la OF CAUF. LIBRARY. M>8 " Pussyfoot 5 ' Johnson Crusader Re for met A Man Among Men BY F. A. McKENZIE Author of " Korea's Fight for Freedom," etc. INTRODUCTION BY Dr. WILFRED T. GRENFELL ILLUSTRATED \ r NEW YORK CHICAGO Fleming H. Revell Company LONDON AND EDINBURGH Copyright, 1920, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. London : 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street A WORD OF APPRECIATION By WILFRED T. GRENFELL ANY tribute I can pay to "Pussyfoot" Johnson, I consider it a privilege to pay. He is a sportsman in the very best English sense of the term, and that appeals to all good Englishmen. Every true sports- man possesses the Christ spirit he " counts not himself." When Mr. Johnson was flour-bagged, ridden on a hurdle, and had one of his eyes put out by the villainous liquor traffic for it was that, and nothing else that caused the outrage he smiled, and said it was an accident. It was* But it was something worse ; it was a blunder. When Mr. Johnson was to appear on a public platform after the cowardly assault made upon, him, his enemies expected to see him wearing a " black patch " to invite sympathy, as did Long John Silver in Treasure Island. But they reckoned without their man. " Pussyfoot ** was a real sportsman. He needed no molly- coddling methods to bolster up his ideals. He refrained from appearing in public until he 5 2131448 6 A WORD OF APPRECIATION could wear such a good artificial eye that his audience found it difficult to beleve he had ever lost his real one. That we loved. It was the straight, sporting spirit. " Where's the seventy-five millions we Eng- lish in good faith put into your American breweries ? " I heard one man screaming at him an ugly-looking villain, with the flag of his vile profession hoisted in his nose and face. " You never put five cents in American breweries," answered Mr. Johnson. " That's a lie You're a liar," bawled Mr. Boozy face. " It was German breweries in America that got your money," snapped back " Pussyfoot." That sort of an answer reaches the heart of a crowd. The liquor traffic is a dirty business, a filibus- tering business, and enslaving business, and all honor to the men engaged in resolutely down- ing it. I used to love the orations of the late J. B. Gough they made me weep and boil alternately. But for these days I prefer the verity, the directness and the sense of humor of " Pussyfoot " Johnson. I have come to love Mr. Johnson, just as, when a boy, I loved Mr. Greatheart. He is a good soldier of Jesus Christ. God bless him ! A WORD OF APPRECIATION 7 " Pussyfoot " Johnson's career has been marked by many vicissitudes, but he can, at least, be congratulated on the character and ability of his present biographer. Not only is Mr. McKenzie a man deeply versed m public affairs and specially qualified for setting them forth, but one in genuine unsimulated sympathy with the temperance reformer and his work. His sketch of Mr. Johnson's life is in eveiy way authentic. He has had access to all the latter's private papers, note books, etc., from which the facts he presents in the present volume are taken. Last, but not least, Mr. McKenzie was Chairman of the London meet- ing which culminated in the scenes of riot and disorder, during the enactment of which, " Pussyfoot " Johnson lost his eye. He very modestly refrains from his share in the pro- ceedings and merely refers to himself as " the Chairman." Seeing that Mr. McKenzie ran just as much risk and stood in just as much danger of personal injury as Mr. Johnson, this word of recognition is certainly due him. W.T.G. The Smile That Disarms Critics PREFACE THE Prohibition movements rank among- the most remarkable crusades of modern times. That is a fact hardly to be denied even by those who differ most strenuously from it. The majority of the English-speaking communities of the world,, and some non-English-speaking nations, have voluntarily, within a few years, renounced a favorite and established habit a habit which., literature, tradition and custom had caused the- majority of people to regard as one of the pleasures of life. Alcohol had been for generations untold an anodyne in grief, a symbol of joy, a medicine for the invalid and comfort for the mourner.. It accompanied men literally from their birtl* to their grave. No christening was complete without it; every birthday was made the oc- casion for the drinking of healths : a wedding feast without strong drinks would have seemed 10 PREFACE like a banquet without meat; and before they laid a corpse in its final home the mourners gathered together and decorously drank wine. Then came the movement against alcohol. Men ceased to drink, at first individually. After a time they banded themselves in so- cieties and formed an easy butt for novelists and satirists. Next they started to cut off the sale of drink in their own communities, vil- lage by village, town by town, state by state. More recently whole nations agreed volun- tarily to stamp out the traffic. To-day men are dreaming of a " dry " world, and it is. a dream that may come true in our time. Of all those recently associated with the pro- hibition movement the name of only one has become, up to now, a household word throughout the world " Pussyfoot " Johnson. Fortune brought me in touch with Mr. John- son in an exciting and adventurous hour. Our experiences then led to further meetings. In time I came to see the man as he is, and to understand why he has won the place he holds. When it was suggested by others that I should write this brief sketch of his life, Mr. PREFACE 11 Johnson hesitated. He would prefer to work for to-morrow and leave the adventures of yesterday to themselves. " I do not believe in a biography that is all praise," he once said to me. " The only perfect beings that I know are in Heaven." His only request was that I should write as a critic rather than a eulogist. " I have learned a lot from criticism," he de- clared, " and I have a lot more to learn yet." This narrative is a plain record of some of the main incidents in the adventurous life of an adventure-loving man who has been a fighter from his youth up. I have come to admire William E. Johnson because of his directness, his simplicity, his courage, and his shrewd capacity. It is a good thing to observe the life of a man who goes straightly and strongly on, with his eyes set at one mark, a man who is neither weakling nor pietist, trim- mer nor ranter, who can and does give hard blows, and who is ready to take equally hard blows without malice. " Pussyfoot " Johnson won the admiration of two continents by his cheerful courage when he lost his eye as the result of a students' 12 PREFACE " rag " in London. The qualities that he re- vealed then were not assumed for the moment, but were part of the man. I do not profess to share all his views, but I am proud to have the honor to tell of the life work of a real " white " man. For the facts and the demonstration de- scribed in connection with Mr. Johnson's " Welcome Home " as narrated in Chapter XIII, credit and appreciation is given to Mr. J. H. Larimore, ex-Mayor of Westerville, Ohio. F. A. McK. CONTENTS I. FROM NEW YORK TO NEBRASKA 17 II. THE REAL START ... 29 III. BACK TO NEW YORK . . ... 46 IV. LIFE IN THE " BAD LANDS " . 65 V. How " PUSSYFOOT " WON His NAME 81 VI. MORE ADVENTURES IN THE WEST ..... 102 VII. JOHNSON RESIGNS . . .118 VIII. THE CAMPAIGN FOR NATIONAL PROHIBITION . . . .127 IX. LAUNCHING THE WORLD CAM- PAIGN 138 X. How " PUSSYFOOT " LOST His EYE 152 XL THE " BOGEY MAN" BECOMES A POPULAR HERO . . .164 XII. ENGLAND " DRY " BY 1930 . . 177 XIII. THE WELCOME HOME 186 ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE William Johnson Title The Smile That Disarms Critics . . 8 "Pussyfoot" Johnson's "North Star" 20 Santa Clara Pueblo Temperance Leaders 106 Mr. Johnson Opening the Essex Hall Debate 152 The Morning After " The Rag " . .164 Drinking the Health of Mr. Johnson . 178 London Welcomes Johnson . . .184 Johnson's Arrival Home . . ; . .190 FROM NEW YORK TO NEBRASKA WILLIAM EUGENE JOHNSON was born in the village of Cov- entry, New York, on March 25th, 1862. He was the son of a farmer, and descended from good New England stock. His father's family was from Connecticut, his mother's (the Stiles) from Massachusetts; and they could trace their line back for two hundred years of pure Yankee stock. An ancestress on his mother's side was hanged as a witch in Salem during the great witch- craft craze at the end of the seventeenth cen- tury. His grandfather had come to Coventry in the days when Central New York was a wil- derness, walking all the way from Colchester, Conn., to spy out the land, that he might settle there if he found it suitable. He dis- 17 18 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON covered a good plot of eighty acres owned by a land company, and bargained for it, with the company's representative, a Frenchman. He had saved $300, which he had left in the care of his brother in the old home town. A deal was made with the land company, and the grandfather walked back to Colchester for his wife, his ox-team and the $300. On reaching home he found that his brother had got drunk and had spent all the money. Un- daunted, he took his ox-team, his axe and his wife, and travelled once more to Coventry, to tell the Frenchman that he could not com- plete his bargain because his money had gone. "How much money have you?" the agent asked. " None," was the reply. " You take the land and pay for it when you can," was the unexpected response. The land agent even helped to fit him out with a barrel of salted pork. It was on that land that, two generations later, William E. Johnson was born. The grandfather had two sisters, Clarissa and Jerusha, both missionaries among the FROM NEW YORK TO NEBRASKA 19 Cherokee Indians in Arkansas. A medical missionary there, Dr. Marcus Palmer, mar- ried Clarissa, and when she died, married Jerusha. He lost his sight, and came back East to Fitchville, Ohio. Here he was en- gaged apparently as a preacher, but his main work was very different. He was an active worker in the Anti-Slavery campaign, and he ran a station on the famous " Underground Railway," by which escaping negroes made their way in safety to the North. The Palmers took a negro boy, Henry M. Wynder, into their home, and educated him so that he was able to become a teacher in a private school kept by their daughter. He was, for a time, William E. Johnson's teacher. Heredity and early home training mould the man. William E. Johnson, reformer, received his bent in the roomy old farmhouse at Smith- ville Flats, to which his family moved when he was two years old, and where he passed his childhood. It was a temperance farm- house all the time. The Johnsons had had their pew in the Presbyterian Church near by, as long as men could remember. The ideals 20 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON of the old anti-slavery campaigners were bred in them. The lad was brought up to an open-air life. He early learned to master horses, which is not a bad beginning in the art of learn- ing to master men. The last time he was thrown off a horse was when he was five years old. His old friends still recall him as a square-toed, sturdy-shouldered youth, full of physical and mental energy, always ready for a fight, and going through with it to a finish. Johnson himself declares that the supreme influence in his life was his mother. She was "just a mother." S&e lived to a ripe old age, and her son to this day always carries her portrait with him. It is to her, he de- clares, that he owes all. People who knew lier describe her in her last years as " an old, old, white-capped lady, supremely proud of her son's battle for an ideal, supremely con- fident that, no matter what the overwhelming obstacles, he could not fail. When she died there passed a fine woman who had, more than anyone else, implanted in the son the ideas " Pussyfoot " Johnson's " North Star " FROM NEW YORK TO NEBRASKA 21 and the steadfastness that had made him suf- fer for his ideals, and laugh at his prosecu- tors, wth a gameness that almost disarmed them." The son paid this tribute to her in the dedi- cation of one of his books: "To my Mother. From the beginning she has been an eternal inspiration to higher and better things." Johnson when a very young man spent two winters in his home State of New York " teaching school," taking out part of his pay- ment in board, as was the custom in country districts at that time. Most houses had one room facing the northwest for the preacher or the teacher when they visited their district. In some homes the " preacher's room " was not so carefully looked after as in others, and sleeping in a damp bed gave the young fellow a severe illness which left him a physical wreck and with an asthma from which he suffers to^ this day. He went out West to regain his strength 22 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON to a ranch near Fremont, Neb., owned by his father and his uncle, and there put in a sum- mer of open-air work, increasing his weight from 1 20 to 165 pounds and fully recovering. As winter approached there was nothing more for him to do on the ranch, so he thought that he would teach school again. He called on the County Superintendent of Education and asked for work. The superintendent informed him that all teachers had to pass an exami- nation and that the examinations for that win- ter were already over. " Couldn't you hold a private examination for me to-morrow ? " asked Johnson. The superintendent agreed, and fixed next morning for the ordeal. He handed John- son a list of the subjects in which he must pass. One was physiology. Now, the lad from New York knew nothing of physiology. He was not even quite sure what it was; but he went to a second-hand bookstall, bought an old text-book, sat up all night studying, and next morning passed his examination tri- umphantly. There were only two schools vacant, and FROM NEW YORK TO NEBRASKA 23 Johnson was warned not to try for one of these, as he would not like it. The first school was twenty-five miles away. He borrowed a horse and set out for a ride across country to see the authorities there. The horse was a real bucking broncho. It took two men to hold it when he mounted, and once in the saddle there came a right royal fight between man and beast. But Johnson had not been brought up on a farm for nothing. The horse did not throw him. And by the time the day was over even the broncho had lost its " pep," for man and horse rode sixty-four miles that day. He found when he got to the first vil- lage that the place was already filled, so there was nothing for him to do but to turn round and ride another forty miles to the second district the place he had been warned against. This district was the home of a number of German-American families. The local au- thorities told Johnson that he could try his hand at teaching school there if he liked, but on their terms. "We will pay you $40 a month salary, but we will only pay it if we 24 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON are satisfied that you are maintaining proper -discipline. We are to be the sole judges as to whether you are or not." The young teacher readily agreed. A form of contract was drawn up. He signed it, scarcely troubling to read it, and was duly installed. He soon learned what was in front of him. There had been no school at this place for two years, because no teacher was willing to undertake the work. For two years before that no one had succeeded in remaining there for more than about a week. The boys prided themselves on their ability to beat any teacher in that time. School opened, and thirty pupils came twenty-eight boys and two girls. Johnson .studied them carefully as they clumped in, their wooded shoes clattering on the floor. They were an ordinary-looking group. He -anticipated no difficulty with any except one. a young giant as old as himself, of amazing muscular development and weighing quite 220 pounds. Johnson knew if it came to a straight 'trial of strength between himself and that FROM NEW YORK TO NEBRASKA 25 youngster, who would win. So he made his plans accordingly. Here, as in many other parts, the school teacher was school janitor also. Johnson pro- vided himself with a good heavy poker for the stove, and saw that the poker was always within reach. For the first few days nothing untoward happened. Then one afternoon the teacher noted that his dangerous pupil was throwing a book at another lad. " Cut that out," said Johnson shortly. "Haw! You shut up! " retorted the young- giant. " We've had enough of you. You've been here long enough. Get out ! " And he rose from his seat and made for his teacher,, the others jumping up at the same time and following in his wake. There was no more trouble in that schooL A fortnight afterwards the young giant re- turned to his place in class, the meekest of the meek. The authorities paid Johnson $40 a month without a question. They admitted they had at last found a man who could main- tain discipline. 26 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON From school Johnson went to Nebraska State University at Lincoln, working his own way through by doing all kinds of odd jobs. He remained at the University for three years, but did not graduate. His career from an academic point of view was not a great suc- cess. The new West was in the making; fresH population was pouring in. All kinds of enter- prises were afloat. A man had to be ready to put his hand to anything, from doing chores to maintaining law and order. A local news- paper badly needed a circulation manager. It had a subscription list of three hundred. Johnson took up the post, and by hard work raised the number to about three thousand. Just about this time one of the periodical land booms which swept over the West struck Nebraska. These land booms are the mad- dest form of gambling. Values go up on paper out of all reason. When the boom is at its height a plot in a back street in a coun- try town will sell for nearly as much as a small plot in Michigan Avenue in Chicago, or in the City of London. " A " buys a plot FROM NEW YORE TO NEBRASKA 27 for $100. He sells it to " B " next day for $200. Someone else pays " B " $20 for a short-time option to buy the plot at $300, and succeeds in selling it for $350, and so on. For a time everyone makes money, and there is an appearance of amazing prosperity. Out- side speculators are drawn in. Costly under- takings are launched, and the boomsters-in- chief metaphorically " light their cigars " with $5 bills. This is the time for the wise man to step from under, but very few people are wise. A slump always follows and leaves a sadder and wiser community behind it. Johnson bought an option on a plot of land for a few dollars, and sold it next day at a profit of $150. Why should he go on work- ing hard and making a scanty living as circu- lation manager when he could pick up hun- dreds of dollars in that way? He threw up his job and opened an office as real estate dealer. He bought and sold, dickered and bargained, and secured an in- terest in all kinds of enterprises, from a Turk- ish bath to central town lots, until at the end of a few months he was worth $30,000. Like 28 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON nearly everyone else, he kept on too long, was caught in the slump and finished up worth $4,000 less than nothing! He had married during this time Miss Lillie M. Trevitt, of Lincoln, and found a wife ever ready to stand by him in dark hours, to cheer when things looked most threatening, and to take her full share of toil. There was a stiff row to hoe before he recovered his financial stability again. He took seriously to journalism, became man- ager of the Nebraska News Bureau, and here the way opened up that led to his real life- work. II WILLIAM E. JOHNSON'S life has been so bound up with the move- ment for the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic drinks that it is impossible to appreciate the one with- out knowing something of the other. The modern prohibition movement took its rise in the State of Maine over eighty years ago. A committee of the Maine Legislature re- ported in 1837 that: "The traffic (in strong drink) is attended with the most appalling evils to the community. It is an unmitigated evil. Your committee are not only of the opinion that the law giving the right to sell ardent spirits should be repealed, but that a law should be passed to prohibit the traffic in them, except so far as the arts or the prac- tice of medicine may be concerned." Neal Dow, the son of a rich Quaker farmer, 29 30 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON began a vigorous agitation to have this opin- ion embodied in the law, and the first Pro- hibition Act was passed in Maine in 1846. It was an imperfect and experimental measure, only the sale of ardent spirits, not wine or beer, being forbidden. The act was a fail- ure. Learning from experience, Mr. Dow, five years later, framed a more drastic bill. This was carried through the State Legisla- ture in two days and was actively enforced immediately in spite of much opposition and some rioting. The Maine example was quickly followed, and by 1855 thirteen States, including New York and Pennsylvania, had adopted prohibi- tion. Then came a time of reaction. In some States the law was not enforced. The nation became more and more absorbed in the battle over slavery and in the growing cleavage be- tween North and South. Prohibition was de- clared in some States unconstitutional, a deci- sion which was reversed some years later. In State after State prohibition was repealed and in some, where it was retained, it was only enforced in a half-hearted fashion. THE REAL START 31 The movement received a set-back from which it took many years to recover. Maine remained faithful, but even in Maine enforce- ment of the law was irregular. In the early 'eighties the new West launched a fresh cam- paign, the State of Kansas in particular, pre- senting an example of successful prohibition which was to have wide-reaching effects. The fight was much harder now than in the early days. The liquor trade had become thoroughly organized and had reduced the bribing of Leg- islatures and the manipulation of the press to a fine art. The prohibitionists at this stage aimed to secure not merely the passage of State laws forbidding the sale of drink, but the passage of State Constitutional Amendments making prohibition an integral part of the Constitu- tion of each State. One large section of tem- perance reformers made what is now gen- erally recognized as a mistake in establishing a separate political party of their own, the Prohibition Party, rather than in working through the established parties. A number of well-intentioned people, in- 32 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON eluding many men of great influence, believ- ing prohibition to be impracticable, introduced measures for the more effective control of the drink trade. High license, the chief of these, was fathered at first by many prohibitionists as being a step towards their desired goal. The principal planks of this platform were a re- duction in the number of saloons and the pay- ment by each saloon-keeper of a high license fee. In place of being a step towards pro- hibition, high license was quickly found to be the most effective weapon for fighting it. It gave the taxpayer a financial interest in main- taining the drink traffic, the license fees go- ing towards the reduction of taxes. The dis- pensary system originated in South Carolina; under it the State itself became the retailer of intoxicants. When the historian of the future comes to analyze the forces that lay behind the pro- hibition movement he will find one of the chief among them to be the revolt of decent citizens against the influence of the saloon in public life. The saloon-keeper was not the old "mine host" of ancient times, the land- THE REAL START 33 lord who cared for the comfort of man and beast, but the seller of strong drinks, directly concerned with selling as much strong drink as possible and with nothing else. It was to his interest to control the police, so that they might not be too active against disorderly con- duct of his customers. In order to make his control more effective he became partner with the local " bosses." His overlords, the brew- ers and distillers, did the same, only on a big- ger scale. The saloon became the centre for the worst elements in national, state and local politics. It was partner with the gambling hell and house of ill-fame. The decent citi- zen, who wanted to "clean up" corruption and immorality in his locality, found the sa- loon his greatest enemy. The saloon-keeper had no real friends. Even the men who patronized him most freely scorned him and were often the first to fight for his elimina- tion. A struggle was developing at this time in Nebraska which was to have a profound ef- fect on Johnson's future life. Nebraska was the first State in the Union to adopt high 34 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON license. In 1889 the prohibitionists made ready to put up a real fight for a constitutional pro- hibition amendment and Johnson threw him- self into the campaign. He was well under thirty years old at the time, full of energy and of great physical strength. His exper- iences as a newspaper man had taught him ingenuity and resource. If he had to fight the devil he believed in fighting him with fire, and turning his weapons on the forces of evil themselves. Johnson was brought into the reform move- ment by heredity, through the influence of Andrew G. Wolfenbarger, a Lincoln attorney, by the example of his mother, and by his asso- ciation with a remarkable character, " Bishop " George B. Skinner. The " Bishop " was a livery stable-keeper in Lincoln, who was given his