James M. Cox

James Middleton Cox
47th & 49th Governor of OhioIn office
January 13, 1913 – January 11, 1915
January 8, 1917– January 10, 1921Lieutenant W. A. Greenlund(1913-1915)
Earl D. Bloom(1917-1919)
Clarence J. Brown(1919-1921) Preceded by Judson Harmon(1913)
Frank B. Willis(1917) Succeeded by Frank B. Willis(1915)
Harry L. Davis(1921) Democratic candidate for
President of the United StatesElection date
November 2, 1920Running mate Franklin D. RooseveltOpponent(s) Warren G. Harding(R) Incumbent Woodrow Wilson(D) Preceded by Woodrow WilsonSucceeded by John W. DavisMember of the U.S. House of Representatives
from 's 3rddistrict In office
March 4, 1909 – January 12, 1913Preceded by J. Eugene HardingSucceeded by Warren GardBorn March 31, 1870
Jacksonburg, OhioDied July 15, 1957
Kettering, OhioPolitical party DemocraticChildren 8

James Middleton Cox (March 31, 1870 – July 15, 1957) was a Governor of Ohio, U.S. Representative from Ohio and Democratic candidate for President of the United States in the election of 1920.

Cox was born in the tiny Butler County, Ohio village of Jacksonburg. Cox practiced a variety of trades throughout his life: high school teacher, reporter, owner and editor of several newspapers, and secretary to Congressman Paul J. Sorg.

While a reporter, Cox once went to a town where a massive railroad accident had occurred. Other reporters went directly to the scene of the accident, but Cox instead went to the town's only telegraph office, where he hired the telegraph operator to begin transmitting the Bible to his newspaper, telling the operator he would be back. (Under the law of the day, once a message was begun, it could not be interrupted by others.) Cox then went to the accident site, gathered all the information he needed, and wrote his article. He then returned to the telegraph office, which he found full of frustrated reporters waiting to make use of the telegraph. Cox handed his article to the telegraph operator and thus scooped all of the other reporters.

Cox represented Ohio in the United States House of Representatives (1909-1913), resigning after winning election as Governor of Ohio (1913-1915, and 1917-1921). A capable and well-liked reformer, he was nominated a candidate for the presidency by the Democratic party while serving as Governor. Cox supported the internationalist policies of Woodrow Wilson and favored U.S. entry into the League of Nations.

However, Cox was defeated in the 1920 Presidential Election by a fellow Ohioan, U.S. Senator Warren G. Harding of Marion, Ohio. The public had grown weary of the turmoil of the Wilson years, and eagerly accepted Harding's call for a "return to normalcy." Cox's running mate was future president Franklin D. Roosevelt. One of the better known analyses of the 1920 election is in author Irving Stone's book about defeated Presidential candidates, They Also Ran. Stone rated Cox as superior in every way over Warren Harding, claiming the former would have made a much better President. Stone argued there was never a stronger case in the history of American presidential elections for the proposition that the better man lost.

Cox recorded for The Nation's Forum several times. The campaign speech featured here [1] accuses the Republicans of failing to acknowledge that President Wilson's successful prosecution of the war had, according to Cox, "saved civilization."

Cox was publisher of the Dayton Daily News in Dayton, Ohio, where the newspaper's editorial meeting room is still referred to as the "Governor's Library." The Dayton International Airport is named for Cox as well.

He built a large newspaper enterprise, Cox Enterprises, including the December 1939 purchase of the Atlanta Georgian and Journal just a week before that city hosted the premiere of Gone with the Wind.[1] This deal included radio station WSB, which joined his previous holdings, WHIO in Dayton and WIOD in Miami, to give him "'air' from the Great Lakes on the north to Latin America on the south."[2]

Governor Cox died at his home, Trail's End, in Kettering, Ohio in 1957, and was interred in the Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio.

Cox had six children, one of whom, Anne Cox Chambers, is still a major shareholder in the company; she owned 98% of the company with her sister Barbara Cox Anthony until the latter's death in 2007. The company's headquarters is in Atlanta.

Gov. Cox was a member of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ.