1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cox, James Middleton

COX, JAMES MIDDLETON (1870-), American politician, was born near Jacksonburg, O., March 31 1870. He was educated in the common schools, worked in a newspaper office, for a short time was a country school teacher, and later became a reporter on the Cincinnati Enquirer. Afterwards he went to Washington as secretary to Congressman Paul Sorg, of Ohio. On the latter's retirement he decided to enter again the newspaper field. In 1898 he purchased the Dayton News and five years later the Springfield Press-Republic, subsequently named the Daily News, these papers being known thereafter as the Newspaper League of Ohio. From 1909 to 1913 he was a member of Congress from the Dayton district and served on the Appropriations Committee. He was an active opponent of the Payne-Aldrich tariff measure. He was elected governor of Ohio for the term 1913-15, was defeated for the following term, then was reëlected twice in succession (1917-21). At the time of his third election he was the only Democrat to be returned to state office, even the lieutenant-governor being Republican, and two-thirds of the congressional districts went Republican. In 1916 he was delegate-at-large to the Democratic National Convention. His career as governor was notable. Among the many reforms introduced under his guidance were a workmen's compensation law; a survey of occupational diseases with recommendations for health insurance; the elimination of the sweatshop; the establishment of a state industrial commission for dealing with questions of labour and capital; the provision of a minimum wage and a nine-hour day for women; mothers' pensions; ratification of the proposed woman suffrage amendment; the budget system for state expenditures; pure food laws; a “blue sky” law for protecting investors from unscrupulous promoters; the initiative and referendum; a Corrupt Practices Act; the indeterminate sentence for convicts; improvement of rural schools; the establishment of a state tuberculosis hospital and the extension of safety devices on railways and in mines. Many of these reforms were followed as models by other states. He was energetic in suppressing violence in connexion with strikes, his general policy being to hold local authorities responsible without recourse to the state militia. In at least one case he removed a mayor who had called for state troops. He favoured abolishing the Federal inheritance tax, believing that the state alone should have jurisdiction over inheritances. He opposed the excess profits tax but maintained that a small tax should be laid “on the volume of business of a going concern.” He was a strong supporter of President Wilson's policies and especially of the League of Nations. He was often charged with opposing prohibition but repeatedly declared that all laws must be enforced. At the Democratic National Convention in 1920 he had from the beginning strong support for the presidential nomination. On the first ballot he stood third (with 134 votes); on the seventh ballot second (with 295½ votes); on the twelfth ballot first (with 404 votes); on the thirtieth ballot he dropped to second (with 400½ votes); on the thirty-ninth vote he again stood first (with 468½ votes); and continued to gain thereafter until he was nominated on the forty-fourth ballot. Following his nomination he “stumped” the country, making the League of Nations the prominent issue but was overwhelmingly defeated by Warren G. Harding, the Republican nominee. The electoral vote was 404 for Harding and 127 for Cox. The popular vote was 16,138,900 for Harding and 9,142,000 for Cox. The vote in Ohio, the home state of both candidates, was 1,182,000 for Harding and 780,000 for Cox. The magnitude of the defeat, unprecedented in American history, was generally considered as due in part to the unwarranted character of the charges made by Cox himself during the campaign, but chiefly to a widespread revolt against the recent course of President Wilson, whose policies Cox upheld.