During the summers and on Saturdays he did newspaper work of various kinds. The printing press and its product always had a great fascination for him. I am told he had from the first the natural instincts of a successful reporter and was exceedingly good at writing headlines. I asked him why he leaned so to the newspaper business, and he replied:
“My mother taught me that I should lead others,—that I should be a worker and a leader, rather than a loafer and a follower. Hence I went into school teaching, although doubtless I was glad to get a job of any kind. One day, however, I was impressed with the opportunity of becoming a much bigger teacher by reaching a great many more people thru a newspaper. It was with this idea that I went into newspaper work when the opportunity came and gave up the classroom.”
He was now twenty-one years old. He had reached the time when he must decide upon his life work. Mr. Baker tells me that he told the boy he should either be a school teacher or a newspaper man and not try to be both. Mr. Baker was apparently very strict with him and insisted that he should keep regular hours and apply himself closely to work. The boy loved to read and argue, which had a tendency to interfere with his daily tasks. He spent his Sundays either at church or amidst his books. He read the classics through and through. He loved biography and history. His friends tell me that he would read not only the best; but he would urge them to do likewise.
While James was teaching school, Baker had purchased the Middletown News-Signal. As already stated, the young man worked upon this at odd times. Now, however, he gave it all his time and served as reporter, make-up man and pressman or typesetter, as necessity called. In addition to working for the Middletown News-Signal, Cox was also a country correspondent for the Cincinnati Enquirer, the leading paper of that section.
Goes to Cincinnati
One day a railroad wreck occurred[1] at Heno, Ohio, a village near Middletown, and several employees of the National Cash Register Company of Dayton, Ohio, who were on a picnic, were killed. Altho the various Cincinnati papers had several correspondents along the line of the railroad, Cox was apparently the only reporter who got his story in on time. His energy and versatility apparently so appealed to the managing editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer that they offered him a position on the Enquirer. Mr. Baker of the News-Signal advised him to accept it. In speaking about the Cox of those days, one of his associates says:
[1] The wreck was on what was then the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad. The line is now owned by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company.
“Cox’s success was due to his ability to understand and talk the language of the average man. He seemed to have the ability to keep in touch with the aspirations and thoughts of his fellow citizens.”
Jim Falkner, the veteran political editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, says that Cox’s stories were notable for their simplicity. They not only told the facts, but they were told in a way which the average man understood, believing he was getting a square deal. According to the records, Cox started with the Cincinnati Enquirer at $20.00 a week. That was in 1892. He worked for the Enquirer diligently for two years.
From all accounts, Cox’s work on the Enquirer was satisfactory, although nothing extraordinary. Altho now in the twenties, he had risen quite rapidly in newspaper work. From the News-Signal, at $6.00 a week and board, to the regular staff of the Cincinnati Enquirer was a fair jump. He apparently enjoyed the work, and the editors apparently liked him. It is said that he might be there today had it not been for a certain incident. Various accounts are told regarding this event, but the most authentic account is as follows: