Ohio History Journal

CLEVELAND'S JOHNSON

 

by EUGENE C. MURDOCK

Professor of History, Rio Grande College

 

In the northwest corner of Cleveland's spacious Public Square,

amid the clatter and clang of passing streetcars and buses, sits a

bronze statue. The figure, a heavily built man with thinning hair

and firm features, rises six feet above the circular pedestal. He re-

poses comfortably in his easy chair and gazes reflectively out across

the nation's seventh city. The right hand clasps a small book, which

rests easily on the right knee. Those few who take the trouble to

investigate, learn that this unpretentious volume bears the name of

Henry George's great treatise, Progress and Poverty.

Thousands of hurrying Clevelanders daily rush past this statue,

never turning, never wondering. To them it is as commonplace and

as uninteresting as the corner lamppost. It has always been there and

no doubt always will, so why bother about it. Still, in the warm

summer evenings, people of varying stations foregather on the

pedestal to discourse on sundry subjects. Quite often an inebriate

may be observed sitting in the lap of the statue making amorous

propositions to it. In the wintry snows, the thin layer of white gives

it an almost celestial air. To that limited extent it is an object of

periodic attraction.

This monument of Tom Loftin Johnson was erected in 1912, the

year after his death, yet not many Clevelanders today can honestly

say they know of him, or can speak intelligently of what he did for

their city. For the first few years following his passing, it was cus-

tomary to hold memorial services commemorating his birth. But

gradually, as time went by, these occasions became more infrequent,

until finally they ceased to occur at all. As the last remnants of the

once famous "Johnson circle," the Witts, the Payers, the Gongwers,

and the Stages, take their final leave of the world, the spirit of this

momentous era is all but lost.

Cleveland cannot boast a more controversial figure than Tom L.

Johnson. And like all controversial figures, he became controversial

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324    Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

by doing big things. He sought to change Cleveland from a second-

rate country town, to a first class urban center. In effecting such a

great transformation, he quite naturally trod on sensitive toes, and a

bitter opposition evolved. His fights for municipal ownership of the

public utilities, equalized taxation, natural gas, and the three cent

fare, all struck hard at entrenched interests, or, as Johnson termed

them collectively, "Privilege." After these forty years, certain public

service corporations still see "red" at the mention of his name.

The "common people," on the other hand, were usually united in

their support of Johnson. His victories were their victories and they

idolized him for them. The tent meetings which he popularized

were regular forums in municipal government and brought the

people close to the real functionings of the administration. Cynics

commented that Johnson had the people hypnotized. It was more

than that, however. He put his heart, his soul, his fortune, into the

struggle to improve the city and free it from the clutches of "Priv-

ilege." In the end it cost him his health and his wealth, and when

he was finally turned out of office after nine years of service, he was

a broken, ruined man.

*           *          *

During the half-century of history preceding Johnson's adminis-

tration, Cleveland had emerged from its swaddling clothes into the

garb of cocky adolescence. No longer a sparsely settled farm com-

munity, its population had experienced a tenfold increase to make it

the nation's seventh city.¹ Three thousand industrial concerns now

produced goods annually valued at $140,000,000. "Skyscrapers"

dotted downtown areas. Paved streets had supplanted wooden

plank roads. Electric lights and street railways appeared. Great

bridges, such as the Superior and Central Avenue viaducts, united

the city's two bluffs, thereby eliminating the treacherous and time-

consuming journey through the flats. The retail shopping center,

originally west of the Public Square, expanded eastward along his-

toric Euclid Avenue, converting that former beauty spot into a

crowded business center. Peripheral territorial annexations, such as

 

1 In 1860 the city's population was 43,000; by 1900 it had jumped to 380,000. First

and second generation foreign immigrants constituted almost two-thirds of this figure.

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Cleveland's Johnson                 325

old East Cleveland, Newburgh, West Cleveland, and Brooklyn Vil-

lage, gave the city a greatly enlarged and well-balanced geographical

appearance.

