In his 1919 message to the General Assembly, a Republican body, the Governor urged submission to the people of an amendment to the constitution providing that the Legislature shall have the right to diminish any item in the executive budget by majority vote or to strike out any item:  that, however, it shall not be privileged to increase any item or to add a new one unless it makes legislative provision for sufficient revenue to meet the added cost.  Such an amendment was not submitted.  Unless it is done by an early legislature, adherents of Cox in Ohio say it may be undertaken by initiative petition.

Good Roads

Another notable achievement of Governor Cox is the advance of the Ohio highway system.  Roads were in deplorable shape when he became Governor.  There was no hope for rural counties with small tax duplicates, the ones in greatest need of good roads never being able to lift themselves out of the mud except through liberal state aid.

One of the Governor’s first acts was a survey of road conditions.  A complete network of 10,000 miles of inter-county roads was mapped out.  It connected the eighty-eight county seats.  Of the 10,000 miles of inter-county highways, 3000 miles, connecting the larger cities, were designated as main market roads.  The scheme of financing called for improvement of the main market roads entirely at state expense, which the remainder of the system was to be built on a fifty-fifty basis, the state furnishing half the funds, and the county in which the road lies, the other half.

All road improvement under the Cox administration has been given such an impetus that the State, county and township programmes to-day call for an expenditure of $30,000,000 annually, including federal aid.  Popular demand for highway improvement is greater than the State Highway department and county commissioners are able to meet.

Revitalizing the Schools

As a pupil in a one-room country school and as a teacher, he had first knowledge of the shortcomings and possibilities of the Ohio educational system.  It was his firm conviction that the country boy and girl should be given the same educational advantages that accrued to those of the city.

The purpose of the Governor’s school programme was to give Ohio a co-ordinates system of State, county and district supervision, to require normal or college training of all teachers, and, above all, to pave the way for speedier centralization and consolidation of the one-room district school.  Results have been beyond the expectations of school men, every breath and opposition to the system has blown away, and it may truthfully be said that it has become an idol of the people of the state.  The re-organization has stimulated interest in education in all respects and has made possible a more recent establishment of