E. Eugene Cox | |
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| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromGeorgia's2nd district | |
| In office March 4, 1925 – December 24, 1952 | |
| Preceded by | Frank Park |
| Succeeded by | J. L. Pilcher |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Edward Eugene Cox (1880-04-03)April 3, 1880 nearCamilla, Georgia |
| Died | December 24, 1952(1952-12-24) (aged 72) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Children | Edward Eugene Cox II |
| Alma mater | Mercer University |
| Occupation | lawyer |
Edward Eugene "Eugene" or "Goober" Cox (April 3, 1880 – December 24, 1952) served as aU.S. representative fromGeorgia for nearly 28 years. A conservativeDemocrat who supportedracial segregation[1] and opposed PresidentFranklin Roosevelt's "New Deal,"[2] Cox became the most senior Democrat on theHouse Committee on Rules.
Two special investigative committees that he chaired were heavily criticized as result-oriented persecutions of those disliked by Cox. A failed attempt to create another such committee would turn out to have far-reaching consequences. In 1941, with American entry intoWorld War II seeming inevitable, Cox proposed an investigative committee, similar to the Civil War-eraJoint Committee on the Conduct of the War, to deal with matters of national defense. When Roosevelt learned of Cox's intentions, he pre-empted them by agreeing to asimilar proposal from Missouri SenatorHarry Truman. The Truman Committee would come to be seen as a significant asset to the war effort, and its chairman, then a little-knownbackbencher, would become Roosevelt's Vice President and, after his death in 1945, US President.
Born nearCamilla, Georgia, Cox attended Camilla High School andMercer University inMacon, Georgia, before graduating from the law department of that university in 1902. The same year, he wasadmitted to the bar and commenced practice in Camilla. In 1904, he was elected mayor of Camilla and held the position for two years.
He served as a delegate to theDemocratic National Convention in 1908.
Cox was appointed and then elected judge of the superior court of theAlbany circuit and served from 1912 until 1916, when he resigned and unsuccessfully challenged the incumbent,Frank Park, for the Democratic nomination to representGeorgia's 2nd congressional district in the65th Congress. It finally took until 1924 for Cox to win the Democratic nomination from Park and to be elected to the69th Congress. Once in office, Cox was re-elected 13 times; in all, he served from March 4, 1925, until his death in 1952. Cox died of a heart attack on December 24, 1952, between his victory in the 1952 general election and the start of the83rd Congress.
Although Cox was a frequent critic of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, their coattails often provided Democratic majorities in the House that allowed Cox to chair powerful committees, particularly in his later years. He was part of a series of conservative Democrats and Republicans who held the chairmanship of the U.S. House Committee on Rules from 1935 to 1961, which then prevented the passage of civil rights legislation.[3] In 1950, Cox made an unsuccessful attempt to forge a coalition ofDixiecrat Democrats and leaders of the House's Republican minority in support of a bill that would "restore to the House Rules Committee its old power to bury any bill safely in a deep committee pigeonhole."[4]
In 1943, Cox sponsored and chaired a select committee whose mission was to investigate theFederal Communications Commission (FCC).[5] Cox clashed strongly with FCC ChairmanJames Lawrence Fly, who regularly released press statements attacking Cox and the committee. However, it was revealed that shortly before the investigation began, Cox had been paid to represent a private party seeking favorable action from the FCC. CommissionerClifford Durr petitioned House SpeakerSam Rayburn to remove Cox from the committee for conflict of interest, but Rayburn, a personal friend of Cox, referred the issue to the Judiciary Committee, which concluded that it had no authority in the matter. The original conflict of interest led to a criminal inquiry of Cox by theUS Department of Justice,[6] and it destroyed the credibility of his investigation of the agency to such a degree that Cox was forced to give up his committee seat.[7]
In 1947 to 1948, he served on theHerter Committee.[8]
In June 1949, during the debate on theHousing Act of 1949, Cox, then 69, started a fist fight on the floor of the House with the HouseDean, RepresentativeAdolph J. Sabath (then 83). The combatants, each a longstanding Democratic member of the Rules Committee, soon apologized and expressed their admiration for the other.[9]
In the82nd Congress, his final term, Cox was chairman of theUnited States House Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations. The Committee's focus was on whether the organizations and persons receiving funding from foundations included subversives.[10] The Committee's report was not issued until after Cox's death.
After his death inBethesda, Maryland, Cox was interred in Oakview Cemetery, Camilla, Georgia.
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| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromGeorgia's 2nd congressional district March 4, 1925 – December 24, 1952 | Succeeded by |
This article incorporatespublic domain material fromBiographical Directory of the United States Congress.Federal government of the United States.
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