Hiram Johnson

Hiram Warren Johnson was an American lawyer and progressive politician who served as governor of California from 1911 to 1917 and as a United States senator from 1917 until his death in 1945. He rose to prominence through his prosecution of political corruption in San Francisco and was elected governor with the support of California’s progressive reform movement. His administration strengthened the regulation of railroads and introduced direct-democracy measures, including the initiative, referendum and recall. In 1912, he ran for vice president alongside Theodore Roosevelt on the Progressive Party ticket, which finished second in the national election.

In the Senate, Johnson remained associated with progressive Republicanism but became particularly known for his opposition to extensive American involvement overseas. Although he supported entry into the First World War, he opposed membership of the League of Nations and later criticised the foreign policies of both Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. He initially supported Roosevelt and several New Deal measures but became increasingly hostile to the administration during the late 1930s. Johnson served five Senate terms and remained in office until his death in 1945.

John Jakes’ California Gold carries its fictional entrepreneur into the Progressive Era, where Hiram Johnson’s campaign against railroad domination and machine politics becomes part of California’s shift from Gilded Age capitalism towards political reform. Johnson appears among the real public figures whose ambitions and reforms intersect with James Macklin Chance’s pursuit of wealth through railroads, land, oil, journalism and the emerging modern state.