The most notable aspect of this transition related to the spon-

taneous sprouting of immense industrial establishments. Strategic-

ally located, Cleveland was certain to become a great manufacturing

center. Its lake position facilitated access to the ore regions to the

north and the coal deposits to the south and east. Although by the

seventies it was the center of petroleum refining, the discovery of

the Mesabi and Vermilion iron ranges in the eighties signaled its

real growth. By illustration, Cleveland's iron and steel industry in

1860 did a business of about $5,000,000. At the time Johnson be-

came mayor in 1901 this had increased to $40,000,000. One hundred

and twenty-seven foundries now existed, compared to eight in the

earlier year. Fifteen thousand employees earned $9,500,000. Dur-

ing the nineties the Lake Superior district produced 9,000,000 tons

of iron ore, over half the amount consumed in the United States.

Of this total, Cleveland and adjacent lake ports received sixty-one

percent. In addition, Cleveland companies owned most of the mines,

eighty percent of the lake vessels, and controlled all Lake Erie

ports, save Erie and Buffalo. Lamson and Sessions, Warner and

Swasey, National Malleable and Steel Castings, Ohio Foundry, and

White Sewing Machine were but a few of the important manufac-

turing concerns founded in this period.

This industrial revolution necessitated important adjustments in

all areas of social Cleveland. The police department was organized,

the fire department was greatly increased, colleges were opened, the

public school system was enlarged and modernized, and the public

library was founded. Other civic and professional groups organized

in this period of change included the Western Reserve Historical

Society, Union Club, Cleveland Bar Association, Cleveland Orches-

tra, University Club, and Chamber of Commerce. Among the im-

portant new public facilities were Charity Hospital, Union Railroad

Station, Fairmount and Kinsman reservoirs, and Grays and Central

armories.

Cleveland, like other rising cities, was unprepared for this social

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326    Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

revolution. Its political development was retarded. Graft and in-

efficiency, characteristic of other municipal governments, was not

unknown. Politicians managed the city not as trustees of the people,

but as servants of the public service corporations. As a consequence,

streets went unpaved, garbage was not collected, and unsightly

shacks and homes endangered the health of thousands. By com-

parison with the business community, citizens were taxed out of all

proportion to their holdings. Unlearned and apathetic, the public

remained mute. Well aware of this problem, Johnson was to dedi-

cate his administration in Cleveland to its solution.²

 

Although little has been published on Johnson's career, his ac-

complishments are reasonably well known to students of the Pro-

gressive era.³ Born into a fairly well-to-do Kentucky family in 1854,

he saw his father lose all his wealth and property in the Civil War.

Forced to make his own way at the age of fifteen, he shortly became

a successful street railway owner in Indianapolis and the inventor of

numerous gadgets for street railway cars. By his twenty-fifth birth-

day he possessed a modest fortune and was looking for wider hori-

zons. Foreseeing a promising commercial future in the Great Lakes

region, he transferred his traction operations to Cleveland in 1879.

In a short time he had purchased two street railway companies, intro-

duced, among other advanced reforms, universal transfers and

through lines, and had become the "boy wonder" of the business

community. His vision, energy, and daring moved him quickly into

the front rank of street railway owners. To obtain steel rails for his

lines, Johnson became a steel manufacturer, and by the mid-nineties,

when he sold his holdings, he was listed among the nation's seven

leading steel producers.

2 Charles A. Post, Doans Corners and the City Four Miles West (Cleveland, 1930);

William G. Rose, Cleveland: The Making of a City (Cleveland, 1950); Samuel P.

Orth, A History of Cleveland, Ohio (3 vols., Chicago and Cleveland, 1910), I;

Wilfred H. and Miriam R. Alburn, This Cleveland of Ours (4 vols., Chicago and

Cleveland, 1933), II; James H. Kennedy, A History of the City of Cleveland . . . 1796-

1896 (Cleveland, 1896).

3 See Robert H. Bremner, "Tom L. Johnson," Ohio State Archaeological and His-

torical Quarterly, LIX (1950), 1-13. Bremner's doctoral dissertation at Ohio State

University in 1943, "The Civic Revival in Ohio," a full treatment of the Progressive

movement in Ohio, contains considerable data on Johnson. The author's own doctoral

dissertation at Columbia University in 1951, "A Life of Tom L. Johnson," is the only

volume devoted exclusively to Johnson.

