The Progressive Democracy of James M. Cox | Page 3

And so he says now: "I favor going in."

CHAPTER II
COX THE MAN
Men of great versatility are most difficult to picture comprehensively.
Perhaps this is the reason that no pen-portrait of Theodore Roosevelt
ever seemed quite complete. There was in every single sketch
something that seemed to be left unsaid, a point made by one was
certain to be omitted by another. Cox is a man after the Roosevelt type.
They were fast friends and they had many ideas in common. They often
exchanged views upon progressive issues and found themselves largely
in accord. Neither was static in mental processes and their dynamics
were often of the same sort.
But while Governor Cox's intimates compare him often with Roosevelt,
they prefer to liken him to Andrew Jackson. For Cox is the true
Twentieth Century Jacksonian, they say. Like Andrew Jackson,
Governor Cox can improvise the organization of a political campaign
better than any man of his time, save Colonel Roosevelt, and the
masterful Colonel won only when he had great resources at his
command. Cox seems to have reached back into history and grasped
the idea of the manner in which Jackson's men worked with resources
so small that they had to pass newspapers of their faith from hand to
hand.
Largely, it seems, because no war came along when he was free of
family responsibilities Governor Cox has no martial record. He might
have been a soldier of the Roosevelt type had he lived in other
circumstances but his youth was spent in the drudgery of toil and there
was no chance for education in a military academy.
Still they call him "fighting Jimmy," and those who have been through
a campaign with him know what they mean. As a boy there was never
need to drive him forward to personal combat and in the man the
juvenile tendency continued until he was well past the forty-five-year
mark of middle age.
If one were to inventory his external features there would appear a

compact, muscular individual of about five feet six inches in height and
of one hundred and seventy pounds in weight, every ounce keyed up to
the efficiency of successful performance. motions indicate a man of
quick decision, a tendency to suddenness that many older than he have
sought to check in his earlier years. It is a proverb among those who
know him best that when Governor Cox makes an instant decision he
may be mistaken but that when he thinks it over for a single night he is
never wrong. As the years in a varied experience have passed this
disposition to think everything over has grown and grown until snap
judgments no longer are taken. This may be the reason why men say
that he has improved as an executive from year to year and why his
later acts and deeds have the rounded out and complete aspect that is
lacking in the earlier. The nature of Cox himself is for "action," even
when it seems to take the form of experiment. In simple justice it must
be said that he has never been an adventurer, but he is willing to tackle
problems before other would seize hold of them. His first
administration, he thinks, was his best, for much more was done, but
his last is his best, Ohio judgment has decided, because it repressed
tendencies to go the wrong way, taking perhaps the Gladstone view that
a statesman deserves more credit for defeating unwise legislation than
for securing the enactment of good. As Governor, Cox has been willing
to risk defeat for principle.
A trait of character is told in the story of school and taxation legislation.
He was warned that progressive steps would encompass his defeat. If a
composite answer could be formed to all the suggestions of this sort, it
would be something like this: "There is need for improving our schools.
Time will vindicate it."
Something else of character may be learned from the manner in which
Governor Cox redeems pledges. When he was sorely beset by his
political foes in 1914, it was represented to him that the liquor interests
might be made to do service if licenses were withheld until after the
election. And the answer given was something like this: "The pledge
was given that the license system shall not be prostituted to
partisanship. That pledge will be redeemed."

The forebodings of the worldly wise were not disappointed. The liquor
interests contributed heavily to the opposition candidate and supported
him so well that he won the election.
Cox hates war even if he made a remarkable record as war Governor.
But he likes the smoke and fury of political contest, and he thrives on
campaigns. He has a fashion of leading his party organization and
making it