The Last Ballot
The result was forecast with the first vote. Alabama swung solid for Cox. State by state delegations that had stuck out for McAdoo, with divided delegations, followed suit. The slide had set in and there was no stopping it. The convention had its mind set to nominate on that ballot. Up and up mounted the Ohioan’s total of votes. As it passed the 700 mark with the necessary two-thirds just ahead, the tumult increased minute by minute until the last votes were heard only vaguely on the platform. Pennsylvania went over and the Colorado chairman leaped to his chair to change the vote of his state to Cox. Half a dozen other chairmen were waving for recognition to make similar announcements.
Chairman Robinson hurried to his desk with Sam B. Amidon of Kansas, a McAdoo chief whom he presented only after a furious assault with the gavel forced a partial lull in the cheering. Thru a continuous racket Amidon moved that the rules be suspended and the nomination be made unanimous. All over the great hall men climbed upon chairs to wave their hands for silence and then stand poised like college yell leaders to signal the answer to the question.
Banging his gavel in a final thump, Chairman Robinson put the question, and the answer roared back at him with all the volume of a thousand voices in shouting the tremendous “Aye!” that made Governor Cox the Democratic nominee.
The 44th ballot never was completed. In the chorus of affirmation it was swept away as unnecessary. Many of the changes which would have been made had the vote been carried thru were never recorded. And on the fact of that ballot Governor Cox received officially 702-1/2 votes, but these were never totalled, for he was nominated by the unanimous voice of the convention.
All those in America who knew James M. Cox were delighted at this news. They had always loved and respected him; they had always marveled at his courage and honesty; and now to have him receive this honor gave us all a new heart. It gives confidence in the fundamental integrity and good sense of the American people.
CHAPTER X
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
James M. Cox is a man of principles; one who has decided opinions with the courage and energy to fight for them. Altho interested in the wage workers he has stood for the freedom of the individual; altho interested in other reforms he has insisted that they be brought about in accordance with law and order.
He is especially democratic in the old-fashioned sense, and is also a crusader as his following assailment of the Republican leaders in the Senate signifies.
“In the midst of war the present Senatorial cabal, led by Senators Lodge, Penrose and Smoot, was formed. Superficial evidence of loyalty to President Wilson was given in order that the great rank and file of their party, faithful and patriotic to the very core, might not be offended. But underneath this misleading exterior, conspirators planned and plotted with bigoted zeal. With victory to our arms they delayed and obstructed the works of peace. If deemed useful to the work in hand no artifice for interfering with our constitutional peacemaking authority was rejected.
“Before the country knew, yea, before these men themselves knew the details of the composite plan formed at the peace table, they declared their opposition to it. Before the treaty was submitted to the Senate, in the manner the Constitution provides, they violated every custom and every consideration of decency by presenting a copy of the document, procured unblushingly from enemy hands, and passed it into the printed record of Senatorial proceedings. From that hour the whole subject was thrown into a technical discussion, in order that the public might be confused. The plan has never changed in its objective, but the method has.
“At the outset there was the careful insistence that there was no desire to interfere with the principle evolved and formalized at Versailles. Later, it was the form and not the substance that professedly inspired attack. But pretense was futile when proposals later came forth that clearly emasculated the basic principle of the whole peace plan. Senator Lodge finally crystallized his ideas into what were known as the Lodge reservations, and when Congress adjourned these reservations held the support of the so-called regular Republican leaders. From that time the processes have been interesting. Political expediency in its truest sense dwarfed every consideration either of the public interest or of the maintenance of the honor of a great political party. The exclusive question was how to avoid a rupture in the Republican organization.”