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Cleveland's Johnson                  327

Johnson first met Henry George, the great single tax economist-

philosopher, in 1885. Their friendship, lasting until George's death

in 1897, was one of crucial importance to Johnson. Until this time

he had been fully absorbed in business, and had found no occasion

to study society nor to analyze the social implications of the indus-

trial revolution. To him business and money-making were all im-

portant. Electrifying lines, improving fareboxes, consolidating street

railway systems--these and other problems left little time for re-

flection. Basically, however, Johnson was a humanitarian and

George's teachings found receptive soil in him. An enlightened em-

ployer, he had never subscribed to sweatshop practices, although in

truth it must be said that his liberal employing policies were guided

chiefly by business motives. Then too he had never read widely, and

was not versed in "comparative government." Thus such works as

Social Problems and Progress and Poverty met no intellectual im-

pediments in awakening Johnson's "social conscience." Having

thought little about our changing society, he was overwhelmed by

George's ideas.

Johnson experienced serious misgivings in equating his profitable

business career with the single tax. On several occasions he seriously

considered selling all of his business properties, but George dis-

suaded him, suggesting that he apply his business profits to "the

cause." Although following this advice for the time being, he

eventually divested himself of the street railways and steel com-

panies and turned to a career in politics. Running as a Democrat,

Johnson won election to the house of representatives in 1890 and

1892, where he continually espoused single tax doctrine. He fre-

quently advocated many things which were directly opposed to his

private interests, as when he argued for free steel-rail imports at a

time when he himself was producing such a commodity. This

afforded skeptical congressmen the opportunity to cry "insincerity,"

an opportunity they did not neglect. The charge was unfounded,

however, and represents a failure to understand the real Johnson.

He personally was aware of his anomalous position, situated in a

twilight zone between capitalism and the single tax, and by aban-

doning his business career he sought to end his embarrassment. But

the pre-Georgian Johnson and the post-Georgian Johnson were two

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328    Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

different men, and any attempt to treat their respective political

philosophies as those of one man, is to commit an injustice on

Johnson.

Yet in spite of his keen, imaginative mind, Johnson possessed a

monistic outlook, that is to say, all political and social affairs were

interpreted in the light of his single tax orientation. He opposed the

income tax, was unsympathetic to organized labor, and was unin-

terested in imperialism. In these and other matters he went against

orthodox liberal doctrine as then advocated by leading Progressives.

He was with the Progressives, truly enough, in overall objectives,

but differed with them decidedly in method. It is therefore difficult

to neatly classify Johnson's philosophy; in general it consisted of a

hodge-podge of "radical" ideas, bound together by a deep-seated

humanitarianism and single tax liberalism.

Johnson was mayor of Cleveland from April 4, 1901, to January 1,

1910. During those nine years he was engaged in almost unending

strife with various elements of the community. His efforts at reform

touched everyone, and it was not long before people were lining up

either with him or against him. The street railway war dominated

other matters, particularly in the later years, and the exertion re-

quired in this exhausting struggle led directly to Johnson's death.

The mayor desired a three cent street railway system, municipally

owned and operated. Because municipal ownership was then un-

constitutional, he organized privately-owned low fare companies to

break the monopoly of the old five cent companies. The bitter fight

raged from 1903 to 1907, with the low fare interests making tor-

tuously slow progress through an obstacle course of injunctions. The

culmination came in the fall of 1907, when each side carried its case

to the public in the Burton-Johnson mayoralty campaign. Johnson's

fourth successive victory signaled the triumph of the low fare cause,

and following protracted negotiations, a settlement was reached in

April 1908. Municipal ownership was not the expected success,

however, and a disastrous strike, serious financial problems, and an

adverse referendum vote in October 1908 marked its early demise.

Yet within the following year and a half, a modified version of

Johnson's three cent plan was hammered into shape. Although the

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Cleveland's Johnson                    329

mayor opposed this compromise, known as the Tayler Plan, it ade-

quately served the needs of the Forest City for a generation.

Another of Johnson's great campaigns was fought over taxation.

His studies in Washington and his own personal experience had

pointed up sharply the glaring injustices of the prevailing system.

Bogart observed that "small taxpayers generally were paying full

rates while the public service corporations, steam railroads, and

large landowning interests were paying between 10 and 20%,

only a fraction of the amount required by law. More than half the

personal property and nearly all the valuable privileges were escap-

ing taxation."⁴ For nine months Johnson battled the steam rail-

roads, seeking to convince the various boards of county auditors how

inadequately the companies were usually appraised. Documentary

proof, assembled by Professor Edward W. Bemis, demonstrated

these errors, and public admissions by company officials substantiat-

ing the charges should have convinced the most doubtful skeptic

that reforms were required. Yet hiding behind tradition and obscure

legislation, county and state officials failed to authorize any increases.

