Josephus Daniels Josephus Daniels ( May 18 , 1862 – January 15 , 1948 ) was a newspaper editor and publisher from North Carolina who was appointed by United States President Woodrow Wilson to serve as Secretary of the Navy during World War I . He was also a close friend and supporter of President Franklin Roosevelt and served as his Ambassador to Mexico , 1933 - 41 . He was a newspaper editor and publisher from the 1880s to his death ; most famously at the Raleigh " News and Observer . " As Secretary of the Navy , he handled formalities in world War I while his top aide Franklin Delano Roosevelt , handled the major wartime decisions . As ambassador to Mexico , he dealt with the anti - American government and its expropriation of American oil investments . At the state level he was a leading progressive , supporting public schools and public works , and calling for more regulation of trusts and railroads . He supported prohibition and woman suffrage , and used his newspapers to support the regular Democratic Party ticket . He opposed the Ku Klux Klan , but was a longtime champion of white supremacy , arguing that as long as Blacks had political power they would block progressive reforms . Early life and career . The father of Josephus Daniels , a shipbuilder , was killed before the boy was 3 . A native of Washington , North Carolina , Daniels moved with his mother and two siblings to Wilson , North Carolina after the father , whose Union sympathies were notorious , was shot and killed by a local sharpshooter when he attempted to leave with Federal forces evacuating Washington during the Civil War . He was educated at Wilson Collegiate Institute and at Trinity College ( now Duke University ) . He edited and eventually purchased a local newspaper , the " Wilson Advance " . Within a few years , he became part owner of the " Kinston Free Press " and the " Rocky Mount Reporter " . He studied law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was admitted to the bar in 1885 , but did not practice law . After becoming increasingly involved in the North Carolina Democratic Party and taking over the weekly paper " Daily State Chronicle " , he was North Carolina ' s state printer in 1887 - 93 and chief clerk of the Federal Department of the Interior under Grover Cleveland in 1893 - 95 . In 1888 , Daniels married Addie Worth Bagley , the granddaughter of former Governor Jonathan Worth . " News and Observer " . In 1894 , Daniels acquired a controlling interest in the Raleigh " News & Observer " , which led him to leave his federal office . The paper was unabashed in its advocacy for the Democratic Party , which at the time was struggling against a fusion of the Republicans and Populists . Daniels and other Democrats launched a " White Supremacy " campaign to appeal to racist sentiment . That led to Democratic victories in 1898 and 1900 and to the disfranchisement of African Americans . On December 15 , 2005 , the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission noted in its draft report that Daniels ' involvement in the overthrow of the elected city government of Wilmington , NC , by actively promoting white supremacy in " The News and Observer " was so significant that he has been referred to as the " precipitator of the riot . " Daniels later said he regretted his tactics and supported a number of progressive causes , like public education , anti child - labor laws , and banning the consumption of alcohol aboard naval vessels . The News and Observer remained under Daniels ' family control until its sale to The McClatchy Company in 1995 . Secretary of the Navy . Daniels supported Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 presidential election , and after Wilson ' s victory was appointed as Secretary of the Navy . Secretary Daniels held the post from 1913 to 1921 , throughout the Wilson administration , overseeing the Navy during World War I . Future U . S . President Franklin D . Roosevelt served as his Assistant Secretary of the Navy . Secretary Daniels believed in government ownership of armorplate factories , and of telephones and telegraphs . At the end of the First World War he made a serious attempt to have the Navy permanently control all radio transmitters in the United States . If he had succeeded amateur radio would have ended , and it is likely that radio broadcasting would have been substantially delayed . Daniels banned alcohol from United States Navy ships in General Order 99 of 1 June 1914 . This led to the folk etymology that " cup of joe " ( referring to a cup of coffee ) derives from Daniels ' name . However , this appeared to be a myth , rather than truth . In 1917 , Secretary Daniels determined that no prostitution would be permitted within a five - mile radius of naval installations . In New Orleans , this World War I directive caused the shutting down of Storyville and long - lasting consequences for servicemen and others during subsequent decades . During World War I , Daniels created the Naval Consulting Board to encourage inventions that would be helpful to the Navy . Daniels asked Thomas Edison to chair the Board . Daniels was worried that the US was unprepared for the new conditions of warfare and needed new technology . Daniels wrote " The Navy and the Nation " ( 1919 ) , a collection of war addresses he made as Secretary of the Navy . USS " Josephus Daniels " . The Navy named USS " Josephus Daniels " ( DLG / CG - 27 ) for the Secretary . It was in commission from 1965 to 1994 . One of the recruit