Editing Hiram Johnson (section)

==U.S. Senator (1917–1945)==
{{multiple image
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| image1        = Refusing to give the lady a seat - Rollin Kirby Trim.jpg
| caption1      = "Refusing to give the lady a seat"<br />Cartoon by [[Rollin Kirby]] mocking senators [[William Borah|Borah]], [[Henry Cabot Lodge|Lodge]], and Johnson for their opposition to the [[Treaty of Versailles]] {{circa}} 1919–1920
| image2        = Rollin Kirby - 'Gainst the League, Aint' You, Warren Trim.jpg
| caption2      = "'Gainst the League, Aint' You, Warren?"<br />Another cartoon by Kirby depicting Johnson coercing presidential candidate [[Warren G. Harding]] into opposing the [[League of Nations]],{{efn|Harding already opposed the League.}} July 26, 1920
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In 1916, Johnson ran successfully for the U.S. Senate, defeating conservative [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] [[George S. Patton (attorney)|George S. Patton Sr.]] and took office on March 16, 1917. Johnson was elected as a staunch opponent of American entry into [[World War I]], but voted in favor of war after his election. He later voted against the [[League of Nations]]. He allegedly said, "The first casualty when war comes is truth." However, this quote may be apocryphal.<ref>[[q:Hiram Johnson|Wikiquote, Hiram Johnson]]</ref>

During his Senate career, Johnson served as chairman of the Committees on Cuban Relations (Sixty-sixth Congress), Patents (Sixty-seventh Congress), Immigration (Sixty-eighth through Seventy-first Congresses), Territories and Insular Possessions (Sixty-eighth Congress), and Commerce (Seventy-first and Seventy-second Congresses).

In 1916, Representative [[John I. Nolan]] introduced H.R. 7625, which would have established a $3 per day [[minimum wage]] for [[Government employees in the United States|federal employees]]. It was endorsed by the [[American Federation of Labor|AFL]] and the [[National Federation of Federal Employees]],<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ely |first1=Frederick W. |title=Nolan wants more pay for U.S. employes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/994982895/?terms=%22minimum%20wage%22&match=1 |access-date=28 April 2025 |work=[[San Francisco Bulletin]] |date=19 January 1916 |location=San Francisco}}</ref> but the bill's opponents in the House kept it from coming to a vote.<ref>{{cite news |last1= |first1= |title=Minimum wage bill must now wait |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/995023395/?terms=%22minimum%20wage%22&match=1 |access-date=28 April 2025 |work=[[San Francisco Bulletin]] |date=8 August 1916 |location=San Francisco}}</ref> In 1918, Senator Johnson co-sponsored the legislation,<ref>{{cite news |title=Minimum wage bill reaches U.S. Senate |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/75984795/?terms=%22minimum%20wage%22&match=1 |access-date=28 April 2025 |work=[[The Washington Herald]] |date=17 February 1918 |location=Washington, D.C.}}</ref> and it became known as the Johnson-Nolan Minimum Wage Bill. It passed the House that September, but was stalled in the Senate [[Committee on Education and Labor]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Senate Subcommittee to consider minimum wage for government employees |journal=The Elevator Constructor |date=January 1919 |volume=XVI |issue=1 |page=26 |url=https://archive.org/details/elevatorconstru01consgoog/page/n33/mode/1up |access-date=28 April 2025}}</ref> It was reintroduced two years later and passed in both the House and Senate,<ref>{{cite journal |title=Victory for the Johnson-Nolan Minimum Wage Bill |journal=The Federal Employee |date=29 May 1920 |volume=V |issue=22 |pages=1, 10 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015080172094&seq=1&view=1up |access-date=28 April 2025}}</ref> but when it went to conference it was [[Filibuster in the United States Senate|filibustered]] by [[Southern Democrats]]<ref>{{cite journal |title=Johnson-Nolan Minimum Wage Bill Held Up in the Senate |journal=The Federal Employee |date=12 June 1920 |volume=V |issue=24 |pages=1 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015080172060&seq=7 |access-date=28 April 2025}}</ref> who opposed it because it would have paid [[African American]] employees the same as white employees.<ref>{{cite news |title=Filibustering Democratic Senators defeat living wage to government employees because of colored man |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-voice-of-the-people-equal-pay-not-fo/18238356/ |access-date=28 April 2025 |work=The Voice of the People |date=4 September 1920 |location=Birmingham}}</ref>

In the Senate, Johnson helped push through the [[Immigration Act of 1924]], having worked with [[Valentine S. McClatchy]] and other anti-Japanese [[Lobbying|lobbyists]] to prohibit [[Japanese people|Japanese]] and other [[East Asian]] immigrants from entering the United States.<ref name=Niiya/>