nickname because of his episcopal appear- ance, his white hat and long whiskers. He had a picturesque and variegated past and his language was noted for its variety and profanity, even in the West. He reformed, quit drinking and cut off all his vices except swearing. He started a temperance move- THE REAL START 35 ment the Red Ribbon Club which was for the time famous. One Sunday afternoon, while at college, Johnson was at Skinner's hall with a dozen other students. There had been music and speeches, and an appeal was made for men to come up and sign the pledge. Johnson turned to his companions. " What is the matter with you fellows ? " he demanded. " Come up and sign." " We will if you do/' someone declared. " Come right along," Johnson responded. He led the way to the front, ten or twelve following him. They had not gone half-way before the organ and viola struck up the Sankey hymn: " See the mighty hosts advancing, Satan leading on." There came a quick burst of laughter from the audience. The advance paused. But from that time Johnson was openly committed. He was one of the reformers. He gave quick proof of his qualities. There had been a great deal of talk of wholesale corruption by the " wet " leaders. The sub- 36 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON ject was a matter of common gossip. No one had any real proofs. Johnson set about ob- taining them. He had some letter-heads printed, "John- son's Pale Ale," and wrote to a number of prominent liquor dealers and others who had taken a leading part in the anti-prohibition campaigns in other States, asking them how best prohibition could be defeated in Ne- braska? This circular ran as follows: "DEAR SIR, " There is a prohibition amendment pending in this state, and I would like to have your ad- vice as a member of the trade. You have had experience in fighting prohibition in your state, and you know what the best plans are. " Please tell us frankly what you think we should lay the most stress on in Nebraska, for accomplishing the best result for the liquor trade. It is my opinion that if the Nebraska dealers will take up high license and show its advantages as a revenue measure, and a plan for regulating the traffic, etc., they will get the support of the best people, and even some preachers. What do you think of this? "What effectiveness is there in using anti- prohibition documents? What class of docu- ments are best ? Do you know of any documents THE REAL START 37 that will have weight against prohibition among the religious people? " How should campaign funds be distributed for the best results? Is it worth while to hire speakers or to engage in debates with the pro- hibitionists? I think myself that the trade will accomplish more by spending the bulk of the funds among newspapers, and for quiet work with men of influence, especially politicians. Give me your best plan for working through political machinery, and especially how to silence the pulpit and press." The organizers of the liquor dealers' cam- paigns fell into the trap, and wrote him long letters describing their plans. One of the chief among them, Mr. Harry P. Crowell, of Phila- delphia, suggested that Johnson should come and see him. "If you are going to have a fight, and were to come here I would give you, I think, in three hours, more than I could write in a week." Johnson did not go him- self, but sent a deputy and Mr. Crowell opened up in conversation his whole plans, how he had raised money, how much he had paid to dif- ferent politicians for their support, his meth- ods with the newspapers, and the like. " Make a plea for high license and the battle is yours 38 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON that is, if you have the papers and politicians with you and you can get them if you have the money," was the substance of his advice. The publication of these letters and of the interview caused an immense sensation and had the effect of drawing national attention to Johnson's work. The New York Voice, the leading organ of the Prohibitionists, offered him an engagement during the campaign in the West. He at once became a marked man. Every abusive abjective that could be strung together was used in describing him. Jour- nalism in the West was very full-blooded in those days. Johnson's opponents would start by describing his personal appearance in any- thing but complimentary terms. Then they would turn to his morals and his manners. Apparently the only good thing they could find in him was his personal courage, and this even his bitterest enemies never attempted to deny. "Whatever may be said about this prohibition detective Johnson to his disadvan- tage, it must be admitted that he is a brave man," wrote the Lincoln Daily Journal. Johnson gave his enemies as good as he got. THE REAL START 3 He was in real fighting form. He smiled when his opponents hit him, and then punched back. Here for example is his description of Omaha, where he was engaged in a fierce pro- hibition battle: " Omaha has degenerated into an incorporated band of outlaws. It presents to-day the most extraordinary spectacle ever witnessed in the pol- itics of any state. The whole city is in a state of moral stupor and mental delirium tremens. It has absolutely lost sight of every consideration of decency, fairness and respect for law which usually govern the relations of men in social and business life and is wallowing in the filthy em- brace of the saloon while it fortifies itself by abuse, villification and slander on the street and in the press, and defies the law by a criminal use of the boycott in business circles. Claiming a majority of six to one against prohibition, it is in a crazy apprehension lest the prohibitionists will intimidate license voters, impede registra- tion and voting and inaugurate a reign of terror. It is a truly remarkable combination of crime, degradation and absurdity. If it were not damn- able, it would be pitiable. If it were not pitiable, it would be ridiculous." The fight at Omaha was of unusual inter- est. The big Nebraska city was the centre 40 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON of the %ht over prohibition. Johnson went there to help his side. One of the first things he did was to make a careful study of the conditions under which the ballot for the Constitutional Amendment would be taken. He discovered that the last census returns had been padded to an amazing extent He put enumerators to work and found in one ward three times too many names. The census re- turns made Omaha appear as a city of 139,000 people. Johnson declared that the real popu- lation was not over 115,000. This estimate was subsequently confirmed. The bogus names had been added to enable the liquor party to cast a number of dummy votes on their side. Johnson published these facts. Once more the vials of wrath opened on him. He was a " prohibition liar," " conscienceless," " notor- ious," " shady," " a slimy serpent," and so on and so forth. His articles dealing with the situation were published in the New York Voice and the Lincoln Call. Thousands of copies of these papers containing the exposure were mailed THE REAL START 41 to the people of Omaha. The anti-prohibition- ists, however, were in control of the machin- ery of administration and they discounted Johnson's activities by holding up the copies sent for sale and by delaying the distribution of the mailed issues of the Voice until after the election was over. A few days before the election Johnson proposed that he and his friends run a tem- porary daily paper of their own. The lead- ing newspaper in Omaha was the B,ee. The new paper was to be called the Bumble Bee. It was a real fighting sheet. Ten thousand a day were printed and boys were sent out to distribute them in the streets. By now the anti-prohibitionists were concentrating their fury upon Johnson, who had become the out- standing figure in the campaign. Day by day the papers attacked him, in some cases directly urging the people to do away with him. His friends seriously feared that he would be mur- dered. Mr. V. O. Strickler, a prohibition law- yer, went to the newspaper offices, and warned the editors of the probable results of what they were doing. He told them that they had no 42 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON right to stir up bitter animosity against John- son. He was a newspaper correspondent and in no sense a detective, simply reporting for his paper. "If Johnson is murdered while in this city it will be because the papers have inflamed the public mind against him," he told them. Johnson himself was the least disturbed man of all. He quietly went on with his work, producing his paper day by day. At first the other side did not see how to stop him. On the last day, however, a group of men lay in ambush in side streets waiting for the boys as they emerged from the print- ing offices with their Bumble Bees. They got them, took their papers away, gave them a kick and a cuff, and told them to " Cut off home." All did so, except one youngster, who hurried back, showed a wound in his head and told how he had been treated* Johnson saw red. He gave the boy some more papers and sent him out a'gain. " I will see that you are not hurt," he said, and he followed after the lad, who was scarcely out of sight of the office before a street corner man jumped on him. That street corner man THE REAL START 43 must have imagined the next second that a cyclone had struck him. He was scarcely on the lad before Johnson was on him. Johnson admits that he could never recall afterwards what happened during the next few minutes. A very limp, battered-looking op- ponent was left on the pavement. A crowd gathered and the man's friends made a rush for Johnson, who cleared them off by a vig- orous use of his fists, and got his back to a telegraph pole. A sympathizer tried to get near him to hand him a revolver so that he might defend himself. Johnson had a revolver of his own in his pocket, but he had no inten- tion of using it. At that moment a police patrol came up. His friend was arrested, and while Johnson was defending himself from at- tacks in front someone got behind the telegraph pole and caught him by the neck, so that he was soon firmly secured. The police took him to the station. On the way Johnson suddenly remembered his own revolver and managed to slip it quietly from his pocket up his sleeve. Inside the station he was roughly searched down to see if he 44 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON had any arms on him. Then the policemen and station hands turned on him. They re- garded him as fair sport. The young reformer turned sharply on them. "You mutts," he said. "You thick heads ! Talk about catching anything ! Why, you couldn't catch the itch if you tried. You felt me down for a gun and found nothing. Look here!" He took his revolver out of his sleeve and handed it over to them. " You couldn't even find that on me." This formed the basis of a fresh charge of carrying dangerous weapons and threatening the police with them. It was Saturday night. Johnson was not even allowed to communi- cate with his friends to obtain bail. When some of them forced their way in and de- manded that they be allowed to go bail for him, the police refused. Then a fresh party arrived on the scene, the father of the boy who had been injured. He too saw red and was full of fight against the police and the politicians who had hired the men who had hit his son. When the case came to court everyone wanted to compro- THE REAL START 45 mise it, everyone, that is, except Johnson. " I don't want to be let off," he said. " I beat that man up and I want it to go on record that I did. He deserved a beating up. I did it and I will pay a fine for it." He did not go as far, however, as another noted char- acter in a different trial, who paid double the fine that had been fixed so that he might pay in advance for the opportunity of doing it again. Johnson put away and carefully preserved in a place of honor the official receipt for his fine. No. 1647 $7-5 POLICE COURT. State of Nebraska Omaha, Neb., Nov. 7, 1890 W. E. Johnson. Received of W. E. Johnson the sum of Seven & 50/100 Dollars. Fines and costs in the above entitled case. LEE HELSLEY. Police Judge Original Ill BACK TO NEW YORK JOHNSON was now a busy and success- ful newspaper man, well known and in some quarters well hated in the West, and with established connections in New York. He had become famous in his own sparsely settled section of the country, both as an or- ganizer and a writer. He did a great deal of work about this time for a Kansas City paper, the Sunday Sun, edited by Henry L. Preston. The Sun was out to attack anyone or anything, no matter how highly placed or how influential, when such person or party was, in the opinion of the editor, open to such action. No busi- ness, social or political reasons were allowed to keep anything out of the paper. Naturally it had a very stormy