barracks at the Navy ' s Recruit Training Center in Great Lakes , Illinois is also named for him . Later life . After leaving government service in 1921 , Daniels resumed the editorship of the " Raleigh News and Observer " . Daniels strongly supported Franklin Roosevelt for president in 1932 . Ambassador to Mexico . President Roosevelt appointed his former boss at the Department of the Navy as United States Ambassador to Mexico . The appointment of a friend as Ambassador was an important element of Roosevelt ' s " Good Neighbor Policy ; " however , Daniels ' arrival in Mexico City was marred by a violent demonstration when a group of Mexicans stoned the American Embassy . Although the American naval bombardment in April 1914 of the Mexican Naval Academy at Veracruz was blamed on then Secretary of the Navy Daniels , he had disagreed with the act and only proceeded when ordered to by Wilson . After accepting the appointment as Ambassador to try to heal the rift the invasion had created between the two nations , his speeches and policies while serving as Ambassador to Mexico did greatly improve US - Mexican relations . He praised a proposed Mexican plan for universal popular education and , in a speech to US consular officials , advised them to refrain from interfering too much in the affairs of other nations . Daniels also favored the Loyalist cause in the Spanish Civil War , realizing that a collapse of the Spanish government would have dire affects on Mexico . Anti - Catholicism . American Catholics bitterly attacked Daniels for failing to combat the virulent attacks on the Catholic Church by the Mexican government . Daniels was a staunch Methodist and worked well with Catholics in the U . S . He had little sympathy for Church in Mexico , feeling it represented the landed aristocracy that stood opposed to his version of liberalism . For the same reason he and supported the Loyalist cause in the Spanish Civil War , which was even more intensely anti - Catholic . The main issue was the government ' s efforts to shut down Catholic schools ; Daniels publicly approved the attacks , and had praised virulently anti - Catholic Mexican politicians . In a July 1934 speech at the American Embassy , Daniels praised the anti - Catholic efforts led by former president Calles : However he did warn the Mexicans they should not be so harsh . Return to North Carolina . In 1941 , when his son Jonathan was named a special assistant to FDR , Josephus resigned his post in Mexico to return to North Carolina and resume the editor ' s post at the " News & Observer " and continued his outspoken editorial style . Daniels had married Addie Worth Bagley on May 2 , 1888 , and the Daniels family grew to include four sons : Josephus , Worth Bagley , Jonathan Worth , and Frank A . II . After Addie Daniels died in 1943 , the S . S . " Addie Daniels " was commissioned in her honor in 1944 . Daniels published several recollections of his years in public office . In addition to " The Navy and the Nation , " he wrote " Our Navy at War " ( 1922 ) , " The Life of Woodrow Wilson " ( 1924 ) , and " The Wilson Era " ( 1944 ) . Daniels , along with his son Jonathan , were passengers on Franklin Roosevelt ' s 1945 funeral train onwards from Raleigh , North Carolina until the burial at Roosevelt ' s Hyde Park , New York burial at his home , Springwood , and then back to Washington in the company of new President Harry S . Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt During the course of his life , Daniels operated several newspapers , culminating with the " News & Observer " , which is still in operation . He served in public office with a strong belief in improving conditions for labor and the working class . The story of Daniels ' life closely mirrors that of North Carolina during the same time period . From the catastrophe of Civil War to national prominence , Daniels was a prime example of the strengths and weaknesses that marked the progress of his state . From the continuing presence of the " News & Observer " to the public middle school in Raleigh which bears his name ( Josephus Daniels Middle School ) , the influence of Josephus Daniels continues to be felt . In 1941 , he retired to Raleigh due to his wife ' s poor health . After completing a five - volume autobiography in which he expressed regret over the vicious attacks ( but not the overall righteousness ) of the White Supremacy campaign , he died in Raleigh on January 15 , 1948 at the age of eighty - five . He is buried in Historic Oakwood Cemetery . Daniels divided his shares of the " News and Observer " among all his children , one of whom , Jonathan Worth Daniels , became editor . Eight years after he died , the new Daniels Middle School was named after him . Daniels Hall on North Carolina State University ' s main campus is also named after him . Quotes . - Josephus Daniels , during a speech given at the inauguration of the North Carolina State University radio station ( 16 October 1922 ) In fiction . Josephus Daniels was U . S . Secretary of the Navy under Theodore Roosevelt in Harry Turtledove ' s " Great War " series , an alternate history of World War I in a world where the Confederacy won its independence . The U . S . Navy named a destroyer escort after him " Settling Accounts " , a sequel series set in World War II . The various series in Turtledove ' s cycle are sometimes referred to collectively as TL - 191 or Timeline 191 , a reference to General Lee ' s lost Special Order 191 during the Antietam Campaign .