James Middleton Cox (March 31, 1870 July 15, 1957) was an American businessman and politician who served as the 46th and 48th governor of Ohio, and a two-term U.S. Representative from Ohio. As the Democratic nominee for President of the United States at the 1920 presidential election, he lost in a landslide to fellow Ohioan Warren G. Harding. Cox's running mate was future president Franklin D. Roosevelt. He founded the chain of newspapers that continues today as Cox Enterprises, a media conglomerate.
Born and raised in Ohio, Cox began his career as a newspaper copy reader before becoming an assistant to Congressman Paul J. Sorg. As owner of the Dayton Daily News, Cox introduced several innovations and crusaded against the local Republican Party boss. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1909 to 1913 before being elected as Governor of Ohio. As governor, Cox introduced a series of progressive reforms and supported Woodrow Wilson's handling of World War I and its aftermath.
Cox was chosen as the Democratic nominee for president on the 44th ballot of the 1920 Democratic National Convention. Running on a ticket with future President Franklin D. Roosevelt as his vice presidential running mate, Cox suffered the worst popular vote defeat (a 26.17% margin) since the unopposed re-election of James Monroe in 1820.
Cox retired from public office after the 1920 presidential election to focus on his media conglomerate, which expanded into several cities. By 1939, his media empire extended from Dayton to Miami. Cox remained active in politics, supporting Roosevelt's campaigns and attending the 1933 London Economic Conference.
Early life and career
Cox was born on a farm near the tiny Butler County, Ohio, in the village of Jacksonburg. He was the youngest son of Gilbert Cox and Eliza (née Andrew); Cox had six siblings. He was named James Monroe Cox at birth; he was later known as James Middleton Cox, possibly because he spent part of his early years in Middletown, Ohio. Up to 16, he went to a one-room school. In 1905, foretelling his future media conglomerate, Cox acquired the Springfield Press-Republic published in Springfield, Ohio, and renamed it the Springfield Daily News.
Congress
In 1908, Cox ran for Congress as a Democrat and was elected. He represented Ohio in the United States House of Representatives for two terms from 1909 to 1913, and resigned after winning election as Governor of Ohio. such as laying the foundation of Ohio's unified highway system, creating a no-fault workers' compensation system, and restricting child labor. Cox introduced direct primaries and municipal home rule, started educational and prison reforms, and streamlined the budget and tax processes.
During World War I, Cox encouraged voluntary cooperation between business, labor, and government bodies. In 1918, he welcomed constitutional amendments for Prohibition and women's suffrage.
In 1919, shortly after the Great War ended, Governor Cox backed the Ake Law, introduced by H. Ross Ake, which banned the German language from being taught until the eighth grade, even in private schools. Cox claimed that teaching German was "a distinct menace to Americanism, and part of a plot formed by the German government to make the school children loyal to it." Legislation restricting the teaching of foreign languages was declared unconstitutional in Meyer v. Nebraska.
Bid for presidency
thumb|left|Cox/Roosevelt electoral poster
thumb|left|Roosevelt (left) and Cox (right) at a campaign appearance in Washington, D.C., 1920
A capable and well-liked progressive reformer, Cox was nominated for the presidency by the Democratic Party at the 1920 Democratic convention in San Francisco defeating A. Mitchell Palmer and William Gibbs McAdoo on the 44th ballot.
Cox conducted an activist campaign visiting 36 states and delivering 394 speeches mainly focusing on domestic issues, to the displeasure of the Wilsonians, who pictured the election "as a referendum on the League of Nations." Among them was the campaign speech now preserved at the Library of Congress that accused the Republicans of failing to acknowledge that Wilson's successful prosecution of the Great War had, according to Cox, "saved civilization."
Later years and death
After stepping down from public service, Cox concentrated on building a large media conglomerate, Cox Enterprises. In 1923, he acquired the Miami Daily News and the Canton Daily News. In December 1939, Cox purchased the Atlanta Georgian and Journal, just a week before that city hosted the premiere of Gone with the Wind. This deal included radio station WSB, which joined his previous holdings, WHIO in Dayton and WIOD in Miami, to give Cox, "'air' from the Great Lakes on the north to Latin America on the south.") supported and campaigned for the presidential candidacies of his former running mate Franklin D. Roosevelt, unlike the other losing Democratic presidential candidates of the time John W. Davis and Al Smith. In 1933, Cox was appointed by Roosevelt to the U.S. delegation to the failed London Economic Conference.
When he was 76, Cox published his memoir, Journey through My Years (1946).
In 1915, Cox built a home near those of industrialists Charles Kettering and Edward Deeds in what later became Kettering, Ohio, where he lived for four decades. It was constructed in the classical French-Renaissance style with six bedrooms, six bathrooms, two tennis courts, a billiards room, and an in-ground swimming pool. Cox named the home Trailsend.
Death
Cox died at Trailsend on July 15, 1957, after a series of strokes. He is interred in the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum, Dayton, Ohio.
thumb|The gravesite of Governor James M. Cox
Election history
President of the United States, 1920
Source (Popular Vote):
Source (Electoral Vote):
Governor of Ohio
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year !! Democratic !! Republican !! Others
|-
| 1918 || James M. Cox : 486,403|| Frank B. Willis : 474,459 ||
|-
| 1916 || James M. Cox : 568,218 || Frank B. Willis : 561,602 || Tom Clifford : 36,908<br>John H. Dickason : 7,347
|-
| 1914 || James M. Cox : 493,804 || Frank B. Willis : 523,074 || James R. Garfield (Progressive) : 60,904<br>Scott Wilkins (Socialist) : 51,441
|-
| 1912
1908
- James M. Cox (D), 32,534 votes
- William G. Frizell (R), 12,593
- J. Eugene Harding (Independent), 19,306
- Howard H. Caldwell (Socialist), 2,943
- Henry A. Thompson (Prohibition), 267
Family
Cox was married twice. His first marriage to Mayme Simpson Harding lasted from 1893 to 1912, and ended in divorce. He married Margaretta Parker Blair in 1917 and she survived him. Cox had six children, three by Mayme Harding, sons James McMahon and John William and a daughter Helen Harding, a son who died in infancy, and two daughters by Margaretta Blair: Anne Cox Chambers and Barbara Cox Anthony. His daughter Helen died in 1921 and her husband Daniel Joseph Mahoney was president of Cox Newspapers. His descendants through Chambers and Anthony, including billionaires Blair Parry-Okeden, James C. Kennedy, James Cox Chambers, Katharine Rayner and Margaretta Taylor, are major shareholders in Cox Enterprises.
Legacy
Cox practiced a variety of trades throughout his life, being a farmer, reporter, Congressional staff member, newspaper publisher and editor, politician, elected official and finally, a regional media magnate.
In Ohio, Cox is remembered as a crusading publisher of the Dayton Daily News and progressive governor; the newspaper's editorial meeting room is still referred to as the Governor's Library. The James M. Cox Dayton International Airport, more commonly referenced simply as Dayton International Airport, was named for Cox as well.
Cox is credited with the words, "If there is anything in the theory of reincarnation of the soul then in my next assignment, if I be given the right of choice, I will ask for the aroma of printers ink."