career, having to fight 46 BACK TO NEW YORK 47 about three hundred libel actions in three years. Johnson was one of its most fiery and racy writers, and citizens of Dallas, Texas, and elsewhere have still lively memories of the storms he raised and the fights he fought. He had been keeping up his work for the New York Voice, and at the end of 1895 he received an invitation to join the staff of that paper at New York. He did so, remaining there until 1900, when the paper was reor- ganized and transformed into the New Voice, its headquarters being shifted to Chicago. Johnson came prominently to the front in New York in 1896 over the examination then being made into the administration of the Raines Law. Under this law, which had been introduced by Senator Raines with a genuine desire to increase temperance, various reforms were introduced. Saloons were compelled to close on Sunday. Intoxicants could be sold on that day only in hotels and when served with meals, etc.; the abuse came in defining what constituted a hotel; the outcome was the ad- dition of a few sleeping rooms as an adjunct 48 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON to the common saloon, and the serving of a single sandwich was considered a meal. After his arrival in New York, Johnson examined the " Raines Law " hotels carefully. The Senate of the State of New York or- dered an inquiry into the working of the Raines Law, and Johnson was called as a witness. He gave first a number of statistics which he had collected, showing that as soon as the law came in force there had been an increase of eighty- four per cent, of arrests for drunkenness and seventy- four per cent, for all causes under the new law. He then pro- ceeded to bring further evidence proving that the new type of hotels had become great cen- tres for immorality. He told the results of personal inquiries. Then he went on to give a number of opinions he had collected from prominent people. Soon Senator Raines had had enough and suggested that Mr. Johnson should stop. " I would like first to give some letters from police captains," Johnson replied. , These letters from the police captains were still more damning. Then he went on to describe how he had BACK TO NEW YORK 49 investigated faked clubs opened under the Raines Law and how he had found that they were simply places for unlimited drinking. Johnson's evidence caused a sensation. It was so precise, so documented, so free from surmise and full of facts that it was impos- sible to ignore it. His testimony, to quote the reporters present, " annoyed Senator Haines, who gave evidence of temper in questioning the witness." His crowning blow was a let- ter from a famous police officer, Captain Max Schmittberger : "The fact is that under the Raines Law, so- called Raines Law hotels are permitted to keep open all night and dispense liquor provided a sandwich is served. The back rooms of many of those have become sinks of iniquity, where women of both colors and of the lowest type resort and ply their calling, and many of these places are nothing more than disorderly houses. The police are powerless to a certain extent, and where arrests have been made upon evidence obtained in my precinct for proprietors of such place for keeping disorderly houses, they have escaped by the plea that the people registering at these places registered as man and wife, and that the character of the woman was unknown 50 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON to the proprietor. Although I keep the strictest watch on these cases, I have succeeded in only one case in having the proprietor indicted by the grand jury. " MAX SCHMITTBERGER, " Captain, Twentieth Precinct." This letter was, as one subscriber said, " The blow that nearly killed father." At the close of the day Senator Raines himself practically acknowledged that his measure, which was in- tended to take the saloon out of politics and preserve the sanctity of the Sabbath, had re- sulted in the establishment of large numbers of doubtful resorts of all kinds. " Lo ! The Religious Sleuth," was the headline of one New York daily above Johnson's evidence. It was recognized that a new kind of man had come into the reform business, a man who got up his facts as carefully and as ac- curately as the most precise prosecuting coun- sel, who dealt in facts and left emotional ap- peals to others. This same quality in Johnson's work was again strikingly demonstrated by his investi- gations into the South Carolina dispensary BACK TO NEW YORK 51 system. This system was introduced by Sen- ator Benjamin R. Tillman to defeat prohibi- tion, because the Senator believed that pro- hibition would not work. It gave the State a monopoly of the liquor traffic, abolishing all liquor shops and substituting for them dis- pensaries where the liquor could be purchased in bottles for consumption off the premises. A State Board of Control, with five mem-' bers elected by the Legislature, supervised the trade. Johnson made no secret of his belief that Senator Tillman was honest and sincere in his attempt and that he did his best to give it a fair trial. " For ten years," wrote John- son, "he was the dominating interest in its management. He fought for it fiercely, in season and out of season. No system of liquor-selling was ever tried out under more favorable circumstances and with more pow- erful support. The plan had every advantage conceivable for its success. Yet Senator Till- man, having tested his own project in the furnace of experience covering nearly two de- cades, was so convinced of its unworkable 52 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON character that he turned upon it and helped to put an end to the project which he had himself established. Thanks to Senator Till- man, no man can no^ say that the State monopoly plan has never been tried out under favorable circumstances." In May, 1899, Johnson visited South Car- olina to study the working of the dispensary law on the spot. He returned again later. He adopted his usual methods of collecting all the facts. He examined the reports of the dispensary and the liquor legislation of the State, and examined the books of the Collec- tor of Internal Revenue. He visited the liquor dispensaries, interviewed innumerable people and further visited and examined more than two hundred and fifty " Blind Tigers," places where intoxicating liquors were illegally on sale. He made maps of some of these locali- ties showing where the " Blind Tigers " were, and then he issued his report. It showed that there had been a large in- crease in the consumption of drink under the dispensary system, that it had no monopoly of the traffic except in name ; that illicit trade BACK TO NEW YORK 53 was very largely carried on, that the illicit sellers were practically immune from prosecu- tion for political reason, and that it had had a disastrous effect upon the morals and so- briety of the people. His,investigations received a very remark- able testimonial to their accuracy. There came a dispute between the State of South Caro- lina and the Federal Government over the question of the payment of certain liquor taxes. The State urged that the dispensary system was an exercise by the State of police powers, and therefore could not be taxed under the Internal Revenue Laws. The Federal Government argued on the other side that the dispensary was purely a business enter- prise, operated for profit, and that it ought to pay. The Federal Government had, how- ever, no evidence to back its contention. It called upon Johnson. He produced the re- sults of his inquiries before the Court and on his evidence the Federal Government won its suit. His inquiries had a still wider result. The prohibitionists who had been temporarily defeated reopened their battle with renewed 54 " PUSSYFOOT " JOHNSON strength and eventually the dispensary system was abolished and prohibition re-enacted in South Carolina by a popular vote of nearly three to one. When the New Voice shifted to Chicago, Johnson could not accompany it, owing to his asthma. He still retained the post of staff correspondent and visited England to study municipal enterprises. From there he went to Sweden to study the Gothenburg system, and his series of articles analyzing and con- demning it was afterwards published as a pamphlet, and led to considerable controversy, particularly with the English authorities, Messrs. Joseph Rowntree and Arthur Sher- well. The Gothenburg system had been adopted by the Municipal Council of that city to check the fearful ravages caused by the drink traf- fic there. The main part of the trade in spirits, but not in beer, was managed by a company, not for private gain, but in order to remove as far as possible the evils of the trade. The sale of food was encouraged. Neither shareholders nor managers were pe- BACK TO NEW YORK 55 cuniarily interested in pushing the sales and the company received no profits except a fixed percentage on its paid-up capital. Johnson, as a result of his investigations, declared that the system had generally been conducted in Gothenburg with remarkable purity of purpose. It had always been managed by men of the highest standing and scandals such as had attended the South Carolina Dis- pensary had been conspicuously absent. The drink shops were clean, attractive, light and well conducted: the food offered in them was clean and wholesome. Nevertheless, he summed up the result of the system in some deadly findings: 1. There are no reliable statistics of the con- sumption of spirits in Gothenburg. The statistics hitherto published on this point have been mis- leading to the point of fraud. 2. Since the bolag (liquor company) was es- tablished, the number of paupers for each 1,000 population has increased fifty per cent, and the cost of maintaining them, per inhabitant, had nearly doubled. 3. The number of convictions for drunkenness per 1,000 population has nearly doubled. 4. The cases of delirium tremens per 1,000 56 " PUSSYFOOT " JOHNSON population has more than trebled in the past: eleven years. 5. During the year 1898, Gothenburg had one thousand six hundred more arrests for drunken- ness than the most drunken American city of similar population. 6. The number of liquor shops in Gothenburg is a Chinese puzzle. Johnson was now brought into very close intercourse with John G. Woolley, the tem- perance orator and Prohibition candidate for the Presidency in 1902. They combined in, among other things, the production of a sub- stantial book of over five hundred pages, " Temperance Progress in the Century." To say that they combined to write this book is, perhaps, a figure of speech, for practically the whole burden of it fell on the shoulders of Johnson. Woolley had entered into a contract to write a book of 147,000 words, and to de- liver the manuscript by a given time. A his- tory of the Temperance Movement could not be undertaken without considerable research, and Mr. Woolley's brilliant talents did not incline him to heavy labor on detail. Accord- ingly he engaged a preacher to read up the BACK TO NEW YORK 57 matter, and make notes for him. The preacher duly made his appearance with an enormous stack of notes of all kinds. Woolley had no time even to read them, so he appealed to Johnson to join him in the enterprise, and to divide the promised royalties between them. Johnson agreed. He examined the notes and found that they were worth nothing to him, so he emptied them into his waste paper bas- ket, and started to the book de novo. It was completed in due course, but the troubles were not over yet. Mr. Woolley left his son to read the proofs for him. The son proceeded to cut out some 40,000 words. This made the book too short and led to trouble with the publishers, and a charge for the matter held back. Then the publishing firm became bankrupt, and the promised royalties were for a long time in- visible. One day John G. Woolley received a letter saying that the accounts for the book had been balanced, and seventy-five cents were coming to him. Woolley wrote to Johnson that he did not know what to do with so much money, so he 58 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON sent him seventy- five cents to see if he had any use for them. By this time Johnson was in the Indian Service. He had recently made a series of raids on gambling establishments, and had been breaking up a number of captured poker chips until he was tired. He had quite a big pile of them. He put them in a box, spent the seventy-five cents on expresss charges and sent them to John G. Woolley. While Johnson was in London he received a cablegram asking him to go to the Philip- pines to investigate the drink question in the Archipelago. He set off at once for Hong- Kong, cabling back to his people to send him some money. When he reached Hong-Kong there was a letter waiting for him care of the Hong-Kong & Shanghai Bank, saying that the money was being sent in another envelope. The envelope had not