As with all powerful leaders, no sketch would be complete if it did not allude to a certain imperiousness that is in the man.  This quality has made foes but that was inevitable.  One who has risen by his own efforts has had the pushing impulse, of course.

It tells something of the Cox character that he has become a forceful speaker only in the last ten years.  When he first entered public life in 1908 his style in speaking lacked force and his manner was hesitating and uncertain.  A course of self-discipline and training led to constant improvement, and while there has never been a pretense of oratorical flight, issues and questions are discussed plainly and effectively.  There is a penchant for reducing statements to simple and understandable terms and for stating his conviction with a measure of aggressiveness that carries conviction.

As a candidate he has always believed that the people are entitled to the fullest information possible and to see and hear those who seek their suffrage.

Like Roosevelt, the more strenuous sports and recreations attract him far more that does the swinging of the golf stick.  He is an expert marksman and has astonished military men on the rifle range by what he can do with a gun.  His ancestors were squirrel-hunters, and his sure eye was an inheritance from them.  The Governor likes to rough it in the Northern Canadian woods, spending at leisure a couple of weeks with only his son, James M. Jr., now a boy of 18, for his companion.  He prides himself upon his ability to cook a fish after it is caught, and to plunge in the lake as an evidence of his swimming ability.  When in Columbus his form of exercise is walking, and younger men of sedentary pursuits find that he can tire them.

Quitting school at an early age, Cox’s education has been acquired through much private study.  He knows no language except English.  His range of reading covers a wide variety of topics, the favorite of which are the political sciences, and outdoor life.  He does not lay claim to literary excellence or perfection of style, and is a man of serious bent of mind, speaking only when he thinks he has a message to carry.

The name under which he has been known to the country, James Middleton Cox, seems to be an error which only lately his friends have corrected.  In the old family Bible the name of James Monroe Cox appears, indicative of a family admiration.  The name which appears signed to all official documents is James M. Cox.  The Middleton seems to have had its origin in a bit of journalistic levity, probably having reference to Middletown, Ohio, the city in which he got his early training as a newspaper reporter.

The Governor’s family consists of his wife, a little daughter, Anne, who is slightly less than a year old, a married daughter, Mrs. Daniel J. Mahoney of Dayton, and two sons, James M. Jr., and John, age ten.

While the Governor’s devotion to the equal suffrage cause has been of many years’ standing, the interests of Mrs. Cox are of a domestic nature.  The time not devoted to her baby daughter is spent in the outdoors, he hobby being her garden.