He was first elected to the Sixty First Congress. He was re-elected in 1910 by a majority of 12,809 votes. Under great difficulties he made himself felt. This was at the time when all important legislation was put thru by the caucus system and a lone Congressman had very little opportunity to express himself. In his first campaign, he was opposed by Frizelle and Eugene Harding; and in his second campaign by Judge Dustin. The Congressional Directory of those days shows that Mr. Cox served on the District of Columbia Committee during his first term and on the Appropriations Committee during the second term. He attracted attention by his fight against the Payne-Aldrich Bill--which was afterwards rejected by the people--and for his efforts to have the Federal Government inaugurate a Children's Bureau. He was one of the first to urge Congress to appropriate money for aeroplanes and to investigate the conduct of the National Military Homes.
While the career of Cox in Congress deserves commendation, the merit of his work in that body is now being over-emphasized by various Democratic speakers. The fact is that Cox was not in Congress long enough to become in any sense an outstanding figure.
One of the most important events of Mr. Cox's life came with his determination to run for Governor of Ohio. He was not satisfied with the opportunity of service which Congress offered. He felt that the Governorship did present a real opportunity especially in connection with the new Ohio constitution in which he was greatly interested. Hence in 1912 he entered the campaign for Governor.
Cox has carried his state three times. No other Democratic Governor has ever done that in Ohio. On the last occasion, in 1918, like many other Democratic candidates, he made his race against great odds. Ohio went Republican. Two-thirds of the Congressional districts went Republican. The entire state ticket, from Lieutenant-Governor down, went Republican. Mr. Cox was the single Democrat elected to state office. Cox ran 75,000 votes ahead of the Congressional ticket.
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.