The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-04-07

5a IS q sporting proposition,
imagine that Hiram Johnson, SEN
ator from California, has received
the Republican nomination and a
little later has been elected presi-
dent Of the United. States by an aG-
miring and appreciative people.
There is one safe bet, at least, that
can be made. On an afternoon in
the early spring Of 1921 Hiram
johnson will be found at American
League Park on the opening day Of
the baseball season, firmly grasplng
Il brabd-new ball, ready to toss it
into the waiting hands of one
Walter Johnson. The League of
Nations is a stencil in the nostrils
of the California senator-but the
American league or the National
league, that's another matter.
More than quarter of a century
aga, when Hiram Johnson was d
good deal simmer than he is today,
he used to pitch, himself. He tried
his hand at tossing EN-. over with
considerable success while he was
an undergraduate at the University
of California And his love for the
game has never tagged. 1t used
to be a by-word in California that
if you wanted to. find Hiram john
son all you had to do was to go to
the bali park.
While he no longer goes in for
games himself, Senator Johnson is
keonly interested in all kinds of
sports. He hasn't the time to play
golf, and he hasn't the build for ten
mis-, the game about which his for
mer running mate, Theodore Roose-
welt. built himself up a cabinet"
while he was in the White
house. The Californian is a
prodigious. worker. He is al
ways writing speeches and
making speeches. writing let
tiers and drafting bills, working at
his committees at the senate. When
he can get a little spare time he
and Mrs. johnson wander off to the
movies" He's almost as much of
a movie fan" as a baseball fan. "
He admits it himself.
Senator Johnson entered upon
his duties in Washington in April,
1917, just before this country went
into the great war. He has found
for himself and Mrs johnson one
If the most attractive homes in and
about the capitalize Calvert man.
sion, at Riverdale, Md, few miles
outside of Washington. 1t is a fine
old house that in colonial days be-
longed to Lord Baltimore.
When Senator johnson took II
over, the house was standing va.
cant. 1t had been used in recent
years as a kind OF wayside inn
Some of the furniture in the men.
sion belongs to the colonial period
too. 1t has beautiful garden
which Senator Johnson has re-
planted. And there, on a Sunda,
afternoon in summertime, you art
apt to find the senator, surrounded
by his books and papers, with hi.
pipe, for which he has great at
lection, clinched tightly in hi!
teeth.
Californians will tell you tha
Hiram Johnson has, for the las
20 years, been one of the leading
lawyers of the state. The mos
famous case with which he ha!
been connected was that of "Abe'
Ruef and the grafters' ring in Sal
Francisco, not long after the grea
earthquake and fire in 1906. ORA
matically, he stepped into the tria
after Francis ]. Heney, the bulwarl
of the prosecution, had been shO
down in the courtroom. and carried
the case through, putting the graft
ers in Jail. But Senator johnson
today is not a wealthy man. H,
has made good living. of course
But, while living without Ostenta
ton, he has always lived well. HI
and Mrs. Johnson have successfully
brought up two sons, both of then
now lawyers like their father
though enc of them has more lately
been major of artillery in France
and served at Chateau Thierry anG
osher battlefelds.
When the progressiyes, in 1912
I selected Hiram johnson as run.