dorsed John A. Johnson, who was not present. That indorsement was published, and letters began to flood the editorial rooms of the St. Peter Herald, signed by Republicans of standing and influence, begging Johnson to accept.

Still he doubted the possibility of a victory. He had no money to spare for a political campaign, and native caution told him to keep out. He wrote some of his friends that he could not run. They still insisted, and the most urgent was Frank A. Day, of Fairmont, another editor. It was apparent now that the coming Convention would nominate Johnson unless he barred the gate.

One afternoon, Day, at Fairmont, got a telegram from Johnson, at St. Peter, saying, "I have just written a telegram to the St. Paul Globe which will make it impossible for me to accept the nomination." Day hurried to a telephone, reached Johnson at St. Peter, and induced him to hold the telegram pending a talk. Day came over on an evening train, and on the Johnson veranda they talked till three o'clock of a summer · morning. Day prevailed, and Johnson did not send the telegram. He made his arrangements for a campaign of Minnesota.

Johnson was nominated by acclamation. He set a new mark in State campaigns that fall. In forty-two working days he made one hundred and three speeches, and reached all but ten counties of the eighty-four. Morning, afternoon, and night meetings were alternated with rough railway journeys. The pace was tremendous for any man, and Johnson was not fully recovered from a third operation for appendicitis. The cheering crowds sustained him with hopes of success, and at every town he made votes, while his opponent was losing them. He did not attack Dunn. The Republicans were attending to that, and Johnson devoted himself to making friends with the people.

Roosevelt carried Minnesota by 216,651 votes to 55,187 for Parker, or almost four to one. Yet Johnson, labeled the same as Parker, received 147,992 votes to 140,130 for his opponent. It was demonstrated in that election and in the next that party labels have ceased to cut

Outside the

much figure in Minnesota. office-holders, there are not many thickand-thin party men to be found, and Johnson is one of the reasons for this new.spirit of independent thinking. The direct primary law is another.

The new Governor began right by making high-grade appointments. His ambition was to get the best men and make records for efficiency in every department. He has kept the standard up well. A large measure of the public confidence in the Governor has come from his success in selecting material for the public service.

Members from State institution towns used to be mainly local champions. Johnson in the Legislature had fought for the St. Peter Insane Hospital, and had opposed the Central Board of Control idea. In the thick of this fight he helped to saddle the State University with the suzerainty of the new Board. Yet as Governor he stood for the Board of Control and its non-partisan plan, protecting its members from political influence. The University was set free once more, with his full approval, and put into the exclusive hands of its own Board of Regents.

Johnson's attitude toward the University was guessed at for a while. He was a Regent ex officio, and by appointments was able to control the Board almost from the start. There was some nervousness around the campus. The Governor said nothing till he had attended one or two meetings of the Regents. He made up his mind that there was too much interference by Regents in the internal affairs of the institution. One day at the capitol he asked President Northrop into his private office.

"I wanted to tell you," he said, “ that I am a friend of the University and I want to be a friend of yours. I want to help as far as I can toward the success of the University. You are its President, and you can count on me to stand by you in everything. I don't want anybody else to be President while you are in that position. If the time comes when I think you are not the man for the place, I will tell you before I tell any one else. Meanwhile I want you to count on me, and to call on me any time you need support."

The atmosphere was cleared. They shook hands on the proposition, and ever since have been firm friends. As for the University, politics is still rigidly banished from its affairs.

Governor Johnson has rather set a new mark in attending to such duties as the regency and membership in other State boards. He has never given perfunctory service. He attends nearly every meeting, stays from first to last, knows what is going on, and takes an active hand, not as a governor or an overlord, but as a member like the rest of his associates.

In his dealings with the Legislature Johnson has never been dogmatic. He has firm ideas about executive encroachment, and has never forced matters on legislative attention. Both Legislatures have been about three-fourths Republican, but relations have been pleasant. The majority paid little attention to the Governor's first inaugural. Some of his recommendations went through, as a "wide-open " tax amendment to the Constitution, an inheritance tax bill, an act placing the State Insurance Depart ment on a salary basis, and improvement of the laws against timber trespass. The proposals of a State immigration bureau and a separate training-school for delinquent giris were not acted on till two years later. His personal platform in the message included these ideas, either rejected or ignored: A four-year term for Governors, with one-term limit; reduced freight rates, abolition of railway passes, an employers' liability law, a liberal forestry policy, and a non-partisan judiciary law.

