The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1909-09-29

later. He began travelling through
out the country on the Chautauqua
circuit making his strongest appeal
through the south, which section was
more or less dissatisfied with both
elements in the party. He went
among the people as John Johnson the
governor and not as John Johnson, a
political aspirant.
He talked to them of his policies
along lines that the people at large
were pleased with and on topics en-
tirely foreign to political matters.
The result was the same as 1t had
been in his earlier years at home.
Everyone who heard him became his
friend and spoke of him as friend
and acquaintance and felt that they
knew him and sympathized with him.
Mr.. Johnson's friends and managers
began to organize his boom in a most
tangible shape during the summer of
1908, but the governor was wise, as
he had been once before when he re-
| fused a nomination for state senator.
Foresaw Bryan's Reformation.
He saw, when Mr.. Bryan returned
from his trip around the world, that
his denomination was inevitable, and
he realized that to oppose him was to
only hurt his own chances for a flu
ture nomination by alternating the
Bryan supporters. For this reason he
permitted a merely nominal demon
stration and received at the Denver
convention a small, although enthus-
iastic, support. He accepted the third
nomination for governor and went on
making the strongest campaign he
could for Mr.. Bryan, as we'll as for
himself, and the result was shown
when it was seen that Mr.. Taft was
able to carry the state by only $4,000,
or barely one-half Of Roosevelts ma
jority of two years previous.
Since the election Governor Johnson
has made several chautauqua tours
through the central west, in which he
was as enthusiastically received as
before. His career began 70 attract
the attention of magazine editors,
after his second election, and the arti-
cles that have been published about
him have tended materially to in
crease his prestige. At the time of
his death he was regarded as the
most probable candidate for the dem
ocratic nomination for president in
1912.
His Political Greed.
His political creed is summed up In
an address made in the summer OF
1907 before the University of Pennsyl
vania. He expressed himself as hat
ing trusts and tariffs, standing fol
more complete railway regulation
against permanent colonial positions
and more definite adjustment o.
state and federal powers and partia
adherence to public ownership. Hi:
, strongest opinions were on the tariff
? and in magazine article written il
1908 he said, "Of the political issue
which stand out before us today,
believe the tariff question to be para
mount. The present tariff system il
l an established falsehood, which ever
/ the makers and maintainers of thu
} system have been forced to admit
, and have decided, publicly at least
, that the tariff must be revised.
, What their plans may be we ar
left to Judge from the fact that thi
is not their first such public decision
and in spite of their former promise
7 their continuation in power ha
r brought no changes. I do not advc
3 cate free trade; the time may com
l when our country is as thickly poI
! ulated as are the nations of Europe
$ when uninterrupted interchange Q
:. commodities will be not only desil
3 able but necessary. That time is no
b yet, but our present tariff system i
y an absolute contradiction of the be
l. nificant proofs of democracy and Q
J. equal rights upon which our govern
= ment is founded and our experienc
l. has been such that securing promise
that the system will be altered afte
the election will not suffice.
a Was An. IdeaIist.
n Mr.. Johnson's personal characte
{. was considered exceptional He wa
I an idealist. This was his creates
; strongest and his most desirable a
o the delighted interest of Henry Wa
q terson of the Louisville Courier-Jou
IS nal and made him a public sponsor fl
n Thomas w. Lawson. Big ideas ar
e large movements appealed to him wit
n irresistible force and he was more SUI
IT cessful in his attitude towards thing
r. as whole than in minor details.
"a His profound and instructive dev
st ton to spiritual things was shown
y his 1907 Thanksgiving proclamatiC
" in which he said: "In the great civ
awakening, in the regeneration of tt
'e public conscience, we have rease
IS for belief that in the day that is daw
O. ing there will be less worship of Sc
less love of power, less lust of gol
and that we return to honesty al
in only good will lead and we will {
Il inevitably to the walk of virtue, Il
at way of happiness, the path of glory
I'd Johnson's family life was anoth
IS thing that endeared him to the ne