arrived. Johnson went on, however, to Manila, expecting that his remittance would follow by the next mail. Unfortunately for him, the remittance had been posted on the famous Peace ship which BACK TO NEW YORK 59 was taking Mr. Taft on his commission of conciliation to the Philippines. When the Peace ship reached Hong-Kong Mr. Taft and his party learned that there was a plan to burn Manila when they arrived, in order to show the feelings of the populace towards them. As they did not want this kind of welcome they sailed to Nagasaki, and killed two weeks' time to give the popular excite- ment time to calm down. The mail remained on the ship, and people in the Philippines had to wait for their letters. Johnson had no money to waste. His funds were soon exhausted. He pawned his watch for $12 and received, in addition to the money, a ticket big enough for the deed for a town lot. His $12 did not last long. One day, as he was getting to the end of it, he met an old Omaha newspaper man, Al Ewan, on the street. " Al, what are you doing here ? " he asked. " I am managing editor of the Manila Free- dom/' came the reply. " How much do you get? " > " Sixty dollars a week." 60 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON " Well, I am busted, so you had better di- vide your salary with me until I get some money." Ewan split his salary until the Peace ship arrived, and Johnson's financial troubles were over. Shortly after that Ewan left the paper, and Johnson temporarily took his place, becom- ing managing editor of the Freedom for five or six weeks. This gave him every oppor- tunity to get all the details he wanted of the drink question in the islands. He discovered that an army surgeon, Dr. Ira A. Brown, had been investigating the qual- ity of the whisky sold in Manila and had se- verely condemned the kind generally supplied to the troops. His report was suppressed and Brown was ordered back to America. He actually went on board ship, but there was a typhoon outside the harbor and the ship lay there for four days. Johnson learned some- thing of the report and wrote an editorial article demanding that Brown be recalled and his report was made public. The military authorities who governed the BACK TO NEW YORK 61 Philippines could not do anything against the Freedom for this, but they watched their op- portunity. Shortly afterwards the Freedom prepared a story about a fight between a Frenchman and the Belgian Consul. It was all ready when the military censor came along and would not allow it to be printed, dedar- ing that it might make war between the United States and Belgium. Next day an officer came round and called Johnson aside. " We were not afraid of war between the United States and Belgium, and the suppression of your paper had nothing to do with it. You keep your face shut about the whisky and it will be all right. That was just a reminder that you had no business to print that editorial about Brown." Johnson returned from the Philippines in due course, and plunged into, the Presidency campaign when Woolley was candidate. He wrote one pamphlet that ran into a circulation of hundreds of thousands. It was entitled " Benevolent Assimilation of the Philippines," and consisted of a list of two hundred out- rages committed by American soldiers when 62 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON drunk. The point of it was that the Govern- ment ought to cut off the supply of drink for the army. The years up to 1906 were full up with hard detail newspaper and organizing work. John- son now made his home in Laurel, Md., with- in easy reach of Washington. In 1904 he was prohibition candidate for Congress for the Fifth District, Maryland, but was not elected. The association between Johnson and Wool- ley grew more and more intimate. In 1902 Woolley secured control of the New Voice and Johnson became managing editor. The two men fought many great battles together, both inside and outside the ranks of the Pro- hibition Party. In 1905 they matured a plan for a great Encyclopedia of Temperance and Prohibition, which was to give every fact known about the liquor traffic in all the ages. In that same year Woolley set out on a 4O,ooo-mile temperance campaign overseas, leaving Johnson as managing editor of the New Voice. Johnson was now consistently ad- vocating co-operation with other temperance BACK TO NEW YORK 63 agencies, including the Anti-Saloon League, in temperance work against the narrower sec- tion of the Prohibition Party. While Wool- ley was far away an event arose which ter- minated Johnson's connection with the paper. The directors of the New Voice sold, at regu- lar advertisement rates, nearly a page of pure reading matter to the head of a organization opposed to trades unionism. The article was a severe attack on the Labor Union movement and appeared without any remarks to show that it was advertising matter. Johnson thereupon wrote the following edi- torial denouncing the publication of advertis- ing matter as news: " When organized corruption and greed wish to fight against the development of reform move- ments the crooks begin at once to hunt out the crooked newspapers and there poison the springs of information. "Just so when organized crookedness and greed seeks to crush out the life of labor or- ganization battling for their own uplift, the crook comes sauntering into the business office of a crooked newspaper jingling gold in his breeches and asks ' How-much-a-line-for-news-space-to- fight-Labor-with ? ' 64 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON " The business office of the modern newspaper is the bedhouse where the two classes of crooks meet for these assignations. " There the boodler and the boodle meet on common ground, with the curtains drawn and cotton in the keyhole; there the gold is counted and the plots made to pollute the streams of information which feed the intellectual republic." Not unnaturally the directors of the New Voice had the editorial suppressed and ordered Johnson to quit writing editorials of that kind. The editor retorted by resigning his post. The door was soon to open to him in a much wider field, but while waiting he en- gaged himself in a new campaign to remove the tax on denatured alcohol in order that it might be used for commercial purposes. This measure was successfully carried through Con- gress. IV LIFE IN THE " BAD LANDS " IN THE summer of 1906 the United States Government was seriously con- cerned over the general lawlessness ex- isting in the Indian Territories and Oklahoma. These regions had for forty years been a land of refuge for criminals from every part of the Union. The murderer in the East nat- urally fled to Oklahoma if he could, knowing that there he would be comparatively safe. The bad whites intermarried with Indians and negroes and a half-breed population grew up that knew little law but the law of the gun. The few marshals did their best to keep order and were engaged in perpetual war with the heavily armed desperados who defied them. This was the real Wild West, where murder was counted as a comparatively small offense, 65 66 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON but where a man would be lynched for steal- ing a horse. The Territories were supposed to be under Prohibition, but this was openly defied. Whisky-peddling was carried on to a very- great extent Large quantities of spirits were brought in by express almost without hin- drance. Brewers outside the Territories were openly shipping in low-grade beers under var- ious names: "Uno," "Ino," "Long Horn," "Mistletoe," "Non-Tax," "Short Horn," "Pablo," "Tin-Top," and the like. These beers had a way of growing stronger as time went on, until even the expert could not dis- tinguish them from the most potent brews. There were hundreds of saloons, ostensibly for the sale of temperance beer, but in nearly every case also carrying on a heavy traffic in whisky. Many of these saloons had gambling houses and resorts of vice run in association with them. The beer joints were scattered all over the Territories. Congress appropriated $25,000 towards a special effort to enforce Prohibition. The au- thorities looked about for a really good man 67 and their choice fell on William E. Johnson. He was elected, as the Commissioner for In- dian Affairs officially reported, "because he had already proved not only his capacity for the sort of work to be demanded of him, but his absolute contempt of danger in the perform- ance of a difficult task." He was given the title of " Special Officer for the Suppression of the Liquor Traffic in Indian Territory," with a salary of $2,500 a year and ex- penses, and the right to engage his own as- sistants. Johnson was fortunate in that he had at the beginning the whole-hearted support of his departmental chiefs. He was made his own disbursing officer so that he should not be hampered or delayed over questions of pay- ment Theodore Roosevelt was President and he knew something of Johnson as a man who " got things done/* Mr. Garfield, Sec- retary of the Interior, backed him to the full and his direct chief, Mr. Francis E. Leupp, gave him whole-hearted sympathy and support. When politicians tried to interfere with John- son's activities, the President pulled them up 58 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON quickly. " Leave Johnson alone," was his di- rection, written on the top of a letter of a prominent politician who was trying to check his work. Like Roosevelt, Mr. Garfield believed in the policy of " Thorough." On one occasion, when, Johnson was visiting Washington, he called on Garfield to pay his respects. He had just come out of three or four fights and had a black eye, while one fist was knocked out and bandaged. " Mr. Secretary," he said, " have you any kicks about what I have been doing? Have you any instructions as to my conduct in the future?" Garfield glanced shrewdly at him. "Yes," he said, " you go right back to your Indian Territory. Get as many folks there in jail as you can and keep them there as long as you I 97- I* was headed, " Special Agent Johnson, a Prohibitionist who prohibits," and was sent from Tulsa : "A few days ago, Special Agent Johnson be- gan his campaign by slipping into the city accom- panied by three picked men, arriving shortly be- fore midnight. Their movements were so swift and sudden that many believed there were ten times that number. For four hours the business section of the city was in a fever of excitement. In that time three big gambling houses were de- stroyed. The flames from the big bonfires reached as high as the tallest buildings. In addi- tion to the burning out of three gambling houses, about five hundred bottles of whisky were seized and destroyed and eleven men arrested. The names of the men who assisted Johnson in this wild night's work were Sam Cone, Ed. T. Egan, and Frank West, the latter being an allotted Creek Indian of mixed blood. " In the two days following, in which the boot- leggers and gamblers were chased all over the city, it was estimated by the Tulsa World, the leading daily paper here, that one hundred and fifty gamblers and bootleggers left the city. " The raiders in pairs then began making forays in the surrounding towns of the oil field HOW HE WON HIS NAME 95 where the Texas gamblers had found abiding places, and were attempting to sell whisky as a side line. Many of these trips were made in wagons as the " spotters " of the gamblers would telegraph to all the towns on the railways when- ever the raiders started by train in any direction. "At Collinsville, the gambling house was de- stroyed, a wagon load of paraphernalia being burned in the streets, and about fifty gallons of * spiked cider ' destroyed. At Mounds, the gam- bling house of * Snake ' Morris, a small quantity of liquor was destroyed in a drug store. At Skiatook, the gambling house of ' Snake ' Morris was burned and about twenty bottles of whisky destroyed. Morris and his brother were arrested and taken to Tulsa, where they were placed under $1,000 bonds each for bootlegging. Here an advertised ' bad man ' named Bill Burke armed himself and sought to frighten the officers out of town. Johnson at once turned the two pris- oners over to his assistant, Cone, and, taking his magazine rifle, started down the middle of the street to give battle to the ' terror.' The special agent was covered with sweat and mud, and blood was running from a fresh cut in his hand received from broken glass. Burke failed to ' make good ' when thus confronted. On the contrary, he jumped on a horse and galloped for the woods without even waiting to saddle his horse or get his coat. At Tullahassee there came near being a tragedy. Johnson sent Cone 96 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON on a hurry-up trip to head off a couple of trunks full of whisky which had been sent there as baggage. Cone seized and destroyed the liquor, and found it necessary to spend the night in an old house, in company