James Cox selected as Democratic presidential candidate
San Francisco, 7 July 1920 - At the Democratic Convention in San Francisco yesterday, Governor James Cox, was selected as the party's candidate to run for the forthcoming U.S. presidential election. The convention selected Franklin D. Roosevelt as his running-mate for the office of Vice-President.
Cox, who was born in Jacksonbury, Ohio, worked in newspapers and served in Congress before becoming Governor of Ohio. He is best known for legislation around workmen’s compensation and child labour, which has been extensively copied in other American states. Last year, he was a figure of prominence during the steel strike, maintaining the right to free speech and free assembly in Ohio.
Cox defeated William G. McAdoo, President Wilson’s son-in-law, to the Democratic nomination.
Ireland and America
While the Democratic Convention expressed sympathy with the
aspirations of the Irish people to self-govern, it was less
forthright in its commitment to do anything to support it,
pledging only such action as would be allowed under the terms of
the League of Nations.
Regardless of who was selected, it is unlikely that the attitude towards the Irish question would have been any different, based on the evidence of Irish representatives who met with all the nominees. ‘All we got’, Frank P. Walsh, leader of this Irish contingent, declared, ‘is sympathy.’
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
