Josephus Daniels
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Josephus Daniels (18 May 1862–15 January 1948) was an American politician and newspaper publisher from North Carolina, who served as Secretary of the Navy during World War I. He was educated at Wilson Collegiate Institute. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1885, but he did not practice law. He was State printer in 1887-93 and chief clerk of the Federal Department of the Interior in 1893-95.
A native of Washington, North Carolina, Daniels owned and managed several newspapers before purchasing the Raleigh News & Observer, which he ran for several decades. Prominent in state and national Democratic Party politics, he held office during President Grover Cleveland's administration. He supported Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 presidential election, and after Wilson's victory was appointed as Secretary of the Navy. He held the post from 1913 to 1921, throughout the Wilson administration, overseeing the Navy during World War I. Future U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt served as his Assistant Secretary of the Navy. In 1921 he resumed the editorship of the Raleigh News and Observer.
Socialistic beliefs were held by many influential citizens of the United States at the turn of the century. Secretary Daniels believed in government ownership of armorplate factories, and of telephones and telegraphs. Daniels is also remembered for having banned alcohol from United States Navy ships in [General Order 99] of 1 June 1914. This is reportedly the origin of the naval term "cup of joe" to refer to a cup of coffee. He wrote: The Navy and the Nation (1919).
During World War One, Daniels created the Naval Consulting Board to encourage inventions that would be helpful to the Navy. Daniels asked Thomas Edison to chair the Board. Daniels was worried that the US was unprepared for the new conditions of warfare and needed new technology.[#endnote_Scott]
On December 15, 2005, the [1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission] noted in its [draft report] that Daniels' involvement in the overthrow of the elected city government of Wilmington, NC, by actively promoting white supremacy in The News and Observer was so significant that he has been referred to as the "precipitator of the riot."
Notes
- ↑ L. N. Scott, Naval Consulting Board of the United States (Washington, 1920), 286
References
Daniels, Josephus. Editor in Politics. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1941.External links
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