with Dr. Mann, a physi- cian at Wagoner. Tullahassee is a settlement of ' Creek negroes.' About midnight a gang of negroes began shooting at the house. Some of the bullets struck the bed on which Cone and Mann were lying. One grazed Cone's hand and another pierced his clothes. Mr. Cone and Dr. Mann went into the darkness and returned the negroes' fire, driving them away and arresting two of the culprits, whom they succeeded in landing in jail in Muskogee. " At Red Fork a small quantity of liquor was destroyed. Two raids were made on Sapulpa, the last one being marked by the destruction of two big gambling houses, one for the second time. Two dray loads of gambling paraphernalia were burned at noon of the following day. John German, a leading meat dealer of the city, was caught in the first raid by Johnson, who found twenty-three bottles of whisky hidden in the walls of the back part of his butcher shop. German is now under $1,000 bonds as a result of the find. Numerous other seizures were made in Tulsa, the largest being that of one hundred pints of whisky which came into the city tied in gunny sacks and tied to the rods under freight cars arriving from Oklahoma. This capture was HOW HE WON HIS NAME 97 made by West and Egan. Two more gambling houses that attempted to reopen in this city a few days ago were promptly burned out by West and Cone. " The climax came in this city in a monster bonfire of gambling outfits and paraphernalia, the result of a ruse on the part of Special Agent Johnson. Johnson had sent all of his men out on special assignments, and left town himself, allowing the misinformation to leak out that he had departed for another part of the territory and was through with Tulsa for the present. But instead he suddenly slipped back into the city at nightfall. In the meantime Dick Borden had rushed from a warehouse a full, new, and elaborate gambling outfit for his hall over Tate Brady's store. He had installed poker tables, a faro bank, crap tables, a roulette wheel, Klondyke tables, and hung mirrors on the walls, and in- stalled a new outfit of furniture, electric fans, a sideboard, and had called in the 'customers/ About thirty gamblers were playing when sud- denly Johnson, accompanied only by United States Deputy Marshal, O. S. Booth, forced open the door. "In an instant all was bedlam. Everybody made a rush for the back window and began jumping out on the roof of an adjoining build- ing. Johnson jumped out too, and drove the gamblers back into the hall, firing a few shots at their feet with his revolver to enforce his 98 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON orders. The gamblers then made a rush for the front stairway, but were met at the door by Deputy Marshal Booth with a drawn revolver. After the gamblers had deposited cash bonds for their appearance the next day, there came a dramatic struggle for the $400 roulette wheel. One gambler seized it and ran down a hallway, but was overtaken and floored by a blow from Johnson's fist. Another then seized it, threw it out of a window into an alley, where a con- federate grabbed it and ran. But the fugitive was instantly covered by Johnson, who appeared at the window with his six-shooter. The fleeing gambler dropped the wheel, which was later con- sumed in the flames. At this juncture a squad of police arrived, and an enormous crowd, which "had been attracted by the shooting, filled the street, and witnessed the bonfire of a thousand dollars' worth of gambling paraphernalia." Incidentally Johnson and his assistants seized and dumped into the Arkansas River 25,000 bottles in that little raid. The warmest and most detailed commenda- tion of Johnson's services during his first year of office was given in the report of the Com- missioner of Indian Affairs, dated September 30, 1907. He declared that the hope ex- pressed in his last report that the sale of in- HOW HE WON HIS NAME 99 toxicating liquors to Indians would be greatly diminished had been realized beyond all ex- pectations. For this he gave credit to the services of Special Officer William E. Johnson. " During the eleven months of his service, he and his deputies have made, or directly caused to be made, 491 arrests in whisky cases that have resulted in grand jury indictments, though in a considerable number of instances the indictment was procured first and the arrest followed. This list is exclusive of arrests in cases where the United States commissioner failed to bind the prisoner over to the grand jury, as well as of many arrests made by deputy marshals on infor- mation furnished by him. " Owing to the fact that nearly all the gam- blers in the Indian Territory also traffic in whisky or are active abettors of whisky peddling, Mr. Johnson has had occasion to make war on those people, and his raids have resulted in the con- viction of 52 gamblers and the destruction of 49 gambling houses and the collection of nearly $15,000 in fines. The value of the gambling paraphernalia captured has been estimated at some $12,000. Arrests in other cases incidental to his work but not exclusively for traffic in in- toxicants have been more or less frequent, and include seven for the high crime of murder. " These results have not been attained without 100 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON hardship and peril. Two of Mr. Johnson's men and one posse man have been killed in skirmishes with bootleggers and 10 violators of the liquor laws have met a like fate. Mr. Johnson has had several narrow escapes himself, and during a good part of the time has worked in the face of a reward of $3,000 offered by outlaws for his assassination. His courage and devotion to duty deserve the highest praise. I know of no more efficient officer in the Indian Service; and indeed I may safely give him the credit of turn- ing what used to be a rather dreary farce into an actual accomplishment in the enforcement of the acts of Congress forbidding the liquor traffic in the Indian Territory. . . . Mr. Johnson has seized 32 horses, 13 wagons, 13 sets of double harness, and five saddles, which have brought at public sale $482. During the eleven months ended on June 3Oth, he and his deputies have made 902 separate seizures, and destroyed in- toxicating liquors in the following quantities : Alcohol gallons 269 Choctaw beer 247 Spiked cider 3,329 Intoxicating bitters . . . bottles 3,286 Beer pints 4,637 Wine " 286 Low-grade beer " 25,949 Whisky " 28,559 Brandy and liqueurs. . 175 HOW HE WON HIS NAME 101 There was at least one other occasion when a reward was offered for Johnson. This sec- ond occasion had its humorous side. Let John- son tell the story : " I went up to Byars and an enterprising fellow, J. D. Lincoln, was running a pool hall there. He sent out a letter stating that he had a man who would kill me for $1,000 and he wanted a fund to be collected for this purpose. One of my scouts got hold of one of those letters and found that Lincoln had collected about $700. So my assistant arrested him and telegraphed to me and blazed it out to the newspapers. At Byars I looked into the mat- ter and satisfied myself that he did not have anybody to kill me and had no intention of killing me. All he wanted was the dollars. That rather amused me and so I went round to the jail, turned him loose and said to him, ' Get out and get the rest of that money.' " VI MORE ADVENTURES IN THE WEST JOHNSON'S reputation as a fighter was now assured throughout the West. Rumor and report credited him with mar- vellous deeds. One widely-quoted story told how he fought threescore men single-handed, killing three of them, during one particularly daring raid. This story arose, however, out of a misun- derstanding. Johnson heard that there was a pool hall in Chelsea in Indian Territory, selling a new kind of drink. He determined to go there and obtain some of the drink for chemical analysis. He went, apparently single-handed, but he adopted a device which he, on several occasions, found of the greatest service in his work. While entering the place alone from one side he would send one of his deputies in from the other side. It was the business of 102 MORE ADVENTURES 103 the deputy, who was without distinguishing marks, to mingle with the crowd as one of them and to prevent anybody shooting John- son from the rear. On this occasion the de- vice undoubtedly saved Johnson's life. The two left their horses in the wood and came into the town by different directions after dusk. Johnson entered the pool hall, turned most of the people out, locked the door, made a search and found the liquor he was after. Meanwhile the people of the place held a meeting in the street and determined to give Johnson a hammering. The former Town Marshal was elected to do the job. Johnson opened the daor to go out. He had four bottles under one arm. As he stepped into the dark- ness of the street, the ex-Town Marshal gave him a tremendous blow in the eye with his fist. Johnson staggered back, and the bottles fell. A second blow came swiftly, but he had recov- ered sufficiently to ward this off and retorted with a heavy blow on the Town Marshal's jaw, knocking him clean off his feet. The crowd thereupon called for fair play and formed a ring. Johnson waited till the man was on his 104 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON feet again and soon had him down for a second time. Once more he came on, and a third time he was knocked over. Then somebody slipped a knife into his hand and he rushed at Johnson with it, but Johnson hit him on the head with the butt of a billiard cue and he went down like a log. A free fight followed. One of the crowd standing about three feet from Johnson's head, drew a revolver and aimed at him. Lowe, his deputy, who was in the crowd, hit the man over the wrist with a " billy " and the bullet went wide. Then the Special Officer and his deputy went for the crowd. When the battle was over one of the men had to be carried out and two others led out by their friends. The Associated Press representative circulated the story and told how Johnson had " sent three men to sleep" down at Chelsea. This was quickly made into a story that he had killed three men. Oklahoma was now emerging into State- hood. A dual election was held on September 17, 1907, for the people of the then Indian Territory and the Territory of Oklahoma, on MORE ADVENTURES 105 the adoption of a constitution for the new com- bined State and on a provision for state-wide prohibition. There was a desperate fight over the prohibitional proposal, in which Johnson took a very prominent part. Prohibition was in the end carried 130,361 votes for and 112,258 against. One result of Oklahoma's changed status was to modify considerably Johnson's position and powers. The new State wiped the slate clean of a large number of cases awaiting trial. The State now became largely responsible for law enforcement formerly carried out by the Federal authorities. The liquor dealers thought that Johnson would at any rate shut his eyes while they held final celebrations of the change. They made a very great mistake. He raided them remorselessly to the very end. Early in 1908 he was promoted to the post of " Chief Special Officer." His field was now extended to cover the suppression of the liquor traffic on all the Indian Reserves in the United States. His headquarters were removed from Muskogee, Oklahoma, to Salt Lake City, and he was given two special lieutenants to assist 106 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON him, Jess E. Flanders in the Northwest, and A. G. Pollock in the Southwest. The annual appropriation for the carrying out of the work of liquor suppression was increased in Con- gress from $25,000 to $40,000. Johnson entered into his new duties with the same zeal that he had shown in the old. His hand was soon felt down in California, where sixteen arrests were made. A Deputy Sheriff found himself suddenly arrested in New Mexico. Then there came a big raid in the Nezperce Reservation in Idaho. The place was first carefully examined, a number of deputies specially sworn in for the occasion and Indian police moved forward in posses. All the principal towns were raided at the same time, over a dozen prominent bootleggers arrested and their stocks of liquor destroyed. One Chicago newspaper stated, " A whirl- wind has been playing havoc among the whisky peddlers of the Indian Reservation west of the Rocky Mountains since July 1st, when William E. Johnson of Maryland was made Chief Special Officer." In six weeks Johnson and his deputies had thrown more than a hundred u MORE ADVENTURES 107 whisky peddlers into jail. One of them was now in prison on a fifteen months' sentence and many more were bound the same way. During the first weeks of this new service a dozen officers had knockdown fights, two had shooting affrays, and they were compelled to beat one man into submission who attacked one of the officers with a bowie knife. Their prisoners included one