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.”