William Hugh Johnston was born on December 30, 1874 in Westville, Pictou County, Nova Scotia, the fifth of six children and only son of Adam and Jane (Murray) Johnston. He was a descendant of Scottish working people. His father, a carpenter, moved his family to Rhode Island in 1885.
After attending grammar school in Providence, young Johnston was apprenticed to the Rhode Island Locomotive Works, where he learned the machinist's trade.
After completing his apprenticeship the Rhode Island Locomotive Works, he worked for a year for the same company and then transferred successively to the New York, Providence, and Boston Railroad (later part of the New Haven system), the Builders Iron Foundry, and the Jencks Manufacturing Company. Early in his career he had joined the Knights of Labor.
In 1895, while employed by the Jencks company, he helped to organize Local No. 379 of the International Association of Machinists, of which he became a charter member. Not content to be a passive member of his union, Johnston from the beginning showed a desire to promote its interests. His abilities and efforts were soon recognized by his associates, and in 1901 he was elected president of Local No. 147, to which he had transferred.
He had meanwhile been offered the post of general foreman by his first employer, the Rhode Island Locomotive Works, but since one of the conditions was that he give up his union activity, he refused.
In 1905 he was a delegate to the national convention of his union, which enabled him to become more widely known. In the same year he was chosen for the important post of president of District 19, embracing the locals in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.
Elected a business agent of Local 147 in 1906, he won reelection in 1907 and 1908. In 1909 he achieved a more important office when he became president and general organizer of District 44, comprising union machinists employed by the federal government.
The union contained a substantial socialist group, however, and with their support Johnston in 1911 succeeded in defeating James O'Connell, the incumbent, for the presidency. He held the post from January 1912 to July 1926.
Despite his socialist beliefs, Johnston supported the government during World War I, serving on the National War Labor Board, 1917-19. And although he had often opposed the policies of Samuel Gompers within the A. F. L. , Johnston served on a labor commission headed by Gompers which visited a number of European countries during the war.
Johnston helped to organize the Conference for Progressive Political Action in 1922, and in 1924, as its chairman, he presided over the Progressive party convention which nominated Senator Robert M. La Follette for president and Burton K. Wheeler for vice-president.
In 1925 Johnston faced a serious challenge within his union from a radical group influenced to a degree by the Communists (whom Johnston bitterly opposed), but he succeeded in winning reelection. He resigned the next year, however, following a stroke.
He remained thereafter on the staff of the union until his death, which occurred at his home in Washington, D. C. , eleven years later. He was buried in Washington.
William Hugh Johnston's main achievement was in becoming a president and general organizer of District 44, comprising union machinists employed by the federal government. Prior to that he served as president of Local No. 147 of the International Association of Machinists in 1901. In his policies as president, Johnston was regarded as a "progressive, " as distinct from the "pure and simple" trade unionists then dominant in the American Federation of Labor, who opposed political action by labor and any government intervention in economic affairs. In 1905 he accomplished to be chosen for the important post of president of District 19, embracing the locals in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. Favoring the retention of the railroads by the federal government after the close of the war, Johnston was one of the leaders of the Plumb Plan League, which proposed that the federal government purchase the railroads and then turn them over to a management comprising the officers of the railroads and representatives of the employees. Another Johnston's achievement was in his leadership in the movement which took shape in the postwar period for greater participation in politics by organized labor, ultimately leading to labor participation in a third party in the presidential election of 1924.
A socialist in his political beliefs, Johnston had for some time opposed the policies of the national leaders of his union, the International Association of Machinists.
Johnston favored independent political action and also industrial unionism, which he espoused on the floor of the conventions of the A. F. L.
Early in his career Johnston was a member of the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor. He was also a member of the International Association of Machinists.
On November 1, 1907, he had married Harriet L. Lunn; they had no children.
