Background
Johnson was born on January 1, 1884, in Scandia, Kansas, the son of Nels Johnson, a farmer, and Annabelle Lunn. In 1888 his family moved to a cattle ranch in western Nebraska.
governor politician senator statesman
Johnson was born on January 1, 1884, in Scandia, Kansas, the son of Nels Johnson, a farmer, and Annabelle Lunn. In 1888 his family moved to a cattle ranch in western Nebraska.
In 1903, Johnson graduated from high school in Lincoln.
After graduating from high school, Johnson worked as a railroad section hand, telegrapher, and train dispatcher. Seeking a cure for his tuberculosis, he and his wife moved to Colorado in 1909 and lived for six months in a tent colony in Fountain, near Colorado Springs. In 1910 they homesteaded near Craig in northern Colorado. After regaining his health, Johnson taught school, managed a farmers' cooperative milling and elevator company, and operated a trucking firm. In 1922 he was elected as a Democrat to the Colorado House of Representatives, soon becoming a leader of the minority party. He served four terms between 1923 and 1931. From 1931 to 1933 he was lieutenant governor and confidential secretary to Governor William H. ("Billy") Adams.
Johnson was elected governor of Colorado in 1932. In the 1934 Democratic primary he defeated Josephine Roche, who was the manager and part owner of the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company and had the backing of the United Mine Workers, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Edward P. Costigan, Colorado's liberal senator. He then won the general election. In April 1936, Johnson announced his candidacy for the United States Senate after Costigan became ill and declined to seek reelection. Despite opposition by young liberals in the Democratic party, Johnson easily won the primary and then the general election, campaigning as an independent thinker who was not afraid to criticize the New Deal. "Big Ed, " as Coloradans called him, won reelection in 1942 and again in 1948. He later claimed that his political success came from personal contact with constituents.
Johnson established a record in the Senate as a maverick and a workhorse, exhibiting consummate political skill, though he rarely made speeches. He voted more than 50 percent of the time against administration programs, opposed a third and a fourth term for the president, and sided with isolationists. He opposed the nomination of both Frank Knox as secretary of the navy and Henry Stimson as secretary of war, calling them warmongering interventionists. Although Johnson voted against the lend-lease bill in 1941, he later called upon Americans to accept lend-lease and to support the president in his foreign policy.
As a member of the Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Johnson created a sensation in 1949 when, in a televised plea for tighter security, he revealed that United States scientists were working on a weapon 1, 000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. This disclosure was considered a violation of security; it also led to a popular outcry against development of the hydrogen bomb. In 1950, Johnson again came to national attention when he introduced a bill requiring federal licensing of actors, actresses, producers, and distributors of films. He called his bill "a practical method whereby the mad dogs of the industry may be put on a leash to protect public morals. " In 1954 he once more drew attention when he served as vice-chairman of the special Senate committee that investigated censure charges against Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. Johnson subsequently voted with the Senate majority to censure the Wisconsin senator. Rather than seek reelection to the Senate for a fourth term, Johnson, at his wife's request, returned to Colorado, where he served a third term as governor (1955-1957). He died in Denver, on May 30, 1970.
Johnson's primary concern upon assuming office in 1933 was to reduce government expenses through reorganization and streamlining. He also called for tax reduction, civil service reform, highway construction, unemployment relief, penal reform, and constitutional revision. Although he accepted federal aid for Colorado, Johnson was a states'-rights advocate and resented federal interference. Throughout most of his two terms, he engaged in a bitter struggle with Harry Hopkins, who, as administrator of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), refused federal funds for relief until the state legislature appropriated matching money. Johnson resented the fact that FERA spent state funds at its own discretion. He referred to Hopkins and the federal appointees who administered the relief program as "social workers full of theories on humane welfare of the parlor socialist type. " Because of delays in getting projects started, Johnson became discontented with the Works Progress Administration (WPA), also headed by Hopkins, and engaged in constant battle with Paul D. Shriver, the man chosen as WPA administrator for Colorado. Johnson claimed that the administrator was filling positions with Costigan people. Although Johnson backed some New Deal programs, including the Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Recovery Administration, in 1944 he labeled the New Deal "the worst fraud ever perpetrated on the American people. "
Johnson attracted national attention during the spring of 1936 when he declared martial law and sent the National Guard to the Colorado-New Mexico border to prevent migrant farm laborers from entering the state and competing with Coloradans for jobs. He was forced to lift the embargo a few days later in the face of widespread protest from farmers, sugar companies, and New Mexican officials.
During World War II, Johnson sponsored legislation granting pay raises and benefits to servicemen, supported agricultural programs, and opposed the Smith-Connally antistrike bill. After the war, Johnson voted for a volunteer army, increased benefits to veterans, the United Nations, and Bernard Baruch's plan for international control of atomic development. Nevertheless, he remained largely an isolationist, opposing military aid to foreign powers. He fought against the Truman Doctrine but voted for the Marshall Plan because it involved no military aid. He advocated using atomic weapons to end the war in Korea.
Johnson was the President of the Western League, a Class A baseball league, from 1947 to 1955.
On February 17, 1907, Johnson married Fern Claire Armitage; they had two children.