Justice of the Peace in Montana, two policemen and one official of the Government Forest Reservation Service. In Montana, where Johnson personally operated for two weeks, the criminal business piled up so rapidly that the United States Attorney arranged for a special grand jury to take care of the fifty cases awaiting attention. One Calif ornian " bad man " who had a collection of Indian scalps, and boasted that he used to kill Indians so as to get their teeth for rifle sights, publicly declared that he would " meet Johnson in the road with a rifle " if ever he came to his section. Johnson met him in the desert, sixty-five miles from the nearest rail- way, captured him and carried him overland to jail. When he arrived in Court the advertised 108 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON " bad man " broke down and wept. One of Johnson's deputies captured three whisky peddlers across the South Dakota border, and there being no jail at hand, he chained them to a tree and waited until a Government Com- missioner could be summoned twenty miles away. What made the liquor interest specially ap- prehensive was Johnson's reputation for never letting go. If men tried to escape conviction by committing perjury he would hunt down their lies and prove them to be lies. The whisky peddlers found that the best thing they could do when Johnson had them, was to own up, plead guilty and take their medicine. An- other habit of Johnson's was to go after the biggest men and secure their conviction. This helped to drive the smaller fry away. One very important prosecution which John- son initiated, was known as the Ninety-mile Alibi Case. In the autumn of 1908 two of Johnson's assistants who were working in the vicinity of the Crow Reservation in Montana caught a saloonkeeper, D. R. Wills, red- handed, selling drink to a squaw over the bar. MORE ADVENTURES 109 Wills was indicted by the grand jury, but hav- ing abundant resources, he hired lawyers and put up a stiff fight. He pleaded an alibi. " I had a bartender who impersonated me, sold the liquor and has since disappeared," he de- clared. Six men came into court and swore that Wills was ninety miles away at the time when the drink was sold. The jury, however, returned a verdict of " Guilty " and Wills was sentenced to seventy days in jail and $100 fine. Johnson reproached the Judge for the in- adequacy of his sentence. " This case cost me a lot of work," he said. " If you only give the man a trivial sentence like that when found guilty it is not worth my while." " You go out and get these fellows for perjury," the Judge replied, "and then I will show you some- thing." Johnson promptly put two of his best men on the trail. The District Attorney, during the trial, had spent two days examining the wit- nesses as to where they were, who they talked to and so on. Every statement of theirs was carefully analyzed and as a result, six men were arrested on a charge of perjury. Johnson 110 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON concentrated on the one of the six whom he judged to be the weakest, William Bartlett, and induced him to confess the whole business. When the trial for perjury came on Bart- lett took the stand and told his story. The re- maining prisoners promptly abandoned their defense, pleaded guilty and received sentences of from three to eighteen months hard labor, with substantial fines. Liquor perjury was at a discount for a time in the Indian country after this. In the summer of 1909 one of Johnson's deputies, Charles Escalanti, a full-blooded Yuma Indian, was fatally stabbed by two Mexicans who came to the Indian Reservation with whisky and whom he intended to arrest. Escalanti was very badly wounded, and after lingering for two weeks, died. He had been conspicuous in the effort to break up the liquor traffic among his people and a year before had been set upon and nearly beaten to death by a crowd of toughs. He was only one of sev- eral killed in the work. Special campaigns were planned in different cities, and with both sides armed, the fights MORE ADVENTURES 111 that occasionally followed demanded nerve and resource. The year ending June 3oth, 1909, can be taken as fairly typical. During that period Johnson and his men made 1,091 ar- rests, secured 548 convictions, including about 350 grand jury convictions mostly for selling liquor to Indians. Forty-nine men out of every fifty who went to trial were convicted. Johnson caused a certain number of men who were notorious law breakers to be turned out of the Indian Territory on the ground that they were detrimental to the peace and safety of the Indians. Some of these promptly brought damage suits against him. A very interesting battle was fought in Minnesota in 1909. Johnson hunted out Article 7 of the Treaty with the Chippewa Indians in 1855, which provided that the Pro- hibition Laws in the Indian country should continue and be enforced within the entire boundary of the ceded country until other- wise provided by Congress. Congress had never made any provision revoking this sec- tion of the Treaty. The greater part of the northern half of Minnesota lay within the 112 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON boundaries of this Treaty Territory. Johnson, therefore, gave all the liquor dealers of Mah- nomen County thirty days' notice to close up their saloons and remove any and all of their intoxicating liquors to points outside the dis- trict. The announcement caused a great sensation and the liquor authorities determined to defy the Federal directions. The General Counsel of the Minnesota State Brewers Association made three trips to Washington to have the matter squashed, but the Department of Jus- tice took the same view of the law as Johnson. Counsel for the breweries offered to co-operate with Johnson and eliminate traffic with the Indians. He held meetings of liquor dealers and secured pledges in writing from all of them in one district, the Leech Lake Reserva- tion, to quit selling to Indians. In other dis- tricts, however, the liquor dealers refused to have anything to do with the movement, de- claring that they were operating their own saloons and would do as they pleased. Johnson began his operations by notifying the saloonkeepers of Mahnomen County to quit MORE ADVENTURES 113 business in thirty days. All except eight did so. After the time limit had expired Johnson allowed the eight dealers a few days to re- plenish their stock, which many did, thinking the order was a " bluff." Then one day a simul- taneous raid was made at ten o'clock on these eight saloons in and around Mahnomen. John- son quietly brought his deputies into the place, divided them up into squads for each saloon, and gave them the signal for action by step- ping out of his hotel with a cigar in his mouth. He took as his part of the work two saloons where trouble was expected. The first of these was thoroughly smashed up. He was busy in the second saloon when some people knocked at the door, and a voice said, " We are the Mayor and City Council. We are going to stop this." " Get away," Johnson replied brusquely, " I am busy." He slammed the door and kept on. A few minutes later the City Marshal, ac- companied by a posse of armed citizens, ar- rived on the scene. The Marshal had his gun with him, but he forgot to hold it in the right position for action. As he forced his way in "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON with the gun hanging by his side he found himself suddenly looking into the black muzzle of Johnson's business-like revolver. " I repre- sent the Department of Indian Affairs," said Johnson quietly. " I represent the United States Government, and you and your men had better get out of here until we finish our work." The Marshal protested. " Suddenly Johnson became transformed," wrote a local reporter at the time. " ' Get out of here/ he thundered, advancing a step in the direction of the fright- ened Marshal and his posse, and they accepted the invitation." They went out, rang the fire bell, and soon the whole town came marching down the street headed by the sheriff of the county. Everybody who had a gun carried it and those who had no guns brought pitch- forks. Johnson had now completed his work of breaking up the bottles of liquor. He quietly went out into the street and walked up to the sheriff and asked gently, " Do you want to arrest me?" "Yes, I do," stammered the sheriff. "Well, go ahead and arrest me." And so the arrest was made. " Come and be MORE ADVENTURES 115 arrested," Johnson called to his deputies. He asked the sheriff if he wanted any more. The rest were at the hotel. He could go round and get them. Then he invited him to arrest the deputies who were elsewhere in the district by issuing orders over the long distance telephone. By this time the sheriff had become uneasy, and suspected that Johnson was fooling him. " Go to hell," he said roughly, " I have already more than I want." The saloonkeepers in Mahnomen had at the first alarm sent out telephone calls to their fellows in the neighboring places, warning them that Johnson was on a raiding expedi- tion, and that they had better look after them- selves. " Too late," came back the mournful reply, " our places have all been raided too." Johnson and his men were arraigned before the local Justice of the Peace. He told his deputies to say nothing, and to let him do the talking. The Justice read the warrant, and asked if he desired an examination, or if he pleaded guilty. Johnson replied that he would not plead. " But you have to plead." " Have I ? " came the reply. " Suppose I don't plead, 116 " PUSSYFOOT " JOHNSON what will happn then?" The Justice there- upon put down a technical plea of " not guilty." Johnson refused to offer bonds. " But you must get a bondsman," said the Justice. " We have no jail to keep you in." " Well," replied Johnson, " we will wait here until you build a jail." Finally the party were taken to the City Hall and shut up there. Some humorist telephoned to the sheriff that 150 Indians were on the way to rescue Johnson and his men. It was Johnson's purpose and the purpose of the Federal Authorities to secure a clear legal pronouncement that would place beyond ques- tion, once for all, what the law was. They feared that if he was brought up before a judge merely on a charge of smashing, the judge would dismiss the whole case on a technicality. To avoid this Johnson sent for the Assistant County Attorney. " I and my men have smashed up $7,000 worth of your goods," he said. " Why don't you put your- self in a position to get your money back? You should make a record of what I actually broke, and I won't dispute it." The County MORE ADVENTURES 117 Prosecutor, wondering at Johnson's simplicity, was ready to assent, but feared that it was too late. The party were already arraigned on charges. " Wipe off the record," said John- son generously, " and make a new one. I won't object." The attorney was so overcome that he of- fered to sign half a bond for Johnson's men if Johnson signed the other half, and let them go. That did not suit Johnson's purpose. He forced the authorities to take him and his men to prison at Crookston, a neighboring place where there was a jail. From there they were released on a writ of habeas corpus sued out in the Federal Court. When the trial came on a definite ruling was secured that Johnson not only had the right to do what he did, but that it was his duty to do so. The case was eventually carried to the Supreme Court of the United States. John- son won. " That was the way I deliberately went to jail," he said, when telling the story. VII JOHNSON RESIGNS "' DUSSYFOOT' J HN SON has put more saloons out of business in a given time than any man now on earth," a newspaper writer in Minnesota de- clared early in 1911. The statement was justi- fied. Johnson and his assistants were now con- victing men, many of them men of means, at the rate of a hundred per month, month in and month out His services had been extended until it now received a direct appropriation of $80,000 a year and about one hundred men worked under him on the one task of prevent- ing the sale of liquor to Indians. Wherever possible these assistants were In- dians themselves. They did not let red tape stand in the way of effective action. " We have not been very tender in our dealings with these hyenas who would get an Indian drunk 118 JOHNSON RESIGNS 119 so as to rob him of his blanket," wrote John- son in that same year. " Nothing but the unrelenting cold steel of absolute justice will have any effect on the cuticle of such. There is no quarter asked or given, and no sympathy wasted." But there was one offense for which John- son never invoked the law. He did not once prosecute a man for making an assault on him or attempting his life. In place of that he went for the man. Here is a typical statement of his, made about this time : " In some States we fol- low a radically different course than in