Hugh Baker Cox papers, 1917-1973

Hugh Baker Cox (1905-1973) was born in Logan, Iowa and grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. He earned a bachelor of arts degree at the University of Nebraska in 1926 and became a Rhodes Scholar the same year. He then received a bachelor's degree in English from Christ Church at Oxford in 1929 followed by a law degree in 1930 under the Vinerian scholarship. Cox was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1933 and in 1935 he joined the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He was counsel for the Department before the Temporary National Economic Committee from 1938-1939. In 1942, he was assigned to the Board of Economic Warfare, working in London on economic intelligence activities. He was named assistant attorney general in 1943 in charge of the War Division and from 1943-1945 was assistant solicitor general. In 1944, he was directly involved in formulation of federal policy regarding a dispute between Montgomery Ward and the National War Labor Board which resulted in the seizure of the company under presidential executive order. Cox returned to private legal practice in Washington, D.C. in 1945.