HIS RECORD
Shortly after his nomination for President in 1920, I told Mr. Cox
that I was writing a story of his life. He answered:
“Well, Babson, please omit all the unessentials and even the things
which I have said, and--so far as possible--confine it to my record
and what I have done.”
Therefore, in this closing chapter, I wish to record some of the
things which he has actually done and for which I am indebted to his
friend and associate, Mr. E. H. Moore. Most of these things Mr. Cox,
either as Congressman or as Governor, actually started, put thru or
consummated. A few of them he simply aided by his influence, but all
he believed in and worked for and saw accomplished.
All classes of citizenship have confidence in Mr. Cox because he
accepts safe counsel and is a careful judge. Among the legislative
measures above referred to, let me enumerate:
BUSINESS SERVICE
A public utilities law providing property revaluation as a basis for
rate making.
Provision for court appeal from the utilities commission decision to
the court of final jurisdiction, preventing delay and loss.
Prohibition against injunction on rate hearing without court
investigation.
A uniform accounting system applied to public utilities.
A state banking code with close coöperation with the Federal Reserve
system, bringing all private banks under state supervision.
A blue sky act to encourage proper investment and to protect against
fraudulent securities.
LABOR LEGISLATION
A compulsory workmen’s compensation law, admittedly the best in the
Union and which has been accepted as the model by other progressive
states.
A State Industrial Commission with powers to handle all questions
affecting capital and labor, with a state mediator as the keystone.
Complete survey of occupational diseases with recommendation for
health and occupational insurance.
Full switching crew law for all railroad yards.
Legislation strengthening the use in the state of railroad safety
appliances.
A full-crew law.
A twenty-four-foot caboose law.
Reduction of consecutive hours of employment for electric railroad
workers.
Obstruction of fixed signals prohibited.
Safeguarding of accidents in mines by proper illumination.
Extra provision for dependents of men killed in mines.
Increased facilities for mine inspector operation.
Protection of miners working toward abandoned mines.
Elimination of sweatshop labor.
Provision for minimum time per day.
Prohibition of contract labor in workhouses.
Eight-hour working day on all public contracts.
Elimination of the “fellow-servant rule,” “contributory negligence,”
and similar rules as to industrial accidents as a part of the
administration of compulsory workmen’s compensation, re-establishing
faith in the courts.
Verdict by three-fourths jury in civil cases.
Shortened litigation and lessened expense by giving appellate courts
final jurisdiction except in extraordinary cases.
Laws to provide against adulteration of food-stuffs, and prevent
combination to fix prices.
SOCIAL SERVICE
Establishment of a state tuberculosis hospital and district hospitals
thruout the state by county action.
Adoption of health code giving state health commissioner regulatory
power over subdivision officials, with a special appropriation to
combat epidemics and contagious diseases.
Formation of a state-wide social agency committee, bringing into
mutual operation all recognized social agencies of the state (the only
one of its kind in the Union), having complete coöperation with state
departments.
Additional provision for care of feeble-minded, including erection and
equipment of a new institution on the cottage plan, with appropriation
for a tuberculosis hospital.
Provision for additional cottages at the hospital for epileptics.
Establishment of a Bureau of Juvenile Research with provision for
thoro mental and physical examinations of all juveniles committed to
the institutions of the state; for final placement in the institution
best fitted for the ward’s needs. This bureau is primarily a mental
hygiene clinic, coöperating with other mental clinics thruout the
state and maintaining a permanent central registration of mental
defectives, looking toward elimination of causes which produce
defective children.
Codification of child laws with establishment of child welfare
department.
Compulsory provision for mothers’ pensions.
Creation of a Board of Clemency, to be in constant session for
consideration of release, parole, and probation of persons under penal
sentences.
Indeterminate sentence law under which first offenders are given every
opportunity for rehabilitation, so that no men shall be deprived of
the opportunity of making a new beginning.
Purchase of a penitentiary farm and building of a new penitentiary in
the country.
Employment of prisoners in road work, including the manufacture of
road building machinery and material, with compensation of prisoners
for all work done, with earnings over cost of maintenance paid
directly to dependants of prisoners.
Recommendation and passage of state legislation for woman suffrage.
EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
Consolidated schools in excess of 1200, with full high school courses,
have supplanted more than five times that number of one-room school
houses.
