Cleveland's Johnson: The Cabinet
By EUGENE C. MURDOCK*
Anyone who studies the life of Tom L.
Johnson always is im-
pressed by the close ties of love and
loyalty that bound his co-workers
to him. Even stout enemies conceded
that Johnson had a compelling
personal appeal. Tempestuous Charles A.
Otis, Jr., who spent
over a million dollars trying to unseat
the mayor, recalls Johnson's
"thrilling personableness."
"You couldn't know him without liking
him," Otis observed. William R.
Hopkins, also high in Cleveland's
Republican set, confirmed Otis'
remarks. To talk with Johnson,
said Hopkins, was like receiving an
electric shock. He radiated such
charm and enthusiasm that friend and
foe fell helpless before him.1
How did this "magnetism"
operate on those within the Johnson
orbit? First, many of the helpers not
only achieved a fine record
under Johnson but also performed
distinguished service at higher
posts later in life. A secretary of
war, a federal trade commission
chairman, an immigration commissioner,
a bank president, and a
number of judges all cut their
political teeth in his administration.
The point is that when Johnson put his
personal stamp on the
progressive crusade, men of high
caliber were attracted to it. Many
youths, fresh from the Western Reserve
campus, where they argued
hotly over municipal ownership, the
three-cent fare, and equalized
taxation, gravitated to City Hall.
"Instead of raising hell in senseless
pranks," recalled Marvin Harrison,
"these kids took it all out in
Johnsonian politics."2
* Eugene C. Murdock is assistant
professor of history at Marietta College.
This is the fourth article by Dr.
Murdock on Tom L. Johnson to be published
in the Quarterly in the past four
years. The others are: "Cleveland's Johnson"
(October 1953), "Cleveland's
Johnson: At Home" (October 1954), and "Cleveland's
Johnson: Elected Mayor" (January 1956). A sequel
to the current article, entitled
"Cleveland's Johnson: First Term,"
will appear in the January 1958 issue.
1 Conversations with Charles A. Otis, Jr., August 17,
1949, and William R.
Hopkins, August 6, 1949.
2 Conversation with Marvin Harrison,
August 2, 1949.
376
THE OHIO HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
Secondly, once these people got
installed in City Hall, Johnson
made such an impact upon them that they
were never the same
again. Of the abundant testimony on
this point, a few samplings
will suffice. Newton D. Baker, for
example, once remarked that
he had known many great men in his
lifetime, from presidents to
councilmen. "But," he added,
"I can't think of one who is in the
same class with Tom L. Johnson."
Frederic C. Howe noted in his
memoirs: "My passion for the city
was also a passion for Tom
Johnson. And I had come to love him as
fervently as I loved the
things he promised to achieve.... I had
greater affection for Tom
Johnson than any man I have ever
known." The Rev. Herbert S.
Bigelow, who campaigned with the mayor
many times, wrote with
a labored hand of how "I saw him
lose his fortune and his health,
and heard the cheers of the election
crowds over his defeat. My
heart bled for him for I loved
him."3
Personal appeal is important, and it
must be conceded that
Johnson had it, but it requires far
more than that to be a successful
politician. It requires a talent for
handling men, and this Johnson
also had. Unworkable combinations of
assistants worked smoothly
when lubricated by the mayor's skillful
diplomacy. Despite deep-
seated antagonisms between Peter Witt
and Charles Salen and
between Burr Gongwer and Salen, Johnson
received full cooperation
in administration matters from all of
them. Witt and Baker became
bitter enemies in later life, but while
Johnson lived there were
no defections.4
With a friendly admonition the mayor
straightened out those
who proposed unethical practices.
"Now, Jack, that's not the way;
we can't do that." By an
encouraging word he instilled confidence,
3 Same
conversation with Marvin Harrison; Frederic C. Howe, Confessions of a
Reformer (New York, 1925), 116 127; Herbert S. Bigelow to the
author, July 6, 1949.
4 Conversation with Leo Weidenthal,
March 11, 1949; Mary Land, "The Malcon-
tents and the Melting Pot" (M.A.
Thesis, Western Reserve University, 1946), 178;
conversation with Peter Witt, July 17,
1948. Most of those with whom the author
has talked agree that Baker drifted away
from the Johnson philosophy. Marvin
Harrison remarked that although
"underneath Newton remained the same sweet,
lovable person, his liberalism was
spent. He got interested in making money and
became a safe civic leader."