In the early 1920s, the motion picture industry sought to establish a self-regulatory process to fend off official censorship. Senator Johnson was among three candidates identified to head a new group, alongside [[Herbert Hoover]] and [[Will H. Hays]]. Hays, who had managed President Harding's 1920 campaign, was ultimately named to head the new [[Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America]] in early 1922.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110907075103/http://www.callmefatty.com/id8.html "Will Hays: America's Morality Czar"]}}, "Source: 'Will Hays.' ''Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement'', Vol. 21. [[Gale Group]], 2001." Retrieved September 12, 2011.</ref>

As Senator, Johnson proved extremely popular. In [[1934 United States Senate election in California|1934]], he was re-elected with 94.5 percent of the popular vote; he was nominated by both the Republican and Democratic parties and his only opponent was Socialist [[George Ross Kirkpatrick]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://elections.harpweek.com/1912/bio-1912-Full.asp?UniqueID=6|title=HarpWeek – Elections – 1912 Biographies|website=elections.harpweek.com|access-date=August 18, 2017}}</ref>

Johnson was a member of the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] continuously for 25 years, from the 66th Congress (1919–21) through the 78th Congress (1943–44) and one of its longest serving members. In 1943, a confidential analysis of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made by British scholar [[Isaiah Berlin]] for his [[Foreign Office]], stated that Johnson:
:is the Isolationists' elder statesman and the only surviving member of the [William E.] [[William E. Borah|Borah]]-[Henry Cabot] [[Henry Cabot Lodge|Lodge]]-Johnson combination which led the fight against the League in 1919 and 1920. He is an implacable and uncompromising Isolationist with immense prestige in California, of which he has twice been Governor. His election to the Senate has not been opposed for many years by either party. He is acutely Pacific-conscious and is a champion of a more adequate defence of the West Coast. He is a member of the Farm ''Bloc'' and is ''au fond'', against foreign affairs as such; his view of Europe as a sink of iniquity has not changed in any particular since 1912, when he founded a short-lived progressive party. His prestige in Congress is still great and his parliamentary skill should not be underestimated.<ref name="hachey1973">{{cite journal|url=http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/published_works/singles/bib139a/bib139a.pdf |title=American Profiles on Capitol Hill: A Confidential Study for the British Foreign Office in 1943 |author=Hachey, Thomas E. |journal=Wisconsin Magazine of History |date=Winter 1973–1974 |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=141–153 |jstor=4634869 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021185357/http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/published_works/singles/bib139a/bib139a.pdf |archive-date=October 21, 2013 }}</ref>

In 1945, Johnson was absent when the vote took place for ratification of the [[United Nations Charter]], but made it known that he would have voted against this outcome.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}} Senators [[Henrik Shipstead]] and [[William Langer]] were the only ones to cast votes opposing ratification.<ref>Fitzpatrick, 1975.</ref>

===Presidential politics===
[[File:TIMEMagazine29Sep1924.jpg|thumb|''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' cover, September 29, 1924]]
Following Theodore Roosevelt's death in January 1919, Johnson was the most prominent leader in the surviving progressive movement; the Progressive Party of 1912 was dead. In 1920, he ran for the Republican nomination for president but was defeated by conservative Senator [[Warren Harding]]. Johnson did not get the support of Roosevelt's family, who instead supported Roosevelt's long-time friend [[Leonard Wood]]. At the convention, Johnson was asked to serve as Harding's running mate but he declined.<ref name="mhamilton1">{{cite journal|last1=Hamilton|first1=Marty|title=Bull Moose Plays an Encore: Hiram Johnson and the Presidential Campaign of 1932|journal=California Historical Society Quarterly|date=September 1962|volume=41|issue=3|pages=211–221|jstor=25155490}}</ref> Johnson sought the 1924 Republican nomination against President [[Calvin Coolidge]]; his campaign was derailed after he lost the California primary. Johnson declined to challenge [[Herbert Hoover]] for the 1928 presidential nomination, instead choosing to seek re-election to the Senate.<ref name="mhamilton1"/>

In the [[1932 United States presidential election]], Johnson broke with President Hoover. He was one of the most prominent Republicans to support Democrat [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]].<ref name="mhamilton1"/> During Roosevelt's first term, Johnson supported the president's [[New Deal]] economic recovery package and frequently "[[crossed the floor]]" to aid the Democrats. By late 1936, he was convinced that Roosevelt was a dangerous would-be dictator. Although in poor health, Johnson attacked Roosevelt and the New Deal following the [[Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937]], the president's "[[court-packing]]" attempt.<ref>Fitzpatrick, pp. 253-263.</ref>