The New York "Tribune " (Rep.) thus discriminates:

However much importance one may attach to Mr. Hughes's failure, only deliberate and intentional injustice could obscure the extent of the personal triumph of Mr. Wilson. . . . Who is there that has forgotten the chill that came with the first words of Mr. Hughes? Who is there who can or will forget the sense of disappointment, of grief, of disillusionment, that came with the opening addresses of the new candidate? A world was on fire: abroad the whole fabric of human society was in the throes of a tremendous struggle; at home the very foundations of our unity and our existence were threatened, and in the face of all this the man to whom we had turned for deliverance could find no braver word and no loftier sentiment than those which have fallen from the lips of cart-tail orators since political campaigns be

gan.

THE GERMAN-AMERICANS

German-American opinion is thus put forth by the "New Yorker Herold :”

The country will not consider this paltry favoring of Wilson by a few votes, resembling an ending decided by a throw of the dice, as an indorsement of his policy. If the President has been sobered down through the slimness of his majority, as is indeed to be expected,then he himself will be the last one to indulge in the illusion of thinking he has been indorsed.

Under misapprehension as to the election of Mr. Hughes, the German Vorwärts," of Wisconsin, had dared to say :

The election has proved that no other American statesman will ever dare alienate the hyphen vote..

Thus, replies the La Crosse, Wisconsin, "Tribune" (Ind.), Germany serves notice upon free America that our elections must submit to the dictation of German interests, and that the American candidate who dares defy German authority is doomed to defeat. But Wilson, who "alienated the hyphen vote," was elected by Republican States which he had no reason to expect he could carry. And this Wisconsin paper adds this rejoinder:

One quite naturally reverses the reasoning of "Vorwärts." The answer is that in future no American statesman will dare to pander to or even wink at political support organized in the name of a foreign country.

THE ENGLISH PRESS

English opinion also concerns itself with this. The London "Times" says:

Our relations, not only as a Government but as a people, have been always most friendly with him [Mr. Wilson], as they would have been

with any other whom the people of the United States had honored with their confidence. . . . Americans have no doubt read with contemptuous amusement the comments of the German press upon their choice. When the Germans supposed President Wilson defeated, they boasted that it was the German-Americans who had squared the account, they branded him as the most hated man in Germany. . . .

Now that they find President Wilson re-elected they welcome the event from the German standpoint, though in rather rueful kind.

THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Toronto "Globe" does not consider the Democratic victory a personal triumph for the President so much as the triumph of a domestic political movement, without much reference to the present gigantic war in Europe. It adds:

The net effect of the election, so far as the war is concerned, is that the United States must be eliminated from all effective participation in the negotiations and deliberations of the most important Peace Congress in the world's history.

THE FRENCH PRESS

The Petit Journal" says:

President Wilson's victory is highly satisfactory to us for two reasons: The first is that for four years American foreign policies will be free from all electoral considerations, as the Constitution forbids President Wilson from seeking a third term; the second reason is that the result of the election must put new life into American neutrality.

THE GERMAN PRESS

The only comment from a German paper which we have seen is that coming by the way of Amsterdam. The Berlin Tägliche Rundschau" is reported as calling Wilson "the man most hated in Germany." The paper declares that for a long time its readers bombarded the editorial offices with protests when it endeavored to expose the President's methods. "But now all that is changed," says the " Rundschau," according to this despatch. "When we name the men most hated in Germany, Wilson's name comes first."

THE JAPANESE PRESS

The Japanese press praises Mr. Wilson's peaceful disposition and believes that his continuation in office augurs well for the furtherance of Americo-Japanese friendship. A significant sidelight, however, is given in the added phrase," Business circles are pleased, as they feared that a Republican protective tariff would be a blow to Japanese exports to America."

A

POLITICAL miracle has been wrought in California.

The man whom the leaders of the Old Guard attacked as irregular, the wrecker of a party, a traitor and deserter, has been magnificently victorious.1 Rejected by narrow-visioned leaders, he was chosen by the people. There is only one regular Republicanism in California, and that is the progressive kind for which Governor Johnson has striven and given the best six years of his life.

It may be said here that he did not desire to make the fight for the Senatorial nomination and election. The toga has no particular attractions for him; not that he underrates the honor, dignity, and importance of the office, but he has been desirous of returning to the practice of the law and earning the income which his chosen profession will yield him, an amount greatly in excess of his salary as Senator. And Governor Johnson is not a rich man, nor has he even accumulated a competency. He yielded to the demands made upon him and made a sacrifice to political duty, which means more than those who importuned him to enter upon a new crusade fully realize. He consented to make the fight in order that the spirit and purpose and object of progressivism might survive, and that what had been won for the people of the State after hard battles might be safely secured to them; and that he might do a better work in the Senate and accomplish more in National legislation than he could as Governor with so little, comparatively, remaining to be done of an affirmative character.