During the hot summer of 1901 strenuous efforts were made to

raise the valuations of Cleveland's five public service corporations,

which, like the railroads, were also paying incredibly low amounts.

Following heated hearings and stormy debates, the local equalization

board raised the corporations' collective property valuations from

$4,000,000 to $20,000,000. This appeared to be an important vic-

tory for Johnson, but the following winter a state board of review,

unfriendly to his administration, overthrew the whole return on a

technicality. The final phase of the tax struggle concerned local

real estate appraisals. Here Johnson employed the Somers "unit"

system 5 of scientific valuation and established the "Tax School,"

under Peter Witt's direction, to promote knowledge of it. Although

the courts abolished the tax school within a year's time for improper

use of taxpayers' money, it had already done tremendous spadework

in public education on tax affairs. These preliminary moves prompt-

4 Ernest L. Bogart, Financial History of Ohio (University of Illinois Studies in the

Social Sciences, No. 1, Urbana-Champaign, Ill., 1912), 243-245.

5 W. A. Somers, "Valuation of City Real Estate for Taxation," Municipal Affairs, V

(1901), 401-418.

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330   Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

ed a fifteen month investigation of the state tax laws, resulting in a

new statute that included many of Johnson's ideas. Passed in March

1909, the new law called for quadrennial appraisals, by appraisers

chosen without reference to party. The first study in Cleveland pro-

duced a valuation hundreds of millions of dollars above any previous

figure. Johnson, though a dying man at the time, thus saw one of

his cherished ideals realized.

Johnson made other contributions to Cleveland's welfare which

are not so well known. Over the vigorous opposition of the artificial

gas companies he brought natural gas to Cleveland. Despite argu-

ments that the supply of natural gas would give out shortly and that

it was dangerous for domestic use, he gave his full support to the

natural gas people. The franchise they secured in time cut the cost

of gas to the public from eighty cents to thirty cents per thousand

cubic feet. He established a municipal light plant, again over stren-

uous opposition, this time from the privately owned Cleveland

Electric Illuminating Company. The less expensive operation of the

municipal plant caused the C. E. I. to lower its prices almost twenty

percent in three years time. The successful fight for home rule was

another stirring Johnsonian triumph. As with taxation, the fruits of

victory here accrued not only to Cleveland, but to all municipalities

in the state. The fact that much of Johnson's work in Cleveland was

undone by state authorities in Columbus, caused him, early in his

administration, to move for the complete independence of local

governments. Few people realized what a stranglehold the state

government held on the communities, and it was no easy task to

educate the public into a proper understanding of the situation.

Years of effort along this line were rewarded in 1912 when the

fourth Ohio constitutional convention convened. Although Johnson

had died the preceding year, his friend Herbert Bigelow led the

home rule forces at the convention and won a smashing victory.

Dictation from Columbus on purely local affairs was over.

The mayor's enlightened outlook on crime and punishment led to

the construction of the beautiful and forward-looking Warrensville

Colony Farm. Harris R. Cooley, whose advanced ideas on correction

won him world-wide acclaim, was the moving force behind Warrens-

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Cleveland's Johnson                 331

ville. Within several years, the new workhouse, the poorhouse

(Colony Farm), the tuberculosis sanitarium, and the city cemetery

were completed and ready for use. Frederic C. Howe visited War-

rensville in 1907 and was amazed at what he saw. Unguarded prison-

ers were grading land and building roads and sewers. Others dug

in a stone quarry. Further on more prisoners were gathering crops

and grain. No prison garb, no ball and chain, and no barbed-wire

enclosure. It seemed incredible to learn that attempted escapes were

few, and that those most angered at such violations of the honor

system were the prisoners themselves. Howe was so excited that he

hurried home and wrote a magazine article about it.⁶ A revolution-

ary innovation at Colony Farm was the arrangement whereby aged

married couples were permitted to live out their years together rather

than being herded into barren segregated dormitories. Some visitors

were moved to tears upon reading the inscription above the old

people's cottage: "It is better to lose money than to lose love."

