The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-10-01
Story of Man Who May
be Next President.
The Tragic Life of tho F~ather-the
Democratic Governor Won by os.-
o Majority in a Rock-Rib-
bad Repbiican State
Could Tie Garry 1t FOR
PreSidentn

Who Is John Johnson? Why do
the people love him? Why did they
elect him governor by 1900 when the
Democrats have never been able to
carry the state before? Is there
some magic power Tor leadership in
this son Of a village ~drunkard who
helped his, good mother with the
washing Is Colonel Henry Waite
son right in his belief that John JohU-
son has some of the genius of Abra-
ham Lincoln, and that he may be the
dark horse in the corning presideu-
tial campaign? The october Ameri-
IAN Magazine contains the whole ro-
mantle life story Of John johnson
and his swift winning of a peoples
affectian. 1t is great reading, and
especially timely.
The Tragic story of the Father.
Gustav Johnson, JOIN J~ohnson's
father, came to America, it appears,
in the early fifties. He was by trade
q blacksmith. He was the inheritor
Of some little property. He settled
in st. Peter, which at that time could
be reached only by prairie schooner
or else by a real Water-boat up the
Mississippi and then up the Mime
sofa
Shortly after Gustav johnson ar
rived in st. Peter there also arrived a
Swedish girl named Caroline Haden.
she was alone. she mad lost her
parents by disease and her brothers
by chance. She never found those
brothers again. She married Gustav
johnson and their second son was
named John Albert. Johns father
therefore and his mother, too, were
completely separated from the tradi-
tions of the old country. The mother
could not trace her ancestry and the
father did not want to. John grew
UP as j totally new product In d
totally new land.
For several years after moving
into st. Peter, Johns father. Gustav,
continued to practice his trade, the
trade of a blacksmith. He was a
strong man and an intelligent work.
man. But suddenly, like a ghost from
across the Atlantic, there came mis-
old passion. His Wife Caroline a
not known that ack in Sweden her
sba had long ago evoked and
temporarily buried the taste for drink.
BY the time John was thirteen Gustav
had sold His interest in his black smith
ShOp for $500, had gone away and lost
himself. and come back again, had
sworn repentance, and diSaVOWed that
repentance, had been turned away
from the door of his own house by a
sensible neighbor at the time Of the
birth of his last child, had been ex-
amined and convicted of alcoholic
dementil' b. the doctor of the village,
and had been sentenced TO the county
poor house.
1t was a sad. a tragic story. 1t
would not be mentioned here were it
his father became "a fantastic element
in John Johnson's first campaign for
governor. Second, the fate Of his
father became an essential element in
the development Of John Johnson's
personal and without the
I1,-1loD>,Ar of hIc narCnna1 oh J-ln-
ter, John Johnson would never have
been governor.
Is This the Next Great Democrat?
Colone, Watterson, approached by
the American Magazine, has written
for that periodical a statement which
forms tho Introduction to the article.
1t follows:
ut happens that | have known
Governor Johnson for many years and
have watched his career with interest.
He is a most exceptional man both in
character and ability. a steady-gOing.
level-heaGed man. who thinks first
and acts a~fterward; a man who does
things worth doing: nothing vision
airy. or fantastic about him. He is as
typical an American in his person
ality, in his working methods and in
his mental processes and perSpeCtiVes
as may be found among the rich
progeny of the Scotch-Irish, to which
the country owes so much, being Of
scandinavian origin, next after the
Scotch-Irish high upon the racial hon
or roll whence we have drawn so
many oi our statesmen and soldiers.
That means that he coulc not fail -
prove, IS he has already proven. q
great vote-getter. He has not been
mixed up in any acknowledging. He
comes from the right quarter. Even
as Lincoln emerged from o~bsCurity TO
take the helm, it seems to me that
this man might. so lik Lincoln in
his simplicity and modesty as we'll as
his hard uphill a~ntecedent expert
enceS.
That is all, but don't say I told
you, because I am wholly out OF poll
tics and much out OF favor, nor yet
making presidents, 50 that my words
might do Governor Johnson more
harm than good in the eVent-which
I take leave to doIbt-that he is
seriously thinking about being a can
didate.'
For the Fight on Hand * This the
Coming Democrat
John Johnson, forty-two years old,
is O. SUede. His father VA a Junk