Hiram W. Johnson and California Politics 1910-1914
Graduation Date
Spring 1953
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Degree Granting Institution
Catholic University of America
Program Name
Humanities
Abstract
This essay treats of the political achievements of the Progressive movement organized under the outstanding leadership of Hiram Johnson. Previous to his advent, California had for many years been dominated by the Southern Pacific Railroad which came into being through the wise maneuverings of the Big Four—Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins. The political machine which they built up controlled every sphere of the government, executive, Judicial, and legislative, and left the people in a state of complete indifference as far as political affairs were concerned.
The period covered by this paper extends from 1910 when the Lincoln-Roosevelt League, the chief state reform organ, solicited the help of Hiram Johnson ao its gubernatorial leader, to 1914, the end of the first term of his successful administration, when California possessed a model government with a act of reforms that remedied the corruption that had brought upon it shame and confusion. The first chanter treats of a survey of machine politics shortly before the advent of Johnson, in order to set the stage for a full am re elation of the Progressive achievements.
It has been the writer's aim: (1) to show the Influence of the dynamic leadership of Hiram Johnson in riding California of a corrupt political power and bequeathing to the state a set of Progressive reforms that have merited the esteem of outstanding historians; and (?) to show that the Progressive movement under his able direction extended its potent influence into national politics, and eventually evolved into a California Progressive party as a means of strengthening the power of reformers and of being the political lever which would raise Hiram Johnson to higher governmental positions.