Josephus Daniels (DLG 27) - Naval Cruise Book

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Josephus Daniels: A Legacy of Respect for the American Sailor BIOGRAPHY OF JOSEPHUS DANIELS Josephus Daniels (1862-1948) was a noted American newspaperman who served as Secretary of the Navy (I9I3-I92I) and Ambassador to Mexico (1933-1941). Born on May 18, 1862, at Washington, North Carolina. He was the second son of Josephus Daniels, Sr., and Mary Cleaves Seabrook Daniels. After Daniel ' s father was killed in the closing months of the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) his mother moved with her three small sons to Wilson, North Carolina, where Daniels spent his boyhood. He attended the University of North Carolina Law School briefly and was admitted to the Bar, but he never practiced law professionally. Daniels began his long career as a successful Raleigh, North Carolina newspaperman in 1885 when he acquired a controlling interest in the Raleigh State Chronicle. He was then twenty-three years old. Nine years later he bought the Raleigh News and Observer and merged it with the Chronicle. Daniels became a major editorial voice in the South, championing such causes as prohibition, better schools, and the regulation of railroads and business trusts. He was a militantly progressive Democrat and a close friend of the Democratic Presidential Candidate, William Jennings Bryan, a three-time candidate for president. But in 1911. Daniels threw his support behind Woodrow Wilson ' s successful drive for the presidency. Appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Wilson 4 in 1913, Daniels introduced a number of controversial reforms. He abolished the officer ' s wine mess, reorganized and democratized the naval ser vice, and fought vigorously against collusive bidding on armor plate and other Navy contracts. Under his leadership the Navy expanded greatly in size and fought effectively in World War I. Resigning as head of the Navy department in 1921. Daniels returned to Raleigh, resumed the editorship of the News and Observer, and took a prominent role in Democratic Party Politics. When his former assistant in the Navy department, Franklin D. Roosevelt, became President in 1933 he appointed Daniels U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. For the next eight years, the Raleigh editor served as an eloquent spokesman for the Good Neighbor Policy to improve Latin American relations. Daniels also maintained friendly diplomatic ties with Mexico in spite of the Mexican government ' s expropriation of oil companies and agricultural properties owned by U.S. citizens. Daniels retired from the Mexican post in late 1941 and returned to Raleigh. He died there on January 15, 1948. Between 1939 and 1947, he published a five-volume autobiography: Tar-Heel Editor, 1939, Editor in Politics, 1941, The Wilson Era, Years of War and After, 1946, and Shirtsleeve Diplomat. 1947. These five volumes present Daniel ' s own version of an Amercian success story in three fields: Press, Politics, and Public Service.