Cox—The Man

by Roger Ward Babson

A Crusader

Cox always had the Crusader’s spirit. He says, however, that he deserves no credit for it, but crusaded because he enjoyed the struggle. Apart from his quarrel with the National Cash Register people, he had a conflict with the Appleyard Traction Syndicate, which owned the Dayton, Springfield & Urbana Street Railway Company, and which later built the Central Market Street Railway in Columbus. Being myself then interested in selling the bonds of these companies, I personally came into contact at that time with the “crusading” of the Cox newspapers. The properties had been financed with Boston money, and we naturally did not like the attitude which Cox then took, through his papers, against us. Although I felt keenly at the time and still feel that Cox overstated the case in his fight, I am now convinced that we were wrong. At any rate, he succeeded, while Mr. Appleyard has now passed on and the traction business is about gone.

The people of Ohio say that it was Mr. John Q. Baker who made Mr. Cox the true and courageous man that he is. I once spent a day with Mr. Baker. We visited together Mr. Cox’s old home at Jacksonburg, and then motored to his beautiful residence at the outskirts of Dayton. If I am any judge of men, Mr. Baker is one of the finest God ever made. Although he has only one child—who is married to Professor Howard, of the Psychology Department of Northwestern University, Chicago—he is very fond of boys.

He is a great believer in honesty, work, and promptness. He says that he always urged “Jimmie” to avoid the loafers. “Don’t hang around the loafers,” he would say, “they never do anyone any good. Aim high—always have an aim. He who has no aim in life never amounts to anything.”

So James M. Cox had an aim. Mr. Baker gave him biography to read. The man became infatuated with Jackson, Lincoln, and Jefferson. He determined to be like them. Hence, when Mr. Sorg offered him the choice of entering the newspaper or the tobacco business, James Cox took the former—according to his original purpose—at a much smaller income.