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The story of the career of Josephus Daniels is the
story of success achieved by a man of real character who has dared to
believe and dared to do as he believed.
Mr.
Daniels was born in Washington, N. C.,
May 18, 1862, the son of Josephus and Mary (Cleves) Daniels, of Scottish
descent. In his early days the family moved to Wilson, N. C., where he
received an academic education in the Wilson Collegiate Institute. He
showed an early aptitude for newspaper work and while a boy, in Wilson,
started an amateur newspaper, The Cornucopia. Even then he talked
of the day when he should be proprietor of a paper which would be a real
force in the State. He became an editor of the local weekly newspaper,
The Wilson Advance, when he was eighteen years old, and soon afterward
its editor and owner. In 1885, he was appointed editor of the Raleigh
State Chronicle, which he afterward purchased and made the chief
competitor of the News and Observer, then the predominant newspaper
at the State capital. After a brief experience in public office, which
proved distasteful to him, as Chief Clerk of the Department of the
Interior in the second administration of President Cleveland, 1893-1894,
he returned to Raleigh, purchased the News and Observer,
consolidating with it his own papers, and has since been its editor. Under
his able and fearless direction the News and Observer has grown to
double the circulation of any other paper in the State and is recognized
as one of the most influential publications in the South. It occupies its
own handsome building (twice destroyed by fire, and twice rebuilt), and
here Mr. Daniels also publishes two weekly papers, the weekly News and
Observer and the Farmer and Mechanic, a monthly section in
magazine form, the North Carolina Literary
and Historical Review,
and the North Carolina Year Book. The secret of
Mr. Daniels’ success as an editor is in the man himself. He has a genius
for work and is fearless and determined in his support of great issues.
Money means nothing to him, he does not smoke nor drink, and his whole
life has been a moral force behind his papers: he is always to be found on
the moral side of any controversy. Naturally, he was called upon to take
part in many bitter personal fights: but his fair, sportsmanlike treatment
even of his bitterest adversaries and his old-fashioned democratic
simplicity continue to add to the wide circle of his friends and
well-wishers.
A notable instance of his
determination when he felt that he was in the right was his controversy
with Federal Judge T. R. Purnell. He had sharply criticised the judge in
his paper for acts in connection with the receivership of the Atlantic &
North Carolina Railroad, property of the State, accusing him of being in
league with men who had formed a conspiracy to get hold of the railroad as
receivers and bankrupt it. Judge Purnell held the editor in contempt of
court and imposed a fine of $2,000. Mr. Daniels, in open court, declared
he would rot in jail before he would pay a cent.
The judge did not dare put Mr.
Daniels in jail, but he had marshals confine him in a hotel room and watch
him day and night. Here he was held for several days, dating his
editorials from "Cell No. 365." An appeal was taken to the Circuit Court,
and Judge Peter C. Pritchard promptly found Mr. Daniels not guilty and
remitted the fine. As it was learned afterward, Mr. Daniels’ many friends
in the State were so thoroughly aroused that they had determined to use
forcible resistance if any attempt were actually made to put the editor in
jail.
Mr. Daniels was admitted to the bar
in 1885, but never practised. He was State Printer for North Carolina,
1887-1893, and for several terms President of the North Carolina Editorial
Association. He takes a deep interest in educational affairs and is a
member of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina.
Mr. Daniels never sought, and with
the exception of the short sojourn in Washington, already mentioned, never
held public office until his appointment as Secretary of the Navy by
President Wilson, March 5, 1913; but he had always given freely of his
time and influence to advance other men ‘s political fortunes. For sixteen
years he was the North Carolina member of the Democratic National
Committee, receiving unanimous election. He was twice delegate to
Democratic National Conventions. In the campaign of 1908 he was Chairman
of the Literary Bureau: in that of 1912 he was Chairman of the Press
Committee of the Baltimore convention and Chairman of the Publicity
Committee, with headquarters in New York City. In the Parker campaign of
1904, he organized the "editors’ pilgrimage" to Esopus and the "dollar
dinner" to William Jennings Bryan. Personally and in his newspapers, he
was one of the first and most enthusiastic supporters of Woodrow Wilson as
the Democratic candidate for the presidency. He was one of the leaders in
bringing about his nomination and afterward served on President Wilson’s
personal campaign committee.
As Secretary of the Navy, Mr.
Daniels’ term has been marked by his keen interest in the enlisted men of
the service. A notable outgrowth of this was the introduction, January,
1914, of a co-ordinate system of education, academic and technical, on
board all ships and at all shore stations, whereby all enlisted men are
enabled to learn a trade and to improve themselves in other branches of
education. He also abolished the use of liquor in the officers’ mess.
Another order that called forth much comment was that requiring every
officer before receiving promotion to a higher grade to have had adequate
service in the grade to which he was to be promoted. Among the problems
that have confronted the department during Mr. Daniels’ administration are
the despatch of the fleet to Vera Cruz and the capture of that city in the
Mexican crisis of 1914; the uprising in Hayti in 1915, and again in 1916,
when the the United States Government was called to establish a virtual
control of the Government of that island; the issues growing out of the
great European War, including the appointment of the Naval Advisory Board
of scientists and inventors, September, 1915; and the consideration of
various plans for increasing the size and efficiency of the Navy in
connection with the awakened demand for preparedness throughout the
country. His policies have been bitterly criticised at times, but he has
maintained a dignifled silence in not replying to his critics, and in
allowing his work in the Department to speak for itself.
Mr. Daniels married, May
2, 1888,
Addie Worth Bagley, of Raleigh, N. C., daughter of Major W. H. Bagley. Her
father, Major Bagley, served in the Confederate Army, was a State senator,
and for many years Clerk of the Supreme Court; her grandfather, Jonathan
Worth, was State Treasurer and Governor of North Carolina. Her brother,
Ensign Worth Bagley, was the first man and the only naval officer killed
in the Spanish-American War. Mrs. Daniels is an active member of many
patriotic and philanthropic organizations, an ideal home-maker and
help-mate. They are never happier than when at home in Raleigh with their
four sons. Mr. Daniels is one of the kindliest and most genial of men, a
true friend and neighbour, and is personally loved throughout his native
State and by his strong character has won a host of admirers in every part
of the country. |