A complete supervision of school courses and textbooks has been
established.
AGRICULTURAL LEGISLATION
A law combining all agricultural activities under jurisdiction of an
agricultural commission.
Provision for study of farm credit plans.
Protection against sale of untested fertilizers.
Provision for destruction of and remuneration for diseased cattle.
Compulsory orchard spraying law, with spraying material under license.
Establishment of breeding service at institutional farms, and the
building up of pure-bred herds thruout the state.
Passage of a pure seed bill.
Establishment of producer-to-consumer market bureau.
Enlargement of agricultural aid thru the experiment station and state
agricultural college.
GOOD ROADS PROGRAM
Beginning in 1915, with an annual revenue of three and one-half
million dollars, with a carefully planned system of inter-county and
main-market highways under state supervision with federal aid, the
program for Ohio was extended until now there has been made available
from state sources the sum of thirty million dollars annually for the
maintenance and upkeep of main roads.
Legislation for the use of the split log drag on graveled connecting
roads.
Provision for the united action of township, county commissioners and
state highway department on all road work.
NATIONAL IDEALS
In closing let me quote once more from Mr. Cox, mostly from an address
before the Iroquois Club at Chicago, March 25, 1920.
“Public officers are the representatives of government and they
promote or diminish confidence in our institutions either by wisdom or
error. Never before has there been such a pressing necessity for
plain good faith on the part of those in whose hands rests
governmental power as exists today.
“We must give immediate attention to matters of domestic concern. Our
whole economic status seems to be unnatural. Prices are high and they
will remain so until we seriously dedicate our efforts to the wiping
away of things that came with the war.
“A considerable factor in the high cost of living is the continuance
of the excess profits tax. In establishing the selling price of its
product, every business establishment sets aside a reasonable profit
and then adds to it the amount that must be paid to the government.
This is done in turn by the manufacturer, the jobber, the distributor
and the retailer, the inevitable result being a staggering cost to the
consumer.
“Approximately four billion dollars will be necessary to conduct the
department of government and to meet sinking fund and interest
charges. Almost half of this could be derived by applying a tax of
from one to one and one-half per cent on the volume of business done
by any going concern. It would be a simple matter to collect this tax;
the tax-payer would not be confused by it, and it would be neither
cause nor alibi for excessive prices.
“I favor the abolishment of the federal inheritance tax just as soon
as we can get along without it. This method of taxation should be left
to the states. Tax on inheritance is based upon the principle of
government being compensated for service rendered in conveying
property from one generation to another. A man makes a will and it has
a definite force and effect because the law legalizes it. The right is
given to him by the state and the process of the distribution of his
estate is thru the agency of local government. The federal authority
has nothing to do with it, therefore the compensation for services
rendered should be to the states.
“There is some hysteria over the subject of active elements in this
country that are menacing to the government. There is no immediate
danger in the situation, altho it might easily be aggravated if the
governmental policy of restraint and common sense that has endured
thru the years, were to become one of force and terrorism. There must
be no compromise with treason, but the surest death to Bolshevism is
exposure of the germ of the disease itself to the sunlight of public
view. In the old days, the treatment for scarlet fever consisted of an
intensive attack on the high temperature of fever. The result was a
reaction on vital organs that left permanent affliction. Now the
fever, under restraint, is permitted to run its course and what was
once regarded as a very serious ailment is little more than a simple
malady.
“We must protect ourselves against extremes in America. The horrors
and tragedies of revolution can be charged to them. If government is
assailed, its policy must not become vengeful. Our fathers in
specifying human freedom, and providing guarantees for its
preservation, recognized that among the necessary precautions was the
protection of individual right against governmental abuses.
“If the alien, ignorant of our laws and customs, cowers in fear of our
government, he is very apt to believe that things are much the same
the world over, and he may become an easy convert to the doctrines of
resistance. The skies will clear, but meanwhile, government must be
firm yet judicial, uninfluenced by the emotionalism that breeds
extremes. The less government we have, consistent with safety to life
and property, the better for both happiness and morals. A policeman on
every corner would be a bad index to the citizenship of the community,
for it would reflect a foolish concept of conditions by the municipal
officers.