Early in this first term a crisis was reached in the affairs of a large Minnesota life insurance company. Examiners had found mismanagement of a criminal nature. On a statement by Insurance Commissioner O'Brien, the officers of the company were summoned to the capitol by the Governor himself. The tale of their misconduct was related to them and their resignations demanded. They resigned, and a committee of Minneapolis business men, at the Governor's request, took charge of the concern. They arranged a reorganization, under which the company has been restored to public

confidence. One of the officials who resigned is in State prison, and another was convicted, but escaped through the meshes of the law.

Johnson's leadership in the movement for uniform State laws on life insurance has been generally acknowledged, notably in a special message by President Roosevelt to Congress. It was upon Governor Johnson's suggestion to the President that the Commissioner of the District of Columbia called a National meeting of Governors, attorneys-general, and insurance commissioners. This body selected a committee of fifteen, headed by Mr. O'Brien, of Minnesota. The committee's output was a model code of laws regulating life insurance, which has been adopted almost entirely by Minnesota, and with little change by Illinois, Michigan, West Virginia, and North Dakota.

It must not be supposed that Governor Johnson has been the only progressive force in the State since his inauguration. The radical Republicans kave kept pace with him. He has often acknowledged the co-operation of other State officials. Republican members of the Legislature during his first term fought for a two-cent fare law and a reciprocal demurrage law, both of which the Governor recommended at the next session. In the last year there has been a great awakening for law enforcement in the State, resulting in Sunday closing of saloons everywhere. In this movement the Governor was not a necessary factor and had no part.

The second State campaign for John A. Johnson was in 1906. The Republicans had difficulty in agreeing on a candidate. The man with largest following in their convention was feared by the corporations, who threw votes to a less " "dangerous man and nominated him. Though the nominee was not a corporation man, he was branded as such from the start, and the growing radical sentiment in the Republican party was sullenly hostile to him.

Johnson made another whirlwind campaign. He eclipsed his previous record, making 119 speeches in seven weeks, and reaching 78 counties of the State. As in the first campaign, he paid his fare for every mile traveled, and twice when

special trains were required he paid handsomely for them. The entire tour was an ovation, and the outcome was hardly in doubt at any time, yet the result made the most sanguine Johnson men gasp. He polled 168,480 votes to 96,162 for Cole, Republican-a plurality of 72,318. The other Republican candidates were elected by pluralities reaching as high as 84,754 on attorney-general.

Though the new Legislature was almost as strongly Republican as its predecessor, and the Governor still refused to urge legislation aside from the declarations of the biennial message, there was a difference. The measures bearing the Governor's indorsement got a more considerate reception. Railway legislation could not be headed off, as both parties had declared for it, and members had made campaign pledges to pass the reform measures. Measures recommended and adopted were as follows:

A maximum schedule of freight rates.
A two-cent passenger fare law.
Abolition of railway passes and franks.
Reciprocal demurrage law.

Increased taxation for sleeping-car companies.

Permanent Tax Commission with wide

powers.

Registry tax on real estate mortgages.
Uniform life insurance laws.
Abolition of private banks.

A“ Mueller Law" to facilitate municipal ownership.

Increased State drainage operations. Better salaries for the State University faculty.

This made a good grist for a single session. The permanent Tax Commission is a vastly important institution. Johnson named on this Commission one Republican, one Democrat, and one university professor-all men of ability and special fitness. The announcement of their names was met with a spontaneous burst of enthusiasm in each house of the Legislature. In less than a year they have justified their selection by adding $112,000,000 to the assessed values of iron properties.

The Governor had some other suggestions in that message that are of yalue as showing his personal platform. They included the taxation of iron lands on a royalty basis, a license tax on foreign corporations, investigation of lumber

trusts, employers' liability law, uniform divorce law, the initiative and referendum, and the registration of lobbyists.

