I want to make this perfectly clear: you can be sure that I will never be a yes-man except to my own conscience.

In 1940 he won election as Governor of New Jersey running in reaction to the political machine run by Frank Hague but broke with family tradition by declaring himself a Democrat. They had no children. On January 18 1937 President Roosevelt appointed Charles Edison as Assistant Secretary of the Navy then as Secretary on January 2 1940 Claude A.

Charles Edison (August 3 1890 – July 31 1969) was a son of Thomas Edison and Mina Miller. He was a businessman who became Assistant and then United States Secretary of the Navy and served as the 42nd Governor of New Jersey.