The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-15
The Moral OF johnson.

The uniform and cumulative success
Of a lone Democrat named JOHN A..
JOHNSON in running for Office in Mime
sota has attracted the notice of the
mathematicians in Washington who
rauce a mans fitness for President by
the number Of votes he can poll in a State
campaign.
On the night Of election day the Repub-
lican chairman in Minnesota acknowl-
edged that there had been a johnson
landslide. In 1904 JOHN A. JOHNSON, a
Democrat whose experience in public
life was limited TO one term in the State
Senate, was elected Governor by n plu-
rality Of $3.50 in spite Of a Roosevelt
landslide. The Presidents plurality was
i4s, SAT. JOHNSON was the only Demo-
crat on the State ticket elected, and the
Legislature was overwhelmingly Repub-
bcan. This year Governor JoHNsoN's
plurality was 64,31e, with twenty-seven
precincts to hear from. The vote for
Secretary Of State was close, but Repub-
licsn candidates for other offices we're
elected by substantial pIuralities. Again
the Legislature is overwhelmingly Re-
publican.
The fascination which JOHN A. JOHN
eoN, the son of a struggling Swedish
immigrant, has for the mathematicians
at Washington simply reflects the pow
erty Of a once great party's resources.
The pertinent question. however, re-
mains: Why does plain JOHN A. JOHN
son run so well in a State almost as
surely Republican as Vermont? The
exclamation that he has made a good
Governor is unsatisfying, because the
people of Minnesota continue TO elect
Republicans to other State Offices and
to choose Republicans to make their
that JOHNSON is JOHNSON, and appar-
entity his own people cannot have too
much of him. There is a lesson in his
success for the candidate for public
Office. When JOHNSON was first elected
Governor he said:
conducted a campaign which even our op-
pouents admit was free from personal abuse and
mud throwing. endeayored to be thoroughly fair.
As l expected my opponents To be toward me-
JOHNSON circulated and mixed. He
was self-made, and hat was in his favor
in a State that had been developed
mainly by Scandinavian immigrants.
He caInpaigned on the ground and close
to the people. He went into every small
town in the State and made heart to
heart talks to them in the idiom they
knew. His canvass, as he afterward
said, was free from epithet, abuse and
innuendO. 1t was the uncommon and
wholesome fairness of the man, and in
part the meanness Of his opponents, who
spread disparaging stories about his
humble antecedents, that elected him
the first time. The landslide this year
seems to have been due to a growing
appreciation of the homely good sense,
~ingrained honesty and natural dignity of
JOHNSON, the son of the shiftless Scandi-
navian and the good woman who took in
washing. Stories, some no doubt apoc-
ryphal, were told of JoHNsoN's simplic-
ity and kindness Of heart, and it nightly
impressed the people that he could forget
he was Governor and spend half an hour
in having an old Swedish woman's trunk
checked while a reception committee was
waiting for him.
In short, there is nothing political in
the johnson habit Of getting elected
Governor Of Minnesota, and no magic
about II. The man seems to p~ersonify
square dealing and equality, without
posing and self-advertising. Hedemon-
strates that public Office is a public trust
without making epigrams. He is one Of
the people and for the people, without
fooling them. The johnson landslide
ought to reassure those who had lost
faith In universal suffrage and who were
haunted by a fear that the political con-
hdence man and the assassin Of character
were mighty and would prevail.