James A. Rhodes, Ohio Colossus

Tom Diemer

Description

"Ohio Colossus takes you on a unique journey from Jim Rhodes's coal village beginnings to the governor's mansion and beyond, offering a close-up view of a man we Ohioans will forever remember as 'the governor.'"-John A. Boehner, U.S. Representative, Ohio's 8th Congressional District; Speaker, U.S. House of RepresentativesIn his day he dominated the political landscape like no one in Ohio's long, proud history ever had-or likely ever will. James A. Rhodes (1909-2001) plotted a path that took him from tiny Coalton, Ohio, to the governor's office. In this first biography of Rhodes, his life and political career are scrutinized by those who knew him best-the working press. Written by three journalists who covered Rhodes in overlapping periods, this account traces, often with uproarious humor, his unlikely rise to power. It discusses his four terms as governor, his subsequent 20 years as a political elder, and even his avocation as an inventor.Rhodes was a far cry from a typical politician, shunning ideology to the point of alienating Republican leaders. He was elected because he promised the unobtainable, and at times he actually delivered. "Find out what people want, and give it to them" was his credo. In private life, he joined cronies in the business world and made millions of dollars, sometimes using inside knowledge to help start commercial ventures.James A. Rhodes, Ohio Colossus recounts Rhodes's upbringing in a single-parent household, his modest schooling, and an illness that deprived him of a lung. It chronicles the attempts to tar Rhodes with scandal and the tragedy that indelibly marred his tenure as governor- the National Guard shootings of student protesters at Kent State University in May 1970. His later years as governor were highlighted by his stubborn resistance to environmental protection, something he thought would cost jobs, especially in the coal industry. According to Rhodes, "Every social ill among able-bodied Ohioans" was the consequence of joblessness.In his post-public life, Rhodes got a patent on a complex system of airlocks and filters making indoor air more than 99 percent germ-free. He envisioned an "Environmental City" that could prolong life. His grandiose ideas didn't always pan out in the short run, but in some cases they came to fruition years later. He once devised a scheme for a bridge across Lake Erie, which was at first received with public ridicule, and four decades after he proposed it was considered a revolutionary concept. The office of governor was tailor-made for him and he knew it. He seldom apologized and never looked back.

Sujets

• Lettres et linguistique
• History of the Americas
• Ohio

Informations

• Publié par: The Kent State University Press
• Date de parution: 28 octobre 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612778389
• Langue: English

Extrait

J AMES A. R HODES O HIO C OLOSSUS
 

The bronze statue of James A. Rhodes guards the front entrance of the state office building named for the former four-term Ohio governor. It was moved there in 1991 after spending nine years on a corner of the Statehouse lawn.
JAMES A. RHODES OHIO COLOSSUS