Conversation with Harrison, August 2, 1949. Jack Raper,
veteran single-taxer and caustic Cleveland
Press columnist, was less generous: "After
the war he put the principles of Tom L.
Johnson in his pocket, turned his back
upon the House that Has Not and went
over to the House that Has and Wants
More." The Soviet Table (Cleveland,
1935), 19. Others, however, including Harry
Payer and Mrs. Frances Fanning Bushea,
deny this apostasy.
CLEVELAND'S JOHNSON: THE CABINET 377
as when he reassured the inexperienced
Thomas Coughlin, the new
auditor, by saying he would sign any
ordinance bearing Coughlin's
signature. "What he was telling
me," said Coughlin, "was that he
trusted my judgment, but that I should
exercise discretion."
Johnson asked Maurice Bernon, who had
just graduated from
Western Reserve, to run for council.
Although Bernon knew little
of politics, Johnson's faith was not
misplaced.5
Charles Otis insisted that the mayor
selected his co-workers for
political reasons and with scant regard
for principles: "His cabinet
was like an opera troupe. It appealed
to all elements of the elector-
ate. He had Peter Witt to stir up the
rabble, Dr. Cooley for the
uplifters, Newton D. Baker for the
intelligentsia, 'Billy' Stage for
the young college crowd, and Salen to
keep the politicians in line."
Although an intriguing argument, this
does not bear close scrutiny.
The fact that the mayor antagonized
most of the uplifters, intelli-
gentsia, and machine politicians,
including Salen himself, is ample
rebuttal. In his autobiography, Johnson
wrote:
As time went on our organization
gathered to itself a group of young
fellows of a type rarely found in
politics--College men with no personal
ambition to serve, students of social
problems, known to the whole com-
munity as disinterested, high-minded,
clean-lived individuals. Over and
over again the short-sighted majority
which cannot recognize a great moral
movement when it appears as a political
movement, and which knows
nothing of the contagion of a great
idea, attributed the interest and activity
of these young fellows to some baneful
influence on my part. "Johnson
has them hypnotized" was the usual
explanation of their devotion to our
common cause.6
Now to examine the actual formation of
Johnson's ad-
ministration.7
* * *
Cleveland's efficient federal plan
charter provided for a single,
5 Conversations with Harry Payer, March
4, 1949, Thomas Coughlin, August 8,
1949, and Maurice Bernon, March 3, 1949;
New York Times, March 24, 1954.
6 Conversation with Otis, August 17, 1949; Johnson, My Story, edited
by Elizabeth
J. Hauser (New York, 1911), 169.
7 For background material on Johnson's
election to office, see the author's
"Cleveland's Johnson: Elected
Mayor," Ohio Historical Quarterly, LXV (1956), 28-43.
378
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
responsible executive with wide
appointive powers. Six depart-
ments--public works, police, fire,
accounts, law, and charities and
corrections--were headed by directors,
all of whom were named by
and accountable to the mayor. The mayor
and the department heads
constituted a board of control,
corresponding roughly to the pres-
ident and his cabinet at the national
level. The federal plan con-
trasted favorably with the "board
plan" of government, then in
force in Cincinnati. Under the board
plan, the various department
heads were elected by the people,
preventing not only the coordina-
tion of policy but also the fixing of
responsibility.
Johnson's first important appointment
was announced April 12,
1901, when Charles P. Salen, long a
fixture in the Democratic party
of Cuyahoga County, was named director
of public works. Born
forty years before in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, Salen came to
Cleveland with his parents at the age
of seven. He attended the
public schools, concluding his formal
education at Concordia
College, Fort Wayne, Indiana. He
entered newspaper work, publish-
ing a west side journal called The
Sentinel. Active in Democratic
politics, Salen served as city clerk
from 1883 to 1885 and from
1887 to 1889. In 1890-93 he was
secretary to the board of elections,
a post he again held in 1898. In Mayor
John Farley's last term he
was director of accounts, and his
investigation of the previous
McKisson administration resulted in a
return of $20,000 to the
city treasury. Years of service in the
ranks had made Salen a loyal
and valuable party worker. It was
Johnson's intention, however,
that he manage the department of public
works strictly on business
lines. Inevitably, this concept of
"business" was to clash with
Salen's high sense of party regularity.8
On the same day that Salen was tapped,
Johnson selected Dr.
