Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-01-01
Former Presidential! Candi-
date Again Mentioned as
a Possibility Has Had
Life Filled With Varying
Interests
BY ERNEST l.. LYNN

DAYTON, Ohio Dec. 29.-James
M. Cox, three times governor of
Ohio and Democratic standard-bear-
er in 1920, is a man with a variety
of interests, chief Of which are at
tending to his four newspapers,
keeping in touch with international
questions and farming.
He is equally at home In the po-
1iticai forum, debating editorials to
his stenographer or raising hogs on
his model farm at his birthplace,
Jacksonburg, Ohio.
First Of all, by instinct and by
training, Cox is a thoroughgolng
newspaper man. Talk with him In
his office at the Dayton Daily News.
You see man of medium height,
with keen, almost penetrating eyes
behind shiny glasses. He is almost
never without his pipe; there is an
aIertness, a perception. in his face,
and he looks considerably less than
his 90 years.
He is Real Boss
Cox is boss oc his papers. But
he hasn't forgotten the mechanics
Of his trade. Not long ago he bought
a. new Service" He wanted 1t
handled certain way, so he walked
out into the editorial, room, peeled
off his coat and sat down at the big
desk and "read copy" on it. He
knew what he wanted and he showed
his men how to do it.
The governor" as he is called,
has fondness amounting almost to
a passion for horses and dogs. Five
miles out of Dayton is his beautiful
home, '"Trailsend," so called because
it marks the end of an old Indian
trail skirting the Miami valley.
There he has 100 acres, and there he
lives with his family, raises bird
dogs and hounds and goes on fire,
quent horseback rides along the SO
miles of bride paths surrounding
Trailsend.
Six days of the year he spends
riding a mule and shooting quail
down near Tuskegee, Ala. He plays
golf a little and goes north in the
summer on fishing trips. Every
winter now he plans to spend a
couple of months in Florida. and,
because he has an exceeding distaste
for i6leness, he bought a paper down
there last April 10 enable him to keep
his hand in. His purchase was the
Miami Metropolis. He renamed it
the News Metropolis.
1t is perfectly apparent that Cox S
life is filled with tasks that are con-
genial. Behind him is a long and
excellent record Of public office, but
he is not restless or yearning when
out Of it. AS he remarked to me,
"a man formerly in public life who
returns to newspaper work doesn't
get homeSick.'' And it is easy to
! believe he is in earnest when he
says it.
Tough Shedding in Youth
rs early years were years OF
| struggle, a constant fight to get an
| education and amount to some
| thing" He was born March 81,
| 1870, on a farm near the little In
| dian village ofJacksonburg, IS miles
| north of Cincinnati. His parents
were Gilbert and Eliza Andrew Cox.
| The father descended from an old
| English family ard the mother from
family ofsAmerican ship captains.
| General James Cox, an early for
bear, was a contemporary of Thorn.
as Jefferson and served in congress
at that time. The general was
| grandfather OF the famous Samuel
| Sullivan Sunset Cox, who served in
Sullivan (SunseO Cox, who served in
| later New York.
AS a young boy. he left the farm
and attended the village academy
at Amanda. near Middletown, anC
before reaching II he was teaching
| country school. He made enough
to keep him in school by selling pa
pers. While he was teaching he
started reporting on the Middle
town Signal.
Four or five years teaching schoo
and serving as principal of night
school and he engaged entirely il
newspaper work. going from the
Signal to the Cincinnati Enquirer
There he did notwithstanding
desk work and editorial writing.
Governor Three Times
In 1894 Paul Sorg. of Middletown
| went to congress and took Cox along
! as secretary. Cox stayed with him
until August Is. 1928, when he
bought the Dayton Daily News. Ir
1904 he bought : three papers II