Last summer a strike of sixteen thousand foreign workmen in the iron mines of northern Minnesota threatened trouble. They were a branch of the Western Federation of Miners-the Moyer and Haywood League-and at the head was Teofilo Petriella, an Italian Socialist from Colorado. Mining officials and business men feared an outbreak by the ignorant aliens. Strike leaders insisted that they would keep the peace, but felt that the situation was on a hair-trigger. Mining officials appealed to the Governor for military protection.

Governor Johnson does not rush into trouble because he likes it, but he decided to get his information about the "range " at first hand. He went there, stopping in Duluth on the way. He met the steel company officials, heard their report, and got their promise to avoid trouble with the strikers. He hired from them a special train which took him by night to Hibbing, the headquarters of the strikers' organization. In the morning. he walked up the main street of Hibbing, and asked for the office of "Mr. Petriella." A local newspaper man was the willing guide. The Governor introduced himself to the strike leader, sat down with him, and had a heart-to-heart talk. Petriella made promises of peace, and the Governor gave him clearly to understand that any disturbances would mean sending the National Guard to the scene. Then the local authorities and mine superintendents were conferred with and admonished.

Two other towns were visited, and the Governor met strikers, mine bosses, and local officials. At Eveleth they wanted a speech. He told the crowd what he had come for, and urged everybody to keep cool. He told them that the men had a right to quit work, a right to organize, and to persuade others to quit work; but if any man wanted to work, no one had the right to prevent him, and the State, if necessary, would protect men in their right to work.

That night the Governor returned to St. Paul. Soon after some overzealous deputies dispersed a meeting of strikers

in their own hall. The miners justly complained, and began marching in long, ominous-looking columns. Governor Johnson issued a proclamation to all concerned. It declared, first, the right of all persons to hold peaceable meetings without interference, and with the protection of public officials. It called on the strikers to cease marching in large bodies, as tending to disturb the public peace. It also warned them against trespass on private property, and declared that any violation of these directions would result in the despatch of troops. There was no more trouble of any consequence.

It would have been easy to make a mistake in such a crisis, as Governors before have found to their sorrow, but Johnson made no false step. His handling of men was masterly, and he used good common sense. He has never been given credit for statesmanlike qualities. There is nothing mysterious or profound about him. He is even accused of being superficial. Yet his path in office is not marked by failures. He seems to be equal to each occasion as it arises. Unquestionably he has developed in three years as Governor. His pubiic addresses are no longer sophomoric. He has gained in poise and dignity. He is naturally adaptable to circumstances, and graces distinguished company as he used to the levees and routs of St. Peter. The deep lines in his face and forehead have grown deeper the while, and his whole cast is more thoughtful. Yet there is no suggestion of pretense at any time.

He

is nothing if not genuine. He has been endeavoring to grow with the broaden ing of his horizon, and no one can say how far the man's future development may reach.

Without detracting from his mental attainments, it may be said that the real

key to John A. Johnson's success is personal charm, which gets and holds for him the regard of everybody. It is significant that men never turn upon him and blame him for their political wrongs. They have a grievance against some of his lieutenants, but they want it understood that Johnson is all right. They want to like him, and it is because he likes people. He is interested in all that people do. Nothing human is alien to him. He enjoys so many things, as music, baseball, football, the theater, travel, hunting, fishing, and, above all, friends. He has a cordiality for all that never seems affected. To shake hands with him is to like him.

It is the same with an audience. Their first greeting is answered by a broad, friendly smile that radiates good fellowship and thaws out any lingering chill. He wins them before he opens his mouth. His speech is rapid, fluent, and often headlong like a cataract, not always eloquent, but always convincing. He gives the impression of a man much in earnest without being a zealot. The mass of the people feel a confidence in him that is almost unshakable.

Is Johnson radical? Yes and no. He has a record as an advocate of many measures, but, as a rule, the changes he has favored have had to be put in force by others. As Governor he has been a sort of spokesman for the people, proclaiming their belief in measures which have been worked out by legislatures, railway commissioners, or attorneys-general. He has been radical in speech, but more conservative and constructive in action. The conference for uniform insurance laws was a constructive idea, and as sponsor for the State's first permanent Tax Commission he has beyond any question taken the lead in a great reform.