The Daily Alaska empire., 1945-08-06
SEN. JOHNSON IS DEA 3 ! N WASHINGTON
Veteran California Law maker Passes Away
 af Age of 79
(contimued from Page one)

Johnson, who served as Governor of California from 1910 until his election to Congress six years later described himself as Progressive Republican"
 Hiram Warren Johnson cut his own. political path across partisan lines for more than generation beginning with the Governorship ot California and followed by his cleo tion. to the United States Senate five successive times.
 Called President hater" by some, he did not see eye to eye with any President from Taft on, even though he supported each of them at times.
 Californians responded with over whelming approval. He became such a powerful political figure that he repeatedly won nomination by democratic, republican and progress sive parties, regardless of which was dominant in his state or the nation.
 Twice Deserted COP
 Although he became dean of re- publican senators in point of ser vice, he openly deserted his party On two cccasions-the first time to stand at Armageddon" as vice. presidential nominee with Theodore Roosevelt and the Bull Moosers in 1912; the cecond time in 1892 when he campaigned for MT. Roosevelt.
 Throughout his career he prese- vcred in a nationalistic outlook, op- posing with fiery zeal every measure which he regarded as likely to draw America into European politics.
 To him, Europe was a good place to keep away from. He stood in the front rank of that famous group of senate "irreconcilables' who band cd to defeat President Wilson's League of Nations covenant.
 Again, he teamed with Senator William E. Borah in 1885 to oppose proposed American adherence to the world court and administer to MT. Roosevelt his first major congress ional defeat in the field of foreign affairs.
 If there was consuming ambition in Hiram Johnson's life it was said to be the Presidency. Strangely enough he kept both himself and another-so it was asserted-out of that high office.
 Offered the presidential nom- ination on the republican ticket with Warren G. Harding in 1920, he re- fused. Calvin Coolidge accepted and became president when Harding died in office.
 The Hughes slight"
 Four years earlier, the famous slight" of Johnson by Charles Ev- ans Hughes, when the latter was campaigning in California as the republican presidential nominee, was accounted by many as having cost Hughes the election. Califor- mia went for Wilson by 3,806 votes, while Johnson was elected senator by the greatest majority in the his tory of the state, up to that time.
 Johnson's political creed was em- bodied in his statement of why he broke with Herbert Hoover in 1882.
 For many. years, in the politics of this nation,' he said, two dis tinct political philosophies have constantly clashed, and in the pres ent economic crisis these two con- flicting philosophies stand out the che against the other in bold relief. On the one hand is the progressive, On the other the ultra a-conservative.
 T am progressive republican; MT. Hoover is not. He has justly earned the title of ultra -conserva- tive. The difference between the two may be described in general ization, and could be particularized in a hundred acts of the existing national administration
 "The progressive. thinks in terms of human beings; the standpatter has little thought or concern for them"
 Among his accomplishments in congress, was authorship of the Swing Johnson act which made pos bible the gigantic Boulder dam. More than that, however, his admirers be- lieved he would wish to be remem- hered for the reforms in government which marked his tenure of the gov ernorship of California.
 California Accomplishments
 Written into the states constitu- ton at his behest were provisions for the initiative, referendum and recall; the direct primary, woman suffrage and the wiping out of na- tional party lines in municipal and county elections. Under him, too, California took the lead in legislat- ing for working mems compensation, limiting hours of work for women, creating a state marketing depart ment, protecting investors in lands, mines and oil, regulating railroads and public utilities and in prison re- form.
 Born at Sacramento, Calif., on September 2, 1866, he entered politics in 1910, winning the Goyernorship in that year. He was reelected in 1914 and had served two years of his occond term when he won senate seat in 1916 He was returned in moo 1000 1n2d and 1ndn