Military Homes.
While the career of Cox in Congress deserves commendation, the merit
of his work in that body is now being over-emphasized by various
Democratic speakers. The fact is that Cox was not in Congress long
enough to become in any sense an outstanding figure.
GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGN
One of the most important events of Mr. Cox’s life came with his
determination to run for Governor of Ohio. He was not satisfied with
the opportunity of service which Congress offered. He felt that the
Governorship did present a real opportunity especially in connection
with the new Ohio constitution in which he was greatly interested.
Hence in 1912 he entered the campaign for Governor.
Cox has carried his state three times. No other Democratic Governor
has ever done that in Ohio. On the last occasion, in 1918, like many
other Democratic candidates, he made his race against great odds. Ohio
went Republican. Two-thirds of the Congressional districts went
Republican. The entire state ticket, from Lieutenant-Governor down,
went Republican. Mr. Cox was the single Democrat elected to state
office. Cox ran 75,000 votes ahead of the Congressional ticket.
He made his campaign the first year, in support of a reform program, a
program of amendments to the state constitution. State courts still
recognized the “fellow-servant rule,” “contributory negligence” and
similar rules regarding accidents in industry. Elimination of such
medieval doctrine was one object contemplated by the constitutional
amendments. There were many others. To put the amendments into
practice, there were needed over fifty separate legislative measures
covering a wide range of such matters as reorganization of the school
and taxation systems of the state, a workmen’s compensation law,
provisions for a budget system, etc. It was a task requiring political
skill of a considerable sort to get these various measures into
shape, and to push them thru a critical state legislature. Governor
Cox redeemed the promises of his campaign. He got his measures into
law and he did the job so thoroughly that he met defeat when he came
up for re-election in 1914.
Ohio probably has a larger percentage of independant voters than any
other state. Its citizens are strong minded and fearless. They vote,
to a large extent, according to principle rather than party. Normally
Ohio is a Republican state. Everything else being equal, its people
would elect a Republican Governor. Therefore it was a distinct
compliment to Governor Cox--a Democrat--to be elected three times, in
1912, 1916 and 1918, even although the Republican party was somewhat
split. Only in 1914 was he beaten and that was by Willis. In 1918, the
fight was again between Cox and Willis, the latter having once
defeated Cox and having been beaten by him.
NINETEEN TO TEN
The Democratic leaders in Ohio like to talk about the six Democratic
governors Ohio has chosen to one Republican since 1905. Pattison
defeated Myron T. Herrick in 1905 and Judson Harmon won in 1908 and
1910, the second time by a big majority over Harding. Since 1861, Ohio
twenty-nine times has voted for Governor and nineteen times the
Republicans have won. This means that the score now stands nineteen to
ten in favor of the Republicans, with the Democrats gaining. On the
other hand, the Republicans divided their votes in 1912 between the
straight candidate and the Progressive candidate. The combined vote
amounted to 490,000; Cox won but his total vote was less than 440,000.
Two years later, after Governor Cox had been in Columbus for one term,
Willis defeated him by nearly 30,000 in spite of a progressive vote of
60,000 for a third candidate. In 1916, President Wilson carried the
state by almost 90,000 while Cox’s plurality was less than 7,000. The
statistics of 1918, however, are more favorable to Governor Cox. Then
it was a clean-cut fight with no complications and Cox won over Willis
altho everything else went Republican.
There are many opinions as to the causes which elected Mr. Cox.
Without doubt he got into an unfortunate fight in 1918, with the
agents of the Anti-Saloon League; but everyone who knows him commends
his honesty, industry and courage in this connection. Moreover, the
officers of the Anti-Saloon League state that they were not so much
against Cox as they were for his opponent Willis and that between Mr.
Cox and Mr. Harding they had no choice. Governor Cox was universally
commended for his desire and ability to enforce the law. He always has
not only preached righteousness, but has also practiced it.