Harris R. Cooley, a single-tax
preacher, to direct the department of
charities and corrections. In
explaining this choice to Charles
Kennedy, managing editor of the Cleveland
Plain Dealer, the mayor
said:
I have attended his church for a long
time, off and on, and I know him
like a book. He is just the man to
carry out my ideas of reform in the treat-
8 Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 13, 1901.
CLEVELAND'S JOHNSON: THE
CABINET 379
ment of the unfortunate and I want him
in my cabinet as Director of
Charities, to look after the workhouse
inmates, where men and women are
often treated like dogs, and to protect
the city's poor and infirm, so badly
provided for.9
The new director was twenty when he
graduated from Hiram
in 1877 and entered the Oberlin
Theological Seminary. Following
a brief pastorate in Brunswick, Ohio,
he spent a year in Aurora
before coming to Cleveland's Erie
Street Mission, which in 1883
moved to Cedar Avenue and East 37th
Street. He had spent twenty-
one years at this Cedar Avenue Disciple
Church. Sociologist as well
as pastor, Cooley had been converted to
the single tax and municipal
ownership years before. When someone
suggested that his business
experience was limited, the mayor
replied, "There's plenty of
business experience lying around loose;
what I want for this position
is a man of judgment and heart."
Although Cooley's selection pro-
voked sneers in some quarters, it
marked a new era in social service
work.10
The law department, so important in the
subsequent "injunction
wars," began to shape up about a
week later. On April 22, Harry
Payer, who had steered Johnson's
campaign to victory, became
second assistant law director. Payer
was a young man of twenty-five
with a round face and smiling eyes.
Graduating from Adelbert
College in the spring of 1897 with a
first-rate record, he studied
at Baldwin Law School in Berea, where
he continued his good
work. Within two days, Madison W.
Beacom, a holdover from the
Farley administration but a Johnson
supporter, was named law
director. Beacom fought well in the
preliminary skirmishing with
the public service corporations during
the next year and a half,
but in November 1902 he was elected
judge in the common pleas
court. A man named Babcock was
appointed assistant law director,
April 24, 1901, but he too was elevated
to the bench in the fall of
1901. Babcock's successor was a rising
young attorney, Newton
D. Baker.11
9 Charles Kennedy, Fifty Years of
Cleveland (Cleveland, 1925), 140-141.
10 Plain Dealer, April 13, 1901, January 6, 1904; The Public, April
20, 1901.
11 Conversation with Harry Payer, April
23, 1949; Plain Dealer, March 21, April
22, 24, 25, November 24, 1901, November
6, 1902.
380
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in
1871, Baker attended
Johns Hopkins University and went on to
Washington and Lee
for his law degree. He had returned to
Martinsburg to practice law
when he received a call from William L.
Wilson, postmaster
general in President Cleveland's second
administration, asking him
to come to Washington as his private
secretary. This brief stint
in the nation's capital financed a
four-months' European tour in
the summer of 1897, after which Baker
again returned to Martins-
burg. Two years later, Martin Foran, a
Cleveland attorney whom
Baker had met aboard ship, invited him
to Cleveland to join his
firm. Reluctantly the young lawyer
again left Martinsburg, but he
apparently liked Cleveland, for in a
short time he settled down to
stay. Baker was introduced to Johnson
at a political rally in 1899,
where Foran had sent the youth to make
a speech. Although the
hard-bitten politicians chided Baker
for his greenness and good
manners, Johnson admired his poise and
they became close friends.12
Whatever his later views may have been,
Baker applied the full
measure of his ability to the
progressive cause during the Johnson
years. In his memoirs the mayor wrote:
Mr. Baker . . . was really head of the
cabinet and principal adviser to
us all . . . . No other city solicitor
has ever had the same number of cases
crowded into his office in the same
length of time, nor so large a crop
of injunctions to respond to, and in my
judgment there isn't another man
in the state who could have done the
work so well. He ranks with the
best, highest paid corporation lawyers
in ability and has held his public office
at a constant personal sacrifice. This
low-paid official has seen every day
in the court room, lawyers getting often
five times the fee for bringing a
suit that he got for defending it. He
did for the people for love what
other lawyers did for corporations for
money.13
Johnson engaged Baker as legal adviser
to the annual city board
of equalization in May 1901. The
following fall he became first
assistant law director and in November
1902 was appointed law
director to serve out the unexpired term
of judge-elect Beacom.
