Interesting you should mention Hiram Johnson, our first and last Progressive
governor.

One, his son was a member of my college fraternity at the time. College
Mixers were prominently featured in the San Francisco Chronicle during that
period.

Second, it was during his administration that the whole proposition/recall
experiment in Direct Democracy was started. That brought us Prop 13, and
Larry Flynt for governor.

Hiram Johnson broke the power of the mining and, in particular, the railroad
interests, that dominated the state at the time in a manner un-imaginable
today (read Frank Norris "The Octopus" to get an idea of what it was
like...) but even as a left-of-liberal small d democrat, I think both the
propositions and the recall have gotten out of hand.

Hmmm, how am I going to get back on topic (this is RAH afterall) from
here......
--
Ryan "Octave Chanute was building gliders down in San Diego while Johnson
was Governor" Young
Oakland, CA
http://users.lmi.net/~ryoung

From: Jim Weir

Hiram Johnson was just such a governor of California, back in the 19teens. He
was such a dark horse that when the press came to the door to wake him up the
next day and told him he had won, his first words were immortalized:

"My God, what do I do now?"

Jim

-
- You could put the Mt. Hale telescope INSIDE the Mt. Palomar telescope
- and STILL not see my chances for winning.
-
-Yeah, but go back and re-read "The Mouse That Roared". Then realize that
-you just *might* win, and be afraid... be very afraid.