Colonel Roosevelt said of him when he was nominated for Vice-President by the Progressive party, "We have nominated the only type of man who ever ought to be nominated for the Vice-Presidency; we have nominated a man fit to be President of the United States."

Hiram W. Johnson was born in Sacramento forty-nine years ago, and is therefore both a native and a favorite son. He went through the schools of his birthplace, was graduated from the University of California, studied law, and practiced with success in Sacramento and San Francisco, eventually

See Mr. Davenport's Special Correspondence on "Political Bourbonism," printed on another page.-THE EDITORS.

taking up his residence in the latter city. No better trial lawyer ever faced a jury, and he made a great reputation as such, especially in northern California. His residence is on Russian Hill. It is a well-appointed home but an unpretentious dwelling. One may view from the terraced gardens the waters of San Francisco Bay, the Golden Gate, Mount Tamalpais beyond, and the shore of Marin County. Mrs. Johnson, who was Miss Minnie McNeal, of Sacramento, is the charming mistress of this home when she is not at the executive mansion in Sacramento. She is the Governor's helpmeet and companion, the only individual he bows to as boss-indeed Boss" is her pet name. There are two grown sons, Archibald and Hiram, Jr., both lawyers in San Francisco.

The Governor is a little under the medium height, with square shoulders and deep chest. His dark hair, in which the gray is beginning to show, is parted near the middle, and behind reinforced spectacles are kindly gray eyes which can sparkle defiantly when aroused. His features are oval and rather prominent, though not large. He has a well-formed mouth and insurgent chin. He is simple in

He

his tastes, unostentatious, democratic. hates the formality of frills and fuss of red tape. He is modestly dignified, and, although he does not seek the crowd, unlike Macterlinck's bee, which would otherwise be smothered, he is by no means a recluse, but is social and companionable, pleasant and agreeable in conversation.

The friends of Governor Johnson throughout the country, who know how simple his tastes are, will be amused by the following story concerning one of the humors of his recent campaign. He had held an unusually successful meeting in one of the towns of the southern part of the State. He then drove to the next town on his itinerary. He was there informed by telephone that the local paper of the former town had printed a story to the effect that Governor Johnson was traveling through the State in a foreignmade touring car, having a coat of arms on the doors, with a foreigner as chauffeur who was dressed in livery more becoming to a servant of royalty than to the chauffeur of the

Governor of an American commonwealth. An explanation was requested. Governor Johnson said that he was at a loss to explain the article in print, that his automobile was an old one of domestic manufacture, void of ornamentation, that his chauffeur had been brought up on the sand lots of San Francisco, and that the most royal thing about his uniform was an old, dusty, weather-beaten duster.

Governor Johnson was unable to account for the yarn, and later made some remark about it while lunching with his chauffeur by the roadside.

"Governor," said the graduate of the sand lots, "I guess that is my fault."

"How is that?" he inquired.

Why, it is just this way," the chauffeur replied. "I was very busy attending to the car, and was bothered by the crowd asking me various questions. I had no time to answer them, and finally said, "Me no speak English."

Out of that remark was constructed the story published in the opposition paper. Incidentally it illustrates just about how much foundation many sensational political stories have.

His two inaugurations were simple in the extreme. He dresses plainly; a dress suit is an abomination; receptions and banquets are things which have to be endured if they cannot be avoided. He is sedentary in his habits. A good ball-player in his youth, the games of the Sacramento Club of the Pacific Coast League were his great diversion. He has been deprived of this form of relaxation, however, since the disbandment of the club. Recently horseback-riding was recommended as a desirable form of exercise, but his friends have an idea that it has not progressed beyond the arnica stage of equestrian progressivism.

He has the saving grace of humor, and it has helped him many times to be able to see the humorous side of things. Simplicity, frankness, and directness are strong characteristics, and his mental processes are rapid and conclusions quickly and logically formed. But he does not act independently and with out consultation in framing legislative programmes, shaping public policies, or arranging political campaigns. He freely consults legislators, but naturally does not find them in the opposition camp, and advises with his friends. His final action has been well considered, and has the force and determination of a fixed purpose and definite conclusion. Perhaps it is this that has

caused some persons, usually not his friends, to attribute to him a stubborn disposition; he is certainly constitutionally opposed to compromise on essential principles.