others. Conditions and laws are not always the same in different localities, even of the same State. This not only confuses friends but confuses the enemy. When I get a joint keeper on the carpet, he often asks why I do this with him and do something else with the offender in the adjoining State. My stereo- typed reply is ' Go hire a lawyer.' The lawyer usually skins the offender out of most of the money that he has skinned out of the In- dians. The scamp is thus punished even 120 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON though we fail to convict, which seldom happens." Between 1907 and the end of January, 1911, Johnson and his deputies made 5,473 arrests. He aroused a very great amount of bitter per- sonal enmity against himself. The liquor dealers saw in him not merely an active of- ficial but a personal foe. Many of these men used all their political influence to have him removed. While Roosevelt was President they tried in vain, but when Roosevelt was suc- ceeded by Taft, and Mr. Leupp was eventually succeeded by a new acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs, it became evident that John- son's enemies were obtaining more influence in the Interior Department. Adverse influences in this department sought to compel Mr. Johnson to recommend to the President the annulment of all the anti-liquor clauses in Indian treaties involving the State of Minnesota and some neighboring States. Johnson prepared an elaborate report, recom- mending the annulment of certain anti -liquor clauses that, for one reason or another, were ineffective, but strongly recommending the re- JOHNSON RESIGNS 121 tention of the useful clauses, especially involv- ing territory really inhabited by Indians. He secured the approval of Robert G. Valentine, for a short time Indian Commissioner, to this recommendation, and thus fortified, he laid the matter before the Department. There fol- lowed a stormy scene, in which Johnson was violently accused of insubordination, but he stubbornly held his ground, backed by Com- missioner Valentine. The outcome was that President Taft finally followed the recommen- dation, revoking only those clauses which were ineffective and retaining those of real value. Johnson's bold stand in defeating the plot to destroy the effectiveness of these Indian treaties involved him in further trouble with department chiefs who, from that time on, re- doubled their efforts to " get him." Following this a number of prominent of- fenders were pardoned by presidential action after being convicted of selling drink to In- dians. The Chief Officer found in different ways that spokes were being put into the wheels of his activities. The relations between Johnson and the De- 122 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON partment at Washington reached a crisis later on in 1911, over the case of Juan Cruz, one of Johnson's assistants among the Pueblo Indians, who was charged with murder. The condition of things in New Mexico had for some time been unsatisfactory. For sev- eral years a group of American and Mexican politicians had run their cattle on a Pueblo Indian thirty-thousand acre reservation with- out compensation. It was openly stated that the Local Superintendent of Indian Affairs played into the hands of these land-grabbers, and he was further charged with permitting the sale of drinks to Indians in a drug store at Santa Fe in which he was interested. Conditions were very strained between the Superintendent and the Indians themselves. Johnson found himself up against the same Superintendent in various ways. The Santa Clara Indians became crusaders in a great voluntary total abstinence cam- paign. They sent delegates to other Indian communities and formed a federation which soon included almost every Pueblo Indian in New Mexico, for the purpose of stamping out JOHNSON RESIGNS 123 the liquor traffic and protecting themselves from the robbery of their land and pasturage. Juan Cruz was one of the early recruits in this federation. Johnson described him as " A young Indian Sir Galahad. . . . ruz had the spirit of a crusader. He was devoted to his church, to his young wife, Dolorita, and to their baby, Jose." One of Johnson's assist- ants made Juan posseman deputy and employed him on various occasions, Juan being officially paid for his services. The Superintendent advised some Indians who objected to Juan's activities that he had no authority and that no attention should be paid to him. Four rough Indians of bad char- acter attacked Juan while he was seizing a bottle of whisky which one of them had just purchased. They beat him with stones and clubs, smashing in his mouth and loosening two of his teeth. Juan drew his revolver and fired, hitting the leader, Garcia, who died an hour later. Juan was arrested for murder. The Super- intendent took up an unfriendly attitude and to Johnson's astonishment the authorities at 124 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON Washington telegraphed to him to take no steps in the matter of his defense since Cruz was not a commissioned employee. " I could not see the boy go to the gallows undefended," said Johnson. Since the Department refused to help he went to some leaders of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. They promptly organized a Defense Committee. The affair had by this time received so much publicity that the Department cancelled its first instructions and ordered Johnson to do all that he could for Juan. In the end the Indian was found " Not guilty " and released. But there was now a condition of almost open war between Johnson and the Washing- ton Department. He protested vigorously against the theft of the Indian lands. He was called up to Washington and there given a very unfriendly reception. " You are getting too many convictions and it is causing trouble," one politician told him. Attempts were made to make trouble over some of his payments. He was charged with insubordination, and after a hot controversy resigned his office. The Acting Secretary of JOHNSON RESIGNS 125 the Department of the Interior gave out a statement that no fault had been found with his integrity or with his character, but both the Department of the Interior and Mr. Johnson himself thought that it would be better for him to quit the service because certain views he held regarding the administration of his office did not coincide with those held by the Department. The resignation excited widespread com- ment. The newspapers openly attributed it to a cabal of the liquor interests. Johnson re- ceived many expressions of sympathy. But what perhaps pleased him most was a letter from his Indian friends : ESPANOLA, N. M., Sept. 19, 1911. " MR. W. E. JOHNSON, Chief Special Officer, U. S. I. S., Denver Colo. "DEAR SIR, "The Pueblo of Santa Clara, mindful of its regeneration through your efforts, most cordially invites you to be its guest for as long a time as you will enjoy it. Horses, saddles, guns, guides and tents, with the best rations at our command, will be provided you as long as you can make 126 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON use of them. We hope you will come to us and go to the mountains for a much needed rest. All we have is yours now and always. This is but small pay for the manhood you have restored to this village by stopping the liquor traffic here. We know you helped us at the price of your position. No other man in the Indian Service would have risked his head by staying with us and saving the life of Juan Cruz. You may go down in apparent defeat before the whisky ring at Washington but in the hearts of a quarter of a million American Indians you are a hero. There is probably not one of this great number but what had come under the influence of your work. " Come and be a good Indian with us. " Very sincerely, " THE COUNCIL OF SANTA CLARA. "By VlCTORIANO SlSNEROS, "Acting Governor." VIII THE CAMPAIGN FOR NATIONAL PROHIBITION JOHNSON went straight back to his old business as a temperance writer and or- ganizer. He took up, for a time, literary and research work for the Presbyterian Gen- eral Assembly Committee on Temperance, and shortly afterwards accepted the post of Man- aging Editor of the American Issue Publica- tions, the literary side of the Anti-Saloon League. He started a paper for the League, the New 'Republic, at the beginning of 1913. The Indian Department tried to make trouble for him and he had a battle over his accounts. Johnson had engaged a doctor as medical expert in the trial of Juan Cruz. The Indian Office questioned the engagement, re- fused to pay the doctor's hotel bills and cut down his fees from $10 a day to $5, out of 127 128 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON which the doctor was to meet all his own expenses. Johnson promptly hit back. He sent a letter to all the medical papers, stating the facts and asking them if they thought the official estimate by the United States Govern- ment of the value of an American physician's services was fair. This publicity produced such a storm of protest in the medical press against the Government's action that the au- thorities were glad to yield. But they still kept back certain accounts, and the dispute over these was not ended until the beginning of 1920, when a special Act of Congress was carried, settling the matter in Johnson's favor. The fighting reformer soon made his per- sonality felt in his new field. The Rev. U. G.' Robinson, formerly an Anti-Saloon League official, had for some time, while professing to be a temperance reformer, devoted himself to stirring up strife within the ranks of the prohibitionists. The people he attacked had submitted quietly, not knowing what else to do. Johnson got after Robinson, investigated his career and published a detailed exposure which finished that particular adventurer's ac- NATIONAL PROHIBITION 129 tivity. He showed that Robinson was really in the pay of the liquor interests, and he se- cured and reproduced letters from Robinson to the liquor organizations and from the liquor organizations to Robinson, placing this beyond doubt. "For a year or more," wrote Johnson, " this monumental Iscariot has been playing both ends against the middle. He has been getting money from radical prohibitionists to fight the Anti-Saloon League with. He has been getting money from the National Liquor League to fight the Anti-Saloon League with and using it to fight the very prohibitionists who were giving him the money with which to fight the Anti-Saloon League people. From his dark cellar in St. Louis he has been pour- ing into the mails with liquor money a veri- table flood of slime, smearing indiscriminately nearly everybody who has lifted up his voice against the saloon. He has been blocking, thwarting, undermining the work of all pro- hibitionists to secure any legislation what- ever." Robinson retorted with a savage attack on 130 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON Johnson. Johnson retorted with a suit for libel. Johnson was awarded $1,500 damages, and the Rev. U. C. Robinson was finished. Next came the adventure of the Trevitt Letters. A fight was being waged for State prohibition in West Virginia and the prohibi- tionists had reason to believe that some papers there were looking for an opportunity to sell themselves to the liquor side. Johnson had letters sent out, signed by C. L. Trevitt, a " literary agent " at Washington, D. C., offer- ing to furnish matter and to pay liberally in advance u for the privilege of laying argu- ments against Prohibition before your readers. . . . Advise me what rate per line you will charge for pure reading matter without adver- tising marks and also what rate you will charge for editorial matter. I am willing to pay for editorials against prohibition, even if written by yourself." The letter was sent out to a large number of papers, the majority of them falling into the trap. Some of them asked that the promised money might be sent by wire. " I am in the market for business," wrote one editor, a Sunday School superinten- NATIONAL PROHIBITION 131 dent, " and I accept your proposition. I am hard up, too, and the sooner you send your matter and a small check, the better it will be for me." Out of seventy papers approached, less than ten unequivocally refused to sell their columns. When Johnson published his exposure with photographic copies of the various letters, there was a furore in West Virginia and the editors naturally turned on him and could find no words hard enough for him. "Forger," " Vulture," " Blackmailer," were among the mildest of their names for him. Many people not sympathetic to the liquor trade dislike this method of fighting it. Johnson had no hesi- tation. " These were the rascals I was after," Johnson told Collier's Weekly. " I have no apologies to make. I went out after scamps and got them. It is not the first time I have set bear traps for crooks." Johnson was now finding himself more and more absorbed in the