From the Archives: Death Ends Career of Sen. Hiram Johnson

Sen. Hiram Warren Johnson died today, fighting to the end the battle against tie-ups with foreign nations which he began a quarter-century ago in the bitter battle against the League of Nations. Sen. Johnson was the Vice-Presidential candidate in Theodore Roosevelt’s “Bull Moose” campaign of 1912. In 1936 he had remained aloof from the Presidential campaign, pleading a physician’s orders to “keep away from politics.” During the second Roosevelt term, however, Johnson bitterly opposed the President on several major issues, and before the California primary Mr. Roosevelt said Johnson could no longer be considered a liberal or progressive, although he still was very fond of him. Although he became dean of Republican Senators in point of service, he openly deserted his party on two occasions — the first time to “stand at Armageddon” as Vice-Presidential nominee with Theodore Roosevelt and the Bull Moosers in 1912; the second time in 1932 when he campaigned for Mr. Roosevelt. Four years earlier, the famous “slight” of Johnson by Charles Evans Hughes, when the latter was campaigning in California as the Republican Presidential nominee, was accounted by many as having cost Hughes the election.