As a speaker Governor Johnson is forceful and convincing. He admittedly is one of the best public speakers in the country. He marshals his facts with the consummate skill that a veteran field marshal displays in disposing his armies. He analyzes them with the ability of a trained lawyer. His voice has trajectory power. It is not a musical voice, although by no means unpleasant. It is not full, rounded, and deep, but it has a human, appealing cadence that grips and holds the attention. When he addressed the memorable Chicago Convention in 1912, he was the only Progressive who compelled the attention. of a hostile majority, and was heard from beginning to end without interruption until his time had expired, and then it was extended. He uses few gestures. His most characteristic one is a downward drive with his right arm and closed hand. Occasionally there is an extension of both arms toward his audience with open palms; and occasionally his right arm is raised perpendicularly with index finger upright as he makes some striking point. He never sways or bends his body, nor does he move about the platform while he is speaking. I have heard him speak for an hour and over without moving from the position first taken, unless it was to take a drink of water.

Governor Johnson has not been an opportunist, and has not once during the six years of his administration sacrificed principle to expediency or built success on policy. His consuming passion when he became a candidate for Governor and then the chosen chief executive of this great State was to restore the government to the people and provide for the crying social and industrial needs of the day. After those great aims were accomplished facts his purpose has been to safeguard and protect the people from the attacks of those who would despoil them of what had been secured after so hard a fight and after so long a time. Governor Johnson has grown with experience and the exercise of power.

He knows and understands the people and magnifies the trust reposed in him by them and his duty to them. That a Governor should be something more than a mere executive is his conception of his office. He feels that he is more like the head of a great

1916

corporation, with the people as its stockholders, who have chosen him to represent them, and that he should consult and advise with them. He accepts the drudgery of executive routine, but he does not subscribe to the old doctrine that the big bosses and little bosses should look after the interests of the people while he does executive knitting. The result is that the great body of the people have absolute confidence in his sincerity, honesty, and integrity, and his desire and purpose to do the right thing undismayed by and unafraid of the hostile criticism of those who are wedded to the old order. And he has abundantly demonstrated by this time that democracy with him is an abiding passion, not a temporary expedient.

Every State of the Union has had its experience with boss rule and corporation domination, and with waste, corruption, and extravagance to a greater or less degree at some period of its history; but no State was so completely dominated by corrupt influences for so long a time and suffered so severely as California. During the decade. preceding the year 1910 the commonwealth was prey for the plunderers, and was controlled in every department, executive, legislative, and judicial, by big business and corporate interests. A place in the public

service carried with it license to loot. The sessions of the Legislature were eras of extravagant saturnalia, the pay-roll often amounting to $10,000 for a single week, and a short week at that. A regimental company of doorkeepers were appointed to hold guard over a single door which led nowhere. Stenographers were appointed who could not tell a shorthand mark from a Chinese character. The various institutions offered inviting fields for thieving through padded pay-rolls, the farming out of inmates as laborers, the sale by the superintendents of property owned by the State back to it, the making of fat contracts with themselves by officials, the furnishing of supplies by favored rings at profits running from one hundred to one thousand per cent. The limit of freight The limit of freight charges was the ability of shippers to pay, and express rates were oppressively high.

The shame of it all was that this condition of affairs was quite thoroughly understood. The corrupt legislators and office-holders shared in the plunder; those personally honest condoned it, and the people were indifferent or unable to make a change. In the year 1909, however, the railway-con

641

trolled Legislature threw a sop to the people, who were at last waking up to a realization of conditions and the necessity for a change, by passing a direct primary law. It was framed in the interest of the machine and was an imperfect and unsatisfactory law. However, the reformers defeated the machine with its own imperfect instrument, and succeeded in nominating their candidate under it for Governor. In the Legislature of 1911 they had sufficient strength to make it one of the best direct primary laws of any State.

The Lincoln-Roosevelt League had been formed as the result of much hard work on the part of unselfish citizens of the State who placed patriotism above partisanship. When the time came to agree upon a candidate for Governor, the League decided upon Hiram W. Johnson. He had taken up the task of prosecuting Abe Reuf when Francis J. Heney had been shot. Mr. Johnson was reluctant to make the fight, desiring to continue his law practice. He yielded to the demands that he make the sacrifice and consented to make the fight. But he insisted on making his own platform, saying, "If I go into the fight, I go in with the understanding that if I win the Southern Pacific will be kicked out of the politics of the State." Mr. Johnson had been active in organizing the League and was then vice-president. He had been an active participant in several reform campaigns in San Francisco; had demonstrated his capacity, ability, and courage as a leader and his power as a public speaker. Mr. Johnson had retired from the graft prosecution on account of his public labors in its behalf, and did so in order to remove any criticism of personal selfish motives. He courageously took up the work of prosecution again when Mr. Heney was shot.

