The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1920-10-22
THE RECORD OF A GREAT GOV
ERNOR

Next to the presidency the governor
ship of a great state is the severest
test of executive capacity that can
come to an American citizen in time
of peace.
A governor, indeed has to meet
scores Of problems identical in charac-
ter with those that confront presi-
dent; and if they are less in size, so
are his resources. The man who can
make good in q governorship, not only
in choosing the right measures and
getting them passed, but in admins
tering them after they are on the
statute books, has gone quite a dis
tance toward showing his presidential
capacity.
Now, it is one of the pacularities of
this campaign that while Harding's
record in the Senate excites bitter and
contemptuous criticism from his oppo-
nents and apologize generahties from
his supporters, Cox's record as gov
ernor of Ohio never has been attacked,
and nobody dreams of apologizing for
it. Cox has made good so emphatical-
ly that his state has reelected him
twice, and that his enemies must
needs keep silence as to what he has
done, and spin long yarns about what
they pretend he is going to do.
Nor is Cox's record the result of
luck. On the contrary, he has been
tried as few state executives ever were
tried In his first term Ohio was de.
vastated by the worst flood in it's his
tory In his second term came the
world war and in his third he had to
deal with the problems of reconstruc-
ton and with the great coal and steel
strikes.
If the war had not come to dwarf
everything else people in Ohio for a
generation would date events from the
great floods of 1913. Scores of cities
and towns were under water, bridges
were swept away, railway traffic
paralyzed. Cox was then new to the
governorship; nobody dreamed of him
as presidential candidate; but here
is the way the New York World of
those days described his work:
The man who has dominated the sit
uatiOn in Ohio is Gov. Cox. He has
been not only chief magistrate and
commander-in-chief, but the head of
the life-Saving service, the greatest |
provider of food and clothing the state |
has ever known, the principal health |
officer, the sanest counsellor. the |
kiDdest philanthropist and the best
reporter. He has performed almost in
credible labors in all these fields. and
ris illumireting dispatches to the
world at the close of the heartbrealx.
ing days have given a cleaner vision
OF conditions than could be had fror,
any other source. Reared on fran
educated IN the public schools. a print.
er Dy trade, a successful publisher and
eoltor OF newspapers, great governor
anu reporter who gets his story into
the Iirst edition, James M. Cox excites
ana IS herewith offered assurance of
the worlds most distinguished con-
sideration. ~
his record in the war was up to the
promise OF his record in the flood.
Theodore Roosevelt declared Cox one
OF the great war governors and the
praise was richly earned. He saw at
once that only mechanical power could
make up to the farmers for the loss
of man power, and was directly instru-
mental in doubling the number of farm
tractors used in Ohio. He dug up 4
forgotten law which enabled him to
issue a work or fight rule. Under
his leadership Ohio was always ready