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Hiram Warren Johnson

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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"HIRAM WARREN JOHNSON (1866-), American politician, was born at Sacramento, Cal., Sept. 2 1866. He entered the university of California but did not finish his course. He became a reporter, at the same time studying law in his father's office; was admitted to the bar in 1888; and practised with his father and his brother in Sacramento. In 1902 he established his office in San Francisco, where he became widely known for the vigour and success with which, as prosecuting attorney, he proceeded against dishonest public officials and corporations. He was elected governor of California for the term 1911-5; and in 1912 was an unsuccessful candidate for vice-president (on the ticket with Theodore Roosevelt), as the nominee of the short-lived National Progressive party, which he had helped to organize. As governor he signed in 1913 the Webb anti-alien bill, designed to prohibit the ownership of land in California by Japanese, although the President had asked for delay. He was reelected governor 1915-9 but resigned in 1917, having been elected a U.S. senator. He opposed many of the policies of President Wilson's administration and declared that a league of nations would involve the United States in European wars. At the Republican National Convention in 1920 he had considerable support as presidential candidate, especially from those opposed to the League of Nations and the Treaty of Peace as submitted to the Senate.