T OM D IEMER L EE L EONARD R ICHARD G. Z IMMERMAN
The Kent State University Press
Kent, Ohio
Copyright © 2014 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2014012499
ISBN 978-1-60635-215-1
Manufactured in the United States of America
Every effort has been made to obtain the permission of persons interviewed by the authors to be quoted in this book.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Diemer, Tom.
James A. Rhodes : Ohio colossus / Tom Diemer, Lee Leonard, Richard G. Zimmerman.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60635-215-1 (hardcover) ∞
1. Rhodes, James A. (James Allen), 1909–2001.
2. Governors—Ohio—Biography.
3. Ohio—Politics and government—20th century.
I. Leonard, Lee, 1939– II. Zimmerman, Richard G., 1934– III. Title.
F496.4.R46D54 2014
977.1′043092—dc23
[B]
2014012499
18    17    16    15    14             5    4    3    2    1
To my wife, Judith Zimmer, and my mother, the late Joan Diemer, for their constant love and support.
To all those who knew James A. Rhodes and contributed the stories that enliven this volume.
Colossus: 1. A statue of gigantic size, especially that of Apollo set at the entrance to the harbor at Rhodes c. 280 B.C. , and considered among the seven wonders of the ancient world. 2. Any person or thing of extraordinary size or importance.
—Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary
C ONTENTS
Foreword by Governor Richard Celeste
Foreword by Governor Bob Taft
Introduction
1. The Hustle from Coalton to Capitol
2. Up Broad Street, Step by Careful Step
3. The Telling and Fulfilling Campaign of 1962
4. First Term—Four Mostly Smooth Years
5. Four More Years, with a Few Bumps
6. Kent State and the Day After
7. Chasing Smokestacks, Dodging Democrats
8. The Third Term: Divided Government
9. “Give It to Jim Again Since He Wants It. They Did!”
10. Gathering Storm
11. Recession!
12. How Does He Get Away with That Stuff?
13. The Last Roundup
14. Always Forward
Epilogue
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Foreword
G OVERNOR R ICHARD C ELESTE
T OM D IEMER , L EE L EONARD , and the late Rick Zimmerman do a masterful job of describing the life and achievements of a one-of-a-kind Ohioan—four-time governor James Allen Rhodes. I should know; I studied at his knee for most of twenty years.
This volume captures in nitty-gritty detail the rise of this quintessentially (a very non-Rhodes word!) self-invented political overachiever. From the rough days of his childhood in Coalton to the glory days of his remarkable service in the governor’s office, the authors describe just how completely Jim Rhodes honed his sales skills (from working North High Street and the Ohio State University campus to wooing Soichiro Honda in a full-court press in Japan) and exercised leadership (from the Knothole Gang to the Ohio Statehouse).
In the process, Rhodes grew to embody the mythic tale he spun about himself and his rise. Diemer, Leonard, and Zimmerman convey how Rhodes and his handpicked chroniclers transformed a story that began with only a few fading black-and-white photos into a 3-D, full-color, larger-than-life spectacular.
Why was Jim Rhodes so successful? I believe it boils down to this: nobody loved Ohio, every nook and cranny, every bar and barbershop, every farm and factory, and every county fair, more than he did. He loved Ohio more than partisan politics or political ideology. If Ohio needed revenue, he put the State above his political promises and raised taxes. He loved Ohio more than Washington, D.C. He just kept coming back to his first and only love.
And he loved the ordinary people of Ohio—like his neighbors in Coalton and Springfield, and the voters of Columbus who gave him his first boost. He cared deeply about their problems. And from his perspective, the one solution to all of their problems—poverty, poor housing, ill health—was a job. That had been the medicine he sought as a young man—not one job, but any and all that he could wangle.
Jim Rhodes understood the importance of a job—for personal dignity and family security and for community stability. He also understood, perhaps from the outside looking in, that education opened fresh opportunities for young people. He also knew that education and “smart” were two different things. He said to me on the eve of my inauguration (presciently, it turned out), “You got too many PhDs in your cabinet.”
Yet, no one did more than Jim Rhodes to promote higher education and put it within an easy commute of every Ohioan.
Jim Rhodes balanced genuine humility, never forgetting where he came from, with massive self-confidence, which enabled him to take on elections—primaries as well as generals—against the odds. I suspect that one reason he did not pay too much attention to people in his party’s establishment is that he was certain that in his bones he knew Ohioans far better than they did. He was right, of course.
But as the authors point out, Rhodes also made a point of having experienced and capable people around him. And he usually listened to them. Here is one example that may help to explain the lack of death-row executions after the early part of the first of his four terms. One day as I was preparing to take office as governor in late 1982, I encountered John McElroy, the respected attorney and Rhodes confidant. He told me that making decisions on death-row cases would be one of the toughest challenges I would face.
When I asked him why, he said that Rhodes had sent him to witness an execution that took place shortly after he became governor. McElroy said it was the most shocking and traumatic experience of his life. The next morning, he marched into the governor’s office and announced that he would resign if Rhodes ever sent him on that duty again. In fact, McElroy said, “I told him that he should go personally and witness the next execution so that he would truly understand what his decision entailed.” Rhodes never let another death sentence be carried out.
There is no question that Jim Rhodes loved his family, even though he was torn, as many politicians are, by the demands that political ambition and public service put on family time. The authors do a fine job of conveying Rhodes’s effort to be present for his family members—and protect them from the perils of life in the public eye. Rhodes knew how to dive “into the weeds” when he faced public controversy. He kept his family even more distant from the press with great success. When I stood in his office with him before the inauguration in 1983, he pointed to my wife and children and said: “Take a good look at them, Dick. After this is all over, they will be the only ones who still care about you.”
Why did Jim Rhodes run one last time, against the wishes of his wife and many in his political party? I am sure that it was because he did not believe either of his primary opponents or me, for that matter, knew and loved Ohio as much as he did. It wasn’t about ambition; he had nothing to prove. It was about his abiding love of his state and its people.
When he came to believe that I loved Ohio, from lake to river, and honored promises he made (but was not able to fund), like the Honda expansion in Marysville or the completion of the Jackson bypass in his backyard; when he saw me set up office at the Ohio State Fair and cheer side by side with him for the OSU Buckeyes; perhaps even when I went to the Kent State campus on a May 4th anniversary to apologize personally to the families of those killed and wounded on that tragic day, Rhodes knew that I loved Ohio as deeply as he did.
Jim Rhodes, without the benefit of a college degree, taught this Rhodes Scholar many lessons. He taught me how to lose. And he taught me how to win. But no lesson was more powerful than to get up every day and be grateful for the privilege of serving the people of Ohio.
Foreword
G OVERNOR B OB T AFT
J IM R HODES WAS A COMMANDING FIGURE in Ohio politics for most of the second half of the twentieth century.
I was witness to many of those eventful years. In Toledo in early 1970, I gave my maiden political speech on behalf of my father, who was running against Rhodes for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. I was a twenty-eight-year-old rookie on stage, with the legendary governor looming before me as an “Ohio Colossus.” To say I was intimidated would be an understatement.
I served in the Ohio House of Representatives during parts of Rhodes’s final two terms as governor. I saw how he got Honda to choose Ohio for its first U.S. plant and Ford to locate a new transmission plant near my district in southern Ohio. I soon saw how he had built Ohio’s transportation, education, and recreation systems.
In 1986, history took an odd turn. I ran for lieutenant governor on the ticket with Jim Rhodes—my dad’s onetime opponent—in his ill-fated attempt to serve a fifth term. Then fifteen years rolled by. And in March 2001, during my first term as governor, I had the honor of participating in the final farewell to Governor Rhodes at his memorial and funeral service, interrupting a South American trade mission to do so.
There will never be another governor like Jim Rhodes. No leader has cast a longer shadow over Ohio’s political landscape, influencing the tactics and policies of every governor, Democrat or Republican, who has followed him. We were all “Rhodes Scholars.” It’s remarkable that until this publication we have not had a thorough, balanced biography of this dominant political personality and amazing human being.
This book is important; it demonst