“In this, I merely seek to give point to the necessity now that the
war is over, of junking the most of our institutions devoted to war,
and scaling governmental machinery down to the very point of necessity
and efficiency. It is idle to talk of reducing governmental expense if
the nation has to be armed to the teeth, and vast armies and navies
will be necessary if the concerted plan of international peace fails.
The guarantee against war is credit against which a debit charge must
be made, and after all, this is the very crux of the controversy over
the League of Nations.
“Finally, there can be no result worth while unless the nations of the
earth assume a definite obligation one to another. The mere promise of
this country to place its responsibility on the shifting sands of
congressional caprice is a travesty to human intelligence. We are
seeking to shake ourselves free from the cost of war, and yet the task
of readjustment along the line of constructive economy is faced at the
very outset with the question of what our military and naval policy
shall be.
“Let us meet these questions as brave and unselfish men, with our eyes
focused on the star of righteousness. Let us be liberal, but
practical; let us be kind, but firm; let us be patient, but
persistent. The great need today is not more government, but better
government; not government in the interest of any one class, but
government in the interest of all classes, yes, in the interest of all
nations.”
* * * * *
In this little volume, I have attempted a review, as fair minded as
lay in my powers, of salient _facts_ in the life of one of America’s
conspicuous citizens. I can not in my own judgment class Governor Cox
as at present more than that--one of a rather large group of America’s
conspicuous citizens. Not a eulogy of a presidential candidate, but a
record of the _facts_ with which the American public should be
familiar--this was my purpose.
And yet, I shall not deny that in this simple objective I hope for a
further result. That result must come if better knowledge begets
better judgment.
Such a pitiful mass of mere comment we meet everywhere about men in
public life! Campaign pyrotechnics, political bombast, editorial
puffs--or bitter attacks, untruthful insinuations, appeals to blind
prejudice!--and only here and there, amid all such chaff, a kernel of
_fact_!
Hence this presentation of the life of Cox--not opinions about Cox,
not _words_ surrounding Cox, but the facts inherent in Cox, what he
said, what he did, what life he has lived to this day.
I should welcome nothing more than a similar presentation of the life
of Senator Harding, written by a sincere admirer, yet one whose
admiration does not make him blind to objective truths.
That I admire the man Cox is evident from this volume. This admiration
is based partly upon my observations thru personal contact and partly
upon my observation of the things this man has _done_. His record as
governor is truly _remarkable_ and it may be that we shall yet
discover in this simple, plain Ohio newspaper publisher, one of
America’s historically _great_ men.
But far more than in the man Cox am I interested in the principles for
which he stands. He is the exponent today of all our forces of
liberalism. And liberalism in my opinion is a synonym for _true_
Americanism, not the rhetorical Americanism of phrase makers, but
_genuine_ Americanism.
A well-known Boston business man a few days ago accosted me thus:
“Mr. Babson,” he said, “you are known as an adviser for business
interests, an expert on finance, an authority on investments. Why do
you ally yourself with political interests that are hostile to all
our financial interests?”
I answered him by saying:
“I advise investors as honestly as I know how regarding their
investment problems. I also reserve the right and the duty to express
myself to the public as honestly as I know how regarding public
problems. I am not in the slightest allied to any political group; but
my financial interests must not and will not taint my political views.
“Incidentally, I am not publishing advice regarding Mr. Cox. I am
simply a recorder of facts, including facts which are anything but
campaign material in behalf of the governor’s political advancement.
“But if I were to put the proposition on sordid grounds, I might, if
it were not against my principles to mix political views with the pure
routine of business statistics and business forecast, proceed to show
why the financial interests should ally themselves at this hour with
all the forces of liberalism.
“For the question of the hour is not embodied in the issues as they
appear before the public. These issues are but the expressions of the
fundamental issue,--the contest of liberalism and reaction.
“If we have a period of reactionary rule for the next four years, not
only will labor suffer, but all industry must surely soon suffer the
consequences--the consequences of attempting to fight the inevitable
onward march of Father Time.
“Reactionary business men in America do not appear to realize that
they are walking hand in hand with the ultra-radicals. In England, the
financial interests have awakened, for there the ultra-radicals are
plainly on record as opposed above all else to the compromises of
liberalism because as they frankly admit, such liberalism ‘tends to
preserve the present system of society instead of hastening the
upheaval.’
“The greatest danger in America today comes from those who, seeing the
steam escaping from the safety valve, are crying loud to shut the
valve.”
THE END