Governor Johnson entered the campaign. for the gubernatorial nomination with all his tireless energy and boundless enthusiasm. Everything was against him so far as political organization, prestige, and resources were concerned; but, undismayed, he tackled the big job energetically, and with an automobile covered thousands of miles in a canvass which took him to every city, town, and hamlet in the State. Communities which had never before heard a candidate for the nomination for Governor or had collectively seen a Governor met and heard one for the first time. As a physical feat the campaign was extraordinary, and as a reform crusade in the bossridden State there had been nothing like it.

Everywhere he went he uttered the shibboleth, "I will kick the Southern Pacific out of the Government of the State." By the evident sincerity of his purpose and strong compelling personality he secured the nomination, receiving 100,000 votes, or as many as his two competitors combined. He later started out on his campaign for election, and duplicated his former canvass. In all of his campaigns Governor Johnson has probably covered 50,000 or 60,000 miles by automobile. He therefore knows the State and people as no other man in California. It is one

of the reasons why he has smashed precedents. Up to his renomination, no Governor had been renominated and re-elected. Although party custom divides the two United States Senators between the north and south, he secured the nomination as Senator against a man south of the Tehachapi.

The convening of the Legislature for 1911 was a somewhat anxious time for Governor Johnson and his supporters, for it was not certainly known that the Progressives would show sufficient strength and unity of purpose to carry out the reform legislative programme.

The Governor's message to the assembled legislators was a masterly one, strong, vigorous, clean cut. It cleared the air and blazed the trail, and a majority of the Legislature, despite vigorous opposition, carried out the programme of reform to the last measure. The legislation promised by the platform on which Governor Johnson was nominated embraced a simpler primary law; direct election of United States Senators; abolition of the "party circle" on the ballot; non-partisan nomination of judges; initiative, referendum, and recall; simpler criminal procedure; business reforms in administration; conservation legislation; larger powers for railway commission, public service commission; shorter ballot; county home rule; workmen's compensation act; and submission of a woman's suffrage amendment.

Every promise made in this advanced programme was either effective within the short space of ninety days after Governor Johnson's inauguration by measures enacted into law or submitted to the voters of the State for adoption as amendments to the Constitution. Every one of the measures so submitted was ratified, and became part of the organic law of California at a special session of the Legislature. The gain to California by the comprehensive constructive

legislation made effective during Governor Johnson's administration may be summarized as follows:

A Board of Control which is the business agency of the State. This department has stopped underdraining of the treasury, wiped out corrupt practices, systematized the methods of doing business, including an audit of all the books and accounts of the State every six months, and making the management of its affairs comparable to that of any efficient business corporation. It costs $119,360 to do this, but the Board has effected savings by economies resulting from the adoption of a budget system and competitive bidding, which amount to more than $2,500,000, it is estimated.

A Railroad Commission which has regulated public utilities corporations justly and fairly, and, without depriving them of reasonable profits or imposing burdensome regulations and restrictions, has saved consumers and shippers $7,000,000 a year.

A Workmen's Compensation Insurance and Safety Act which safeguards the rights of injured employees and protects those dependent upon them in case of death. During a period of two and a half years 2,822 applications for adjustment of controversies were filed with the Commission, and on July 1, 1916, 2,407 of these had been decided. Only 94, or 3.9 per cent, were appealed to the courts, and of the cases decided the Commission was sustained in 35 of them, and reversed in 16.

A Civil Service Commission which operates under an advanced and comprehensive law. When it is asserted that Governor Johnson has built up a great political machine by the use of patronage, all that is necessary in answer is to point to the drastic Civil Service Law under which the chief executive was deprived by his own act of the control of thousands of positions.

A Superintendent of Weights and Measures under an Act which is designed to obtain for every purchaser exactly what he is charged for in weight and measure.

A Labor Bureau which has been an efficient and helpful department to labor, aiding those without means to obtain justice, and also, through a free employment bureau, obtaining positions for the unemployed without cost to them. Positions have been found for 28.339 persons during less than a year in operation. Approximately $4,000,000 has been earned in wages by the men and women