The Group Plan development on the Mall is another graphic

reminder of the Johnson era. Efforts to undertake the project began

before Johnson became mayor, but the real impetus was provided by

his administration. Although the new railroad terminal was finally

located on the Public Square rather than at the head of the Mall as

the Group Planners desired, and although the west side of the Mall

was never developed, the Group Plan wiped out an aching eyesore

and substituted a roomy, landscaped, civic center. Among Johnson's

minor achievements were the establishment of a forestry department;

the construction of three public bathhouses; the paving of 210 miles

of streets, an increase of 125%; the development of a new

municipal department to collect ashes, wastepaper, and refuse; the

abolition of sixteen grade crossings with eight more in progress,

whereas only one had been previously eliminated; and the intro-

duction of money-saving water meters.

 

It is just that Johnson today occupies an important place in the

history of the Progressive movement. In him were combined a rare

wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the many problems which

 

6 "A City in the Life-Saving Business," Outlook, LXXXVIII (1908), 123-127.

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332   Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

confronted municipal leaders. Distilled from a successful career in

business and politics, and a sustained study of the single tax, these

attributes made of him a unique figure. Of the many outstanding

municipal Progressives, only Johnson successfully united a resource-

ful political method with an acute "social conscience." Hazen

Pingree, though impelled by enlightened ideas, knew little of poli-

tics. Similarly, "Golden Rule" Jones sought to rectify social wrong

through his philosophical-anarchistic administration. Brand Whit-

lock, "the artist in politics," also was ill equipped to deal harshly

with corporate wealth.

Along with such men as Pingree, Jones, Whitlock, and others,

Johnson constructed a new concept of government. Heretofore

government existed to provide police protection for citizens and

private property. It cared for the so-called "housekeeping" duties.

It was not expected to go into business itself, and seldom did. All

the major services were contracted by private companies and paid by

the city. Street railways, gas, and lighting, the principal public

services, were managed by private concerns with a minimum of

municipal supervision. The traditional mayor handled the routine

chores and let the public service corporations attend to the large

jobs. By these standards Cleveland had many good mayors. Honest,

conscientious, civic-minded--these men did what the public expected

of them, but no more.

Yet in the history of the city, Johnson has been Cleveland's only

great mayor. To him the "housekeeping" tasks were incidental. As

Raymond Moley said, they were mere details, like "pressed pants

and shiny shoes."⁷ The major job was something greater. It meant

broadening the function of the city, making it completely responsible

for the well-being and comfort of the citizens. Johnson's fight

against the public service corporations was not motivated by a ruth-

less lust for power, as some critics argued; on the contrary, it was

specifically designed to bring cheaper and better services to the

people. Municipalization, he felt, would accomplish this. It did

succeed in reducing rates, and although the standard of the services

was probably lowered, Johnson honestly believed that the standard

 

7 Raymond Moley, 27 Masters of Politics (New York, 1949) 7.

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Cleveland's Johnson                 333

would be raised. This revolutionary idea of expanded governmental

services, brought down on Johnson's head storms of heartless abuse.

Yet many of our important national leaders experienced similar

treatment for seeking to enlarge the function of government.

Lincoln, Wilson, and the Roosevelts, all were roundly criticized for

simply recognizing that in our rapidly developing country some

regulation of business in the interest of the people at large was

necessary. They saw far more than did their fellows--who prophe-

sied anarchy and chaos--the real needs of their times. Johnson was

in good company.

As the centenary of his birth approaches, Cleveland is reminded

of Tom L. Johnson, though only infrequently, by his Public Square

monument. Few contemporaries can tell why he deserved such a

monument. Many would be astounded to learn how much of mod-

ern Cleveland is directly traceable to Johnson. The tangibles, such

as natural gas, water meters, municipal lighting, the rapidly disap-

pearing street railways, the Group Plan and Warrensville, have al-

ready been noted. Commonplace as they now appear, they were

considered revolutionary at one time, and heated battles were waged

to secure them. Johnson, undeterred by criticism and corporate op-

position, led this fight. Mechanically he brought the city abreast of

its growing industrial character.

The intangible contributions of Johnson are more difficult to de-

lineate. Primarily, he awakened the civic consciousness of the peo-

ple. He educated them in city government--made them interested

in it. As his accomplishments attracted national attention, the people

felt a deep pride in Cleveland. They considered themselves partici-

pants in a great experiment in democracy. It constituted a necessary

and valuable experience. Cleveland needed Tom Johnson, for as

Edmund Vance Cooke descriptively wrote:

He found us groping, leaderless and blind,

He left a city with a civic mind.

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