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.”