Integrity is a cardinal trait with Mr. Cox. He believes that a promise should be kept. He believes that works speak louder than words and ultimately all of us will be judged according to what we do rather than according to what we say. In talking with some of the labor leaders of Ohio and asking them what Governor Cox had really done for labor, I was given the following:
A child labor law that has been copied by other States.
A prison reform to provide healthy occupation for convicts, the compensation for which is given to their dependents.
Consolidation of useless bureaus, resulting in a substantial saving to the State.
One should be loath in criticizing the intentions of the Wilson administration. Careful study will convince any man that these intentions were of the best. Certain inconsistencies, however, were very apparent. These inconsistencies apply not alone to international matters but also to domestic affairs. The Wilson administration's attitude toward labor was most perplexing even to its friends. James M. Cox takes a sane middle of the road position believing that the great function of the government is to protect men in their freedom of effort and rights of ownership while depending upon religion to energize men along lines of honesty, responsibility and service. Mr. Cox stands for production and those vital principles of independence and freedom which were so dear to the founders of our Republic and which farsighted employers regret greatly to see interfered with. On the other hand, Mr. Cox is opposed to the raids and restrictions imposed by Palmer.
During the steel strike he insisted that the rights of speech be maintained in the steel towns of his state. Mr. Palmer believed in the use of violence--when it is the violence of the federal agent. Mr. Cox surely did not. He did not even believe in the necessity of calling out militia to break the morale of a strike. He believes that men can be won better by reason than by bayonets. Governor Cox does not believe injunctions will mine coal. He believes that the government should observe law and order as well as the citizens. Let me quote him on this subject:
"There is some hysteria over the active elements in this country that are menacing to the government. There is no danger in the situation, altho it might easily be aggravated if the governmental policy of restraint and common sense that has endured thru the year were to become one of force and terrorism.... If government is assailed, its policy must not become vengeful. Our fathers, in specifying what human freedom was, and providing guarantees for its preservation, recognized that among the necessary precautions was the protection of individual rights against governmental abuse.