Governor Cox clearly demonstrated that he is a man of his word and
does not make promises to forget them. He showed a genuine faith in
democratic ideals. To quote Charles Merz:
“When the steel strike came, when peaceful meetings were prohibited in
the steel towns in Pennsylvania, when mounted troopers rode down
groups of men and women in the streets, when troops were called into
the city of Gary to break the morale of a strike that was fought for
the basic right of recognition, those days freedom of speech and
freedom of assembly ruled undisturbed in every steel town of Ohio. It
is a fact that union organizers, in the towns along the
Pennsylvania-Ohio Line, actually marched across the border to hold
their meetings on the soil of a state whose Governor still had faith
in American tradition. Local public officials in Ohio were instructed
to maintain order against rioting, but to interfere in no way with
union meetings and union organizations. And the result? Violence in
Pennsylvania, men and women hurt, fighting in the streets; in Ohio,
not so much disorder as attends a trolley car strike in New York City.
In all six years of his administration Governor Cox never called out
the state militia to police a strike. He never had the need of so
doing.”
COURAGE AND SELF-POSSESSION
“This positive quality in Governor Cox seems to me the dominant one.
It represents him--fairly I think--as a man with considerable courage
and a good deal of self-possession. It shows too what is a key to
Cox’s mind in more ways than one; his education in Jeffersonian
principles of government. More faith in these principles he has
retained than most leaders of his party. That is the way, when
representatives of an ostensibly Jeffersonian administration, like
Palmer and Burleson, bludgeoned public opinion, and other
representatives, like Wilson and Baker, stood by in silence, Cox was
willing to hold out against the alarmist press and the persuasive push
of the steel companies. A surviving flare of Jeffersonian politics
distinguishes him.”
James M. Cox is the nearest approach to Grover Cleveland that the
Democratic party has had since the famous Cleveland administration.
Like Cleveland he has been greatly maligned in a most wicked way. But
he is still kindly and of a forgiving spirit. As I was once talking
this over with him at the Governor’s mansion in Columbus, the night
before leaving for his great western trip in September, 1920, he said:
“The country probably needs both strong Republican and Democratic
parties and is perhaps safest when the two are most evenly balanced.
The Republican is the conservative party and has within its membership
most of the great captains of industry. But surely the Democratic
party is the safety valve of the nation and surely we need a safety
valve today.
“With the entire world upset, the United States can avoid danger only
as its leaders attempt to follow the Golden Rule in their dealings
with men and issues. That I intend to do. Furthermore I believe that
the policy prepared by the Republicans is sure to result in disaster,
depression and unemployment, the like of which was never seen in this
country before. Hence, I say that the voters must choose between
voting for our party and the Golden Rule, or for the Republican Party
and the rule of gold.”
PUBLIC CAREER
OHIO ELECTION STATISTICS, 1912 TO 1918
1912
_Vote for Governor_
Cox (Dem.) 439,323
Brown (Rep.) 272,500
Garford (Pro.) 217,903
Cox plurality 166,823
Total 1,036,731
_Vote for President_
Wilson (Dem.) 424,834
Taft (Rep.) 278,168
Roosevelt (Pro.) 229,807
Wilson’s plurality 146,666
Total 1,037,094
1914
_Vote for Governor_
Cox (Dem.) 493,804
Willis (Rep.) 523,074
Garfield (Pro.) 60,904
Willis’ plurality 29,270
Total 1,129,223
_Vote for U. S. Senator_
Harding (Rep.) 526,115
Hogan (Dem.) 423,742
Garford (Pro.) 67,509
Harding’s plurality 102,373
Total 1,017,366
1916
_Vote for Governor_
Cox (Dem.) 568,218
Willis (Rep.) 561,602
Cox’s plurality 6,616
Total 1,174,057
_Vote for President_
Wilson (Dem.) 604,161
Hughes (Rep.) 514,753
Wilson’s plurality 89,408
Total 1,165,086
1918
_Vote for Governor_
Cox (Dem.) 486,403
Willis (Rep.) 474,459
Cox’s plurality 11,944
Total 960,862