Hugh Samuel Johnson Hugh Samuel " Iron Pants " Johnson ( August 5 , 1881 – April 15 , 1942 ) American Army officer , businessman , speech writer , government official and newspaper columnist . He is best known as a member of the Brain Trust of Franklin D . Roosevelt in 1932 - 34 . He wrote numerous speeches for FDR and helped plan the New Deal . Appointed head of the National Recovery Administration ( NRA ) in 1933 , he was highly energetic in his " blue eagle " campaign to reorganize American business to reduce competition and raise wages and prices . Schlesinger ( 1958 ) and Ohl ( 1985 ) conclude that he was an excellent organizer , but that he was also domineering , abusive , outspoken , and unable to work harmoniously with his peers . The NRA was terminated by a ruling of the Supreme Court , and Johnson left the administration after a little more than a year . Early life and military career . He was born in Fort Scott , Kansas in 1881 to Samuel L . and Elizabeth ( Mead ) Johnson . His paternal grandparents , Samuel and Matilda ( MacAlan ) Johnson , emigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1837 and originally settled in Brooklyn , New York . Hugh ' s father was a lawyer , and he attended public school in Wichita , Kansas , before the family moved to Alva , Oklahoma Territory . He attempted to run away from home to join the Oklahoma state militia at the age of 15 , but he was apprehended by his family before he left town . His father promised to try to secure him an appointment to the United States Military Academy ( West Point ) , and was successful in obtaining an alternate appointment . Johnson himself discovered that the individual who was first in line for the appointment was too old , and convinced him to step aside so that Johnson could enter the Academy . Johnson entered West Point in 1899 , and graduated and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the 1st Cavalry on June 11 , 1903 . Douglas MacArthur was one of his West Point classmates . From 1907 to 1909 he was stationed at Pampanga , Philippines , but later was transferred to California . In the early years of the 20th century , most national parks in the United States were administered by units of the United States Army . Johnson was subsequently stationed at Yosemite and Sequoia national parks . He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on March 11 , 1911 , and was named Superintendent of Sequoia National Park in 1912 . Wishing to follow in his father ' s footsteps , Johnson won permission from General Enoch Crowder to attend the University of California ( at Berkeley ) where he received his Bachelor of Laws degree ( with honors ) in 1915 and his Juris Doctor in 1916 ( doubling up on courses to graduate in half the time required ) . Transferring to the Judge Advocate General ' s Corps ( JAG ) , from May to October 1916 he served under General John J . Pershing in Mexico with the Pancho Villa Expedition . promoted to Captain on July 1 , 1916 , he transferred to the JAG headquarters in Washington , D . C . , in October 1916 . He was promoted to Major on May 15 , 1917 , and to Lieutenant Colonel on August 5 , 1917 . He was named Deputy Provost Marshal General in October 1917 , and the same month was named to a Department of War committee on military training ( the U . S . had entered World War I on April 6 , 1917 ) . As a Captain , Johnson helped co - author the regulations implementing the Selective Service Act of 1917 . Without Congressional authorization , he ordered completed several of the initial first steps needed to implement the draft . The action could have led to his court - martial had Congress not acted ( a month later ) to pass the conscription law . He was promoted to Colonel on January 8 , 1918 , and to Brigadier General on April 15 , 1918 . At the time of his promotion , he was the youngest person to reach the rank of Brigadier General since the Civil War , and the youngest West Point graduate to remain continuously in the service who had ever reached the rank . Ohl ( 1985 ) finds that Johnson was an excellent second - in - command during the war in the Office of the Provost Marshal under Brigadier General Enoch H . Crowder as long as he was closely watched and tightly supervised . His considerable talents were effectively drawn upon in the planning and implementation of the registration and draft before and during the conflict . However he was never able to work smoothly with others . As a Brigadier General , Johnson was appointed Director of the Purchase and Supply Branch of the General Staff in April 1918 , and was promoted to Assistant Director of the Purchase , Storage and Traffic Division of the General Staff in October 1918 . In this capacity , he worked closely with the War Industries Board . He favorably impressed many businessmen , including Bernard Baruch ( head of the War Industries Board ) . These contacts later proved critical in winning Johnson a position with President Franklin D . Roosevelt ' s administration . He was put in command of the 15th Infantry Brigade , but the unit did not deploy to Europe because the war had ended . Johnson resigned from the U . S . Army on February 25 , 1919 . For his service in the Provost Marshal ' s office and in executing the draft , he was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal in 1926 . New Deal career . Johnson was named assistant general manager of the Moline Plow Company on September 1 , 1919 . Moline Plow ' s president , George Peek , and Johnson were both supporters of the McNary – Haugen Farm Relief Bill , a proposed federal law which would have established the first farm price support s in U . S . history . Johnson left Moline Plow in 1927 to become an adviser to Bernard Baruch . He joined the Brain Trust of Franklin D . Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election . His major role was drafting speeches , most notably one that FDR delivered in Pittsburgh denouncing the reckless spending of the Hoover administration and calling for a very conservative fiscal policy . NRA . Johnson played a major role in the New Deal . In 1933 Roosevelt appointed Johnson to administer the National Recovery Administration ( NRA ) . One author claims Johnson looked on Italian Fascist corporativism as a kind of model . He distributed copies of a fascist tract called " The Corporate State " by one of Mussolini ' s favorite economists , including giving one to Labor Secretary Frances Perkins and asking her give copies to her cabinet . The NRA involved organizing thousands of businesses under codes drawn up by trade associations and industries . He was recognized for his efforts when " Time magazine " named him Man of the Year of 1933 — choosing him instead of FDR . He was faltering badly by 1934 , which historians ascribe to the profound contradictions in NRA policies , compounded by heavy drinking on the job . The NRA continued to deteriorate — it was abolished in 1935 — and he came under attack by Labor Secretary Frances Perkins for having Fascist inclinations . Therefore Roosevelt fired Johnson in September 1934 The Business Plot . Johnson was implicated by retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler in the Business Plot , an alleged political conspiracy in 1933 to overthrow United States President Franklin D . Roosevelt , in testimony before the McCormack - Dickstein Committee , whose deliberations began on November 20 , 1934 and culminated in the Committee ' s report to the United States House of Representatives on February 15 , 1935 . Johnson was not called before the committee because " The committee will not take cognizance of names brought into the testimony which constitute mere hearsay . " Journalism , later life and death . Upon leaving the Roosevelt administration , Johnson , who had long been a successful essay writer for national magazines , now became a syndicated newspaper columnist specializing in political commentary . He supported Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election , but when the Court - packing plan was announced in 1937 he denounced Roosevelt as a would - be dictator . In 1939 he endorsed isolationism — staying out of World War II ; he endorsed Wendell Willkie the Republican candidate in the 1940 presidential election . Johnson wrote a number of articles and stories . One future history piece , " The Dam " , was written in 1911 and appears in the Sam Moskowitz anthology , " Science Fiction by Gaslight " . In the story , Japan invades and conquers California . General Hugh S . Johnson died in Washington , D . C . , in April 1942 from pneumonia . He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery .