Recall Davis Rally Moments

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The answer for Democrat's charges of
Recall Davis as a vast Right Wing Conspiracy
Every grassroots supporter could take lessons from this history lesson.
Courtesy of FReeper Norm's Revenge

Hiram Johnson & California Political History

Sacramento's most celebrated statesman succeeded in politics mainly because he didn't take after his father and because someone shot a deputy district attorney in San Francisco.

Hiram Warren Johnson was born in Sacramento in 1866. His father, Grove L. Johnson, was a corporate attorney who came to Sacramento from New York, fleeing an indictment for forging signatures on promissory notes. Grove Johnson later paid off the notes and was subsequently elected to terms in both the Assembly and Congress.

After graduating from Sacramento High School and spending two years at the University of California, Berkeley, Hiram became a lawyer in his father's firm. But the two went their separate ways after quarrels over the elder Johnson's ties to the enormously powerful Southern Pacific Co. Hiram moved to San Francisco to practice law and became an assistant district attorney.

When another assistant DA was shot in open court, Johnson took over the eventually successful prosecution of corrupt labor boss Abe Ruef. The victory launched Johnson's political career as the gubernatorial candidate of the reform-minded Progressive Republicans. He was elected governor in 1910, heralding the end of the railroads' political dominance and the beginning of an era of political reforms.

Hard-driving and humorless in public, the florid-faced, barrel-chested Johnson was said to be relaxed and rather pleasant in private. He also had that most rare of political virtues: personal honesty. In turning down a gift of $5,000 from Sacramento merchant Harris Weinstock when Johnson was having financial problems, he wrote: "I made my choice (to be in politics) knowing the difficulties that lay in my way and that there were many things I could not hope for ... having made my choice, I feel that I must not only take the advantages, but without repining, must accept the disadvantages."

As governor, Johnson led successful fights for institution of initiative, referendum and recall laws; the direct primary election; the eight-hour work day for women and children; the workers compensation act; pure food and drug acts; free textbooks in public schools; pensions for retired teachers; and more government control of the railroads and utilities.

But he also played a leading role in advocating the exclusion of Japanese from the state and country and opposed American participation in both the League of Nations and the United Nations. After six years as governor, Johnson was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1916 and was re-elected four times. He died on Aug. 6, 1945, the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

Governor Hiram Johnson

Hiram Johnson first came to public attention during the prosecution of Boss Ruef in San Francisco. Johnson was a lawyer who served as a special assistant in the district attorney's office.

In 1910 Johnson won the Republican nomination for governor. He was supported by a group of reformers within the party known as "progressives." The progressives hoped that Johnson would clean up corruption in the state, just as he had helped to do in San Francisco.

Like many others, Johnson believed that the greatest source of corruption in California was that dreaded octopus, the railroad. Wherever he went during his gubernatorial campaign, he pledged "to kick the Southern Pacific Railroad out of politics." He was outraged that the railroad charged high shipping rates to cover the costs of the bribes it paid to public officials. "Get us coming and going?" he asked the voters of Los Angeles. "Why they get us every way, and we foot the bill--we pick our own pockets to bribe ourselves with our own money!"

Johnson served two terms as governor, working to achieve a wide range of reforms with the other progressives in power. He ran for Vice President under Theodore Roosevelt on the Progressive Party ticket in 1912, and was elected to the Senate as a Progressive Republican in 1916. He remained a popular public figure throughout his life, being re-elected to the Senate four times. In his later years he became increasingly conservative. He lead the fight against Japanese immigration in the 1920s and was an entrenched isolationist in the 1930s.

Progressives in Power

Hiram Johnson and his fellow California progressives scored an impressive victory in the election of 1910. Promising to establish a new political order, they gained control of both houses of the state legislature. In the next year, a wide range of reforms came flooding out of the state legislature. Theodore Roosevelt described the California reforms of 1911 as "the beginning of a new era in popular government" and "the greatest advance ever made by any state for the benefit of its people."

First on the list of priorities for the progressives was to establish effective regulation of the railroad. The legislature in 1911 granted the state railroad commission full and effective power to control railroad rates. Separate legislation assigned the commission the power to regulate rates charged by other public utilities.

To insure that the will of the people was truly expressed in government, the progressives in 1911 introduced the initiative, referendum, and recall. The initiative allowed voters to directly create laws or constitutional amendments. The referendum allowed voters to veto acts of the legislature. And the recall permitted voters to remove from office any elected official. California was further "democratized" in 1911 when it became the sixth state in the nation to adopt woman suffrage, thus doubling the size of the electorate.

Among the many other reforms adopted by the progressives were several laws that benefited California workers. The legislature in 1911 enacted a system of workers' compensation, establishing the employers' liability for industrial accidents. Also in 1911 the legislature adopted an eight-hour work day for women. Two years later, prompted by Katherine Philips Edson, the legislature passed a law setting a minimum wage for women and children.

It is important to also note the following on Hiram Johnson.

http://www.sacbee.com/static/archive/news/projects/people_of_century/century_special/johnson.html
As governor, Johnson led successful fights for institution of initiative, referendum and recall laws; the direct primary election; the eight-hour work day for women and children; the workers compensation act; pure food and drug acts; free textbooks in public schools; pensions for retired teachers; and more government control of the railroads and utilities.

But he also played a leading role in advocating the exclusion of Japanese from the state and country and opposed American participation in both the League of Nations and the United Nations. After six years as governor, Johnson was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1916 and was re-elected four times. He died on Aug. 6, 1945, the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

________________________________________________
From California archives

In 1917 Jonnson resigned the governorship to become United States Senator, a position he held for the next 24 years.

He died August 6, 1945. Three weeks before his death he cast one of three dissenting votes in the senate against American participation in World War II.

From http://www.janet.org/janet_history/niiya_chron.html
19 May 1913 Governor Hiram Johnson signed the 1913 Alien Land Law, to become effective on August 10.

Jan. 19, 1920 3,000 members of the Filipino Labor Union walked off their jobs; Japanese workers soon joined them. By early February, 8,300 laborers were on strike, representing 77% of the work force.

Nov. 1920 The new 1920 Alien Land Law, a more stringent measure intended to close loopholes in the 1913 Alien Land Law, passed as a ballot initiative. It was to become effective on December 9.

Nov. 13, 1922 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the Ozawa case, definitively prohibiting Japanese from becoming naturalized citizens on the basis of race. This ban lasted until 1952. A similar case involving the denial of naturalization was also ruled upon.

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