Johnson, Hiram

▪ American politician

born Sept. 2, 1866, Sacramento, Calif., U.S.

died Aug. 6, 1945, Bethesda, Md.

 reform governor of California (1911–17) and a U.S. senator for 28 years (1917–45), a Progressive Republican and later a staunch isolationist.

      Winning acclaim in 1906 as a crusading San Francisco prosecuting attorney, Johnson was elected governor four years later on a reform ticket. Under his leadership the legislature curtailed the political hold on California of the Southern Pacific Railroad and placed the state in the forefront of the Progressive movement.

      In 1912 Johnson helped form the Progressive Party and was its unsuccessful vice-presidential candidate on a ticket with Theodore Roosevelt. In the Senate he opposed the dominant conservative tendencies of the Republican Party, supporting ameliorative farm legislation and, in the 1930s, New Deal measures to relieve unemployment. Gradually he became best known for his implacable isolationism, opposing U.S. adherence to the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations, and the Permanent Court of International Justice, known as the World Court. He sponsored the Neutrality acts of the 1930s and resisted all preparedness measures before World War II as well as the formation of the United Nations.

* * *