Baker was elected city solicitor, the
new name for the law director
12 Howe, Confessions of a Reformer, 30;
Frederick Palmer, Newton D. Baker:
America at War (New York, 1931), I, 45, 74-77; conversation with W. T.
Kelley,
August 17, 1949.
13 Johnson, My Story, 173.
CLEVELAND'S JOHNSON: THE CABINET 381
under the Nash Code, in 1903 and was
returned to office thrice
thereafter, leaving the post only to
run for mayor.14
* * *
Three officials of lesser importance,
police chief, city clerk, and
waterworks superintendent, proved to be
central figures in many
bitter controversies. Fred Kohler,
Peter Witt, and Edward Webster
Bemis were all men of action, boldness,
and independent judgment
--qualities which did not endear them
to party regulars, church
leaders, businessmen, and conservatives
of all persuasions. Still
each adhered faithfully to his course,
and with the solid backing
of Mayor Johnson, rendered a valuable
service in the fight for
reform.
Despite an excellent record Kohler was
not liked within the
police department. A member of the
force since 1889, he had
placed first in the examinations for
sergeant in July 1895 and
broken all records with a perfect paper
in his lieutenancy exams
in 1897. However, he was a Republican,
and the Democratic Farley
administration tried to force him out
in 1899. Unsuccessful efforts
to trap him into errors, and a year's
exile in the "woods" failed to
break his spirit, and he continued to
do his job conscientiously and
without complaint. In May 1900 he was
reassigned to the central
station area, where he at once made
life miserable for criminals,
opium addicts, vice operators,
gamblers, and professional bondsmen.
In December 1900 he was named
captain.15
The opposition to Kohler was largely
personal and in a way
represented a mild frustration complex.
He had been promoted
over the heads of older officers, he
was highly efficient, he was a
Republican, and he seriously sought to
crack down on the vice-
ridden "Tenderloin" in the
East Ninth-Hamilton district. Saloon-
keepers, gamblers, and various lawless
elements joined in the attack
on Kohler in late April 1901, when he
announced he would enforce
the midnight-closing ordinance. When
Lieutenant John Dunn,
14 Conversation with Harrison, August 2,
1949; Johnson, My Story, 173; Plain
Dealer, May
28, 1901, November 6, 1902. A valuable short study of Baker as he
appeared in the Johnson years may be
found in Carl Lorenz, Tom L. Johnson, Mayor
of Cleveland (New York, 1911), 67-75.
15 Plain Dealer, May 1, 1903.
382
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
over whom Kohler had been promoted to
captain, was named
director of police on August 19,
Kohler's prospects seemed dark
indeed.16
Unaware of the politics behind the
anti-Kohler move, Johnson
consented to Dunn's plan of
transferring Kohler to the fifth district
in the eastern outskirts early in
September. The mayor later wrote:
"Some of our partisan party
workers brought tales about Kohler to
me. I had no reason to suspect these
persons of ulterior motives,
and thinking I was acting in the best
interests of the city I caused
him to be removed from the downtown
district and stationed in an
outlying section of the city."
While Kohler again went to the
"woods" without protest,
Johnson's doubts as to the wisdom
of
the transfer mounted. In the spring of
1902 he decided to act:
I sent for him to come to my house to
see me. He came. I liked his looks
and I liked his manner. He inspired me
with confidence at once. I was
sure now that he had been maligned and I
told him so.
"I have done you an
injustice," I said, "and I've just found it out. How
would you like to be chief?"
"I haven't asked for it," he
answered. "I'm a Republican."
"I don't care anything about your
politics and I know you haven't asked
for anything."
On June 4, 1902, it was announced that
Kohler would be returned
from the east end and made chief of
detectives.17
Although Dunn was a professional police
officer, the director of
police was generally drawn from
civilian ranks and charged with
overall policy matters. The execution
of policy was in the hands of
the police chief, who was responsible
to the director. When
Johnson became mayor, the chief was a
veteran policeman named
Corner, who was extremely jealous of
his prerogatives. Whereas
Corner resisted any interference from
the mayor, Johnson soon
became thoroughly dissatisfied with
Corner. When the chief failed
to investigate promptly a brutal
Woodland Avenue murder in
December 1901, the mayor concluded that
he might have to send
him about his business.18
16 Ibid., April 20, August 18, 20, 1901.
17 Johnson, My Story, 181,
182; Plain Dealer, June 5, 1902.
18 Plain Dealer, December
7, 1901.
CLEVELAND'S JOHNSON: THE
CABINET 383
Other events were to supervene,
however, which not only gave
Corner a reprieve but also completely
tied the hands of the city
administration. This was the period of
the federal plan ouster and
the Ohio Supreme Court decree of June
26, 1902, all of which
culminated in the new Nash Code, a
board-plan type of municipal
government. Although this eventful
story cannot be told here, it
is enough to know that from July 1902
until May 1903 the govern-
ment of the city of Cleveland was
literally in the lap of the anti-
Johnson Ohio Supreme Court. All acts of
the administration were
liable to review by the court, hence
the discharge of Corner or
anyone else unfriendly to Johnson would
undoubtedly be reversed
in Columbus.19
Johnson went ahead anyhow and in
November 1902 ordered
Corner and five incompetent captains of
twenty-five years' service
to resign. In high dudgeon all six
appealed to the supreme court,
which on November 19 enjoined Johnson
from meddling in the
police department. With this vote of
confidence Corner began
issuing orders in great profusion, and
Kohler remained chief
of detectives. Corner, of course, was
staking his all on Johnson's
defeat in the April 1903 elections, for
under the Nash Code, which
would become operative the following
month, the mayor appointed
the new two- to four-man board of
public safety. Realizing that
his position was untenable, Corner
retired soon after Johnson's
reelection, noting that his
"impaired health" offered him no other
choice. At last Kohler was chief of
police.20
Before he was on the job a day the new
chief had instituted
a number of sweeping reforms. He first
combined the police and
detective branches under one head, and
then began a systematic
reorganization of the whole force.
There were daily stories of
transfers, of the weeding out of
incompetents, and of the retiring
of the overaged. When two patrolmen
balked at retirement, Kohler
threatened to charge them with
incompetency, charges which if
sustained would disqualify them for
pensions. The patrolmen re-
considered and then retired. Kohler
issued a new book of instruc-
19 Full details of these proceedings may be found in the author's doctoral
dis-
sertation, "A Life of Tom L.
Johnson" (Columbia University, 1951), 171-189.
20 Plain Dealer, November 11, 13, 14, 19, 20, 27, 1902, May 1, 2, 1903.
384
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tions ordering all police captains to
meet in the central station
every morning at seven o'clock before
going to their districts. In ad-
dition, he established schools of
instruction for patrolmen. Johnson
recalled that
nobody connected with the
administration originated more improvements
in his department than Kohler did. I
was frequently given personal credit
for innovations which properly belonged
to the chief. After we got to
working together he never worried me
with details. He had that judgment
so rare in executive officers which
made him rely on himself.21
The success of Kohler's methods, both
in carrying out Johnson's
anti-vice campaign and in his own
"golden rule" treatment of
minor wrong-doers, soon brought the
chief national fame. President
Roosevelt, attending the funeral of
John Hay in Cleveland in 1905,
shook Kohler's hand, calling him the
country's "best chief." "I
have been watching your career with
interest," he said. "When
I was Commissioner of Police in New
York City, I tried to develop
some men like you. I wish I had had you
with me then." Despite
the "best chief" label,
Kohler continued to offend the malcontents,
who several times sought his ouster. On
one particular occasion
the party regulars went after Kohler's
scalp because he had fired
some Democrats and hired some
Republicans. Following a thorough
investigation, however, Johnson gave
the chief a clean bill of
health.22
* * *
The most colorful personality in the
Johnson administration was
Peter Witt, a hard-hitting, outspoken,
blacklisted ironmolder.
Although he held no elective office
under Johnson, he was named
director of the "tax school"
in 1901, and was chosen clerk of the
city council annually from 1903 to
1910. As the mayor's number one
trouble-shooter, Witt tangled with tax
boards, public-service
corporations, courts, Republicans, and
anyone else who got in the
way.
21 Ibid., May 3, 17, July 2, 12, 1903; Johnson, My Story, 182.
22 Plain Dealer, June 26, July 4, 1904, July 6, 1905.
CLEVELAND'S JOHNSON: THE CABINET 385
Revolution was in Witt's blood. Born in
1869 of exiled German
"Forty-Eighters," he was
forced to leave school and seek work at the
age of thirteen. By 1886 he was an
ironmolder's apprentice. Active
in union affairs, he helped organize
the Cleveland section of the
Populist party in 1892; for this
impropriety he was blacklisted by
all the foundries. "The foundry
employers were all patriots," Witt
said. "They believed in the
traditional American right of free
speech so devoutly that they locked
their doors to me so I could
give all my time to exercising that
right."23 It was during the de-
pression years of the nineties, when
starvation was a near reality
for himself and his young family, that
Witt's philosophy crystallized.
Dr. Louis Bryant Tuckerman, a
well-known Cleveland physician
and philanthropist, introduced Witt to
the teachings of Henry
George, and the years of unemployment
convinced him of the
validity of the single tax.24
At a tent meeting in Johnson's 1894
congressional campaign,
Johnson was repeatedly interrupted with
cries of "Peter Witt."
After he finished talking, Johnson
wrote, "an angry, earnest man,
with flashing eyes and black locks
hanging well down on one side of
his forehead, rose in the center of the
tent and shaking a long
finger at me put a question in the most
belligerent manner imagin-
able." Realizing that this must be
Witt, Johnson amiably invited
him to the platform. Witt hesitated,
but prodded by friends, he
finally came forward. Johnson wrote
that
the time consumed and the difficulty
encountered in stumbling over camp
chairs through the crowd and up onto the
platform worked a change in
Mr. Witt's manner. Fully half his steam
had escaped and there wasn't much
of his venom left when I grasped his
hand. So little kindness had come
his way that he was not prepared for the
warm reception and cordial
introduction to the audience which I
gave him.25
Interest in Henry George and the single
tax caused Witt to make
a thorough study of taxation. In 1899
he published the fruits of his
research in a little pamphlet entitled Cleveland
Before Saint Peter,
23 Ibid., October
21, 1948.
24 Ibid., March 6, 7, 1902; Howe, Confessions of a Reformer, 77-79.
25 Johnson, My Story, 84-86.
386
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
wherein the "tax dodgers,"
among whom was ex-congressman Tom
L. Johnson, received a merciless
excoriation. He was named assessor
for the decennial board of equalization
in 1900, and his findings
along Euclid Avenue's
"Millionaire's Row" added powerful am-
munition to his arsenal of facts.
Witt became director of Johnson's
ill-fated "tax school," launched
in April 1901 to educate the citizens
of Cleveland in the Somers'
"unit system" of tax assessment.
The Public approved the choice,
saying, "No better selection could
have been possible. . . . He is a
blacklisted moulder, whose enforced
exclusion from his trade has had
the effect of turning his attention to
the study of municipal ideas."26
Like a number of Johnson's other plans,
however, the tax school
was destroyed by the courts, and Witt
was without a job at the end
of 1902. The mayor's efforts to find
work for his young helper were
momentarily suspended, as the 1903
election soon dominated the
local political scene. Witt himself was
laboring hard for the
Johnson cause, speaking almost every
night and giving movie talks
on taxation, new buildings, paving
improvements, and what not.
So satisfactory was his work that when
the Democrats won a smash-
ing councilmanic victory, he was
promptly elected city clerk, a post
he held until Johnson left office.27
* * *
Edward W. Bemis, the waterworks
superintendent, received his
Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1885, and
became first a professor of
history and political economy at
Vanderbilt University, and later
a professor of political economy at the
newly founded University
of Chicago. He worked for a year with
the Illinois Bureau of Labor
Statistics, taught for two years at the
Kansas State Agricultural
College, and then moved to New York
City, where he headed the
department of municipal monopolies in
the bureau of economic
26 April 20, 1901.
27 Plain Dealer, January 23, May
5, 1903; Kennedy, Fifty Years of Cleveland, 142;
Lorenz, Tom L. Johnson, 75-81;
Carl Wittke, "Peter Witt, Tribune of the People,"
Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly, LVIII (1949),
361-377. All
Cleveland newspapers carried brief
accounts of Witt's life on October 21, 1948, the
day after his death. Some valuable
material can be found in the Peter Witt papers
in the possession of Witt's daughter,
Mrs. Stuart Cummins of East Cleveland, Ohio.
CLEVELAND'S JOHNSON: THE
CABINET 387
research. A short, scholarly-looking
man, Bemis was a statistical
expert in municipal government. He
gathered data on a host of
subjects and then determined what
should be done and how it
should be done. However much ridicule
was heaped upon Bemis
for his academic and old-maidish ways,
he seldom lost his calm,
plodding manner, refusing to let the
jibes of the various tax
boards disconcert him.
Although Johnson was frequently
criticized for wasting Bemis
in the waterworks, then a division of
the department of public
works, actually the waterworks provided
a convenient excuse for
Bemis. First, it permitted the mayor to
experiment with civil service
under able administration in a
spoils-ridden department, but more
important, it placed at his elbow an
expert in municipal government.
Bemis' reputation grew to such
proportions that other cities fre-
quently requested his services on the
basis of a sometime consultant.
This exposed the administration to
attack, but Johnson defended
his position:
He [Bemis] draws his salary as a city
employee in charge of the Water-
works Department simply for the time
that he works. Whenever he leaves
the city as he did the other day and
tenders his services as an expert, as now
at Syracuse, he does not draw his salary
from the city treasury for that
time that he is absent. Of course he is
paid by the municipality which
summons him to get his advice, but he is
not paid by the City of Cleveland
at the same time.
Almost immediately after Johnson's
defeat in November 1909,
Bemis took an excellent post in Mayor
William J. Gaynor's admin-
istration in New York.28
While it is uncertain where Johnson
first met Bemis, their paths
probably crossed in Detroit in 1899,
where a street railway com-
mission was preparing data for the
city, prior to the purchase of
the street railway system. At this time
Bemis was agent for the
commission and Johnson was president of
the street railway com-
pany. Both were intensely interested in
establishing a municipal
street railway system, and no doubt
they became well acquainted.
28 Conversations
with Peter Witt, July 17, 1948, and Weidenthal, March 11, 1949;
Plain Dealer, January
22, 1906; Lorenz, Tom L. Johnson, 51-52.
388
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
At any rate, their friendship did
pre-date the mayor's election,
because Bemis was one of the first to
telegraph his congratulations
to Johnson on April 2, 1901.29
Early in May it was announced that
Johnson had hired the tax
expert to assist in his campaign for
just and full assessment of the
steam railroads. The railroad hearings,
which began May 9, 1901,
and continued for two weeks, were so
exhaustively covered by
Bemis that his report became required
reading for all students of
railroad taxation. In July he assisted
the annual city board of
equalization in assessing the five
public-service corporations of
Cleveland. At this point, however, when
it appeared that there was
no further need for Bemis' services, an
explosion wrecked the crib
five miles out in Lake Erie, with the
loss of nine lives. When two
workers were found alive fully three
days after rescue efforts had
been abandoned, Johnson was irate. The
waterworks superintendent
was summoned to the mayor's office and
ordered to explain the
blunder. Why had the search been halted
when there was still a
chance to save the men? He did not know
why. About a month
later Johnson uncovered further
incompetence and laxity in
addition to political favoritism in the
waterworks and discharged
the superintendent at once.30 Bemis,
who was named to succeed him,
achieved a fine record in the
waterworks, but the civil service rules
he instituted were bitter medicine for
the party machine and fre-
quent clashes occurred.
* * *
For his private secretary, Johnson
hired Walter Burr Gongwer, a
young Republican reporter for the Plain
Dealer. Although Gongwer
supported William Akers in the 1901
campaign, his respect for
Johnson increased as he listened to his
speeches. When they knew
each other better, the mayor asked
Gongwer if Charles Kennedy
would release him to become his
secretary. The Plain Dealer's
managing editor feigned disapproval at
first, but at length "re-
lented" and the arrangement was
consummated. Gongwer remained
a Republican for another year, but the
spell was too great, and he
29 Municipal Affairs, III (1899), 473-490; Plain Dealer, April 3,
1901.
30 Plain Dealer, May 5, August 20, September 17,
19, 1901.
CLEVELAND'S JOHNSON: THE CABINET 389
joined the Democratic party in 1902.
His appointment was the start
of a long and stormy political career
which eventually led to the
leadership of the Cuyahoga Democratic
machine.31
The only really bad appointment was
Johnson's selection of Dr.
Daniel Heimlich for the health office,
which under the federal
plan was a branch of the police
department. Heimlich got into
difficulties late in May 1901, when he
failed to carry out the
mayor's instructions at a west-side
detention home. Although he
weathered this crisis, the end came
with a quick blow two months
later. Called into Johnson's office,
Heimlich was accused by a
liveryman named Ratner of altering
bills submitted to the health
department for the rental of Ratner's
horses and rigs. Heimlich
was dismissed on the spot.32
The new health officer, quiet,
unassuming Dr. Martin Friedrich,
was a smallpox expert. One week after
taking command he ordered
the cessation of compulsory
vaccination for smallpox,33 on
the
ground that the vaccine points being
received from the manu-
facturers were contaminated with
tetanus. According to Friedrich,
three recent cases of lockjaw were
directly traceable to the infected
points. He at once organized teams of
young medical students from
Western Reserve and dispatched them to
sections of the city where
the disease had broken out with orders
to decontaminate every room
and particle of clothing in the
infected homes. From July 28, when
this method was instituted, to August
23 seven new cases of small-
pox developed, but after this latter
date until well into the next
year, there were none. The editor of The
Arena wrote: "Through
the happy selection of Dr. Martin Friedrich,
Cleveland today enjoys
an immunity from smallpox, while other
cities are filled with
the dreaded disease, and armies of
physicians and Boards of Health
are vainly trying to cope with it
through vaccination."34
31 Ibid., April 24, 1901, September 29, 1948; Kennedy, Fifty
Years of Cleveland,
143-144. An undated Plain Dealer clipping
in a scrapbook at the Western Reserve
Historical Society also has some
information on Gongwer.
32 Plain Dealer, May 23, 24, July 21, 23, 1901.
33 Earlier, on May 17, the mayor opposed
compulsory vaccination, saying, "Don't
go shooting people full of poison
against their will." The next day, however, under
pressure from local medical authorities,
he permitted the health office to carry on its
compulsory vaccination. Plain Dealer,
May 18, 19, 1901.
34 Plain Dealer, July 28, 1901; The Arena, April 1902, carries a
good account
of Friedrich's fight against smallpox,
while Lorenz pays a fine tribute to Friedrich's
accomplishments. Lorenz, Tom L.
Johnson, 58.
390
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
There were others whose worth Johnson
discovered and utilized;
there were some whose incapacity got
them short shrift. William
J. Springborn, elected to council as a
Republican in 1901, so con-
sistently allied himself with the
Johnsonites that he was repudiated
by his party. The mayor placed him on
the ballot in 1903, and for
the remaining six and one-half years of
Johnson's administration he
served as a Democratic member of the
three-man board of public
service, successor to the one-man
directorate. His contributions in
building municipal garbage and light
plants and in modernizing
the street-cleaning department, merited
wide acclaim. A self-made
man, Springborn "was endowed with
common sense, great in-
dustry, a fine memory, and quick
comprehension."35 Daniel E. Leslie,
also on the public service board, was
responsible for developing the
park system and for providing ball
diamonds, playgrounds, shelter
houses, public concerts, and carnivals.
Frederick C. Howe, like
Springborn a Republican councilman in
1901 who was turned out
by his party, became a Democratic state
senator in 1905-8. He
fought for Cleveland's rights at
Columbus and later was elected
to the board of quadrennial appraisers
in the fall of 1909.
In August 1902, John Wilhelm, the
superintendent of streets,
was fired for unethical political
activity, but after that the only
important change was the Corner
resignation. It took Johnson
nearly two years to get the cabinet he
wanted, but when his second
term commenced in 1903 he had a fine
group of men around him
and was well prepared for the long
fight with the street railway.
In Baker, Salen, Witt, Cooley, Kohler,
Bemis, Payer, Springborn,
and Howe the mayor had an accumulation
of intelligence and re-
sourcefulness that few municipal
executives could match. Johnson
must share some of the credit for his
good record with these
devoted helpers.
35 Lorenz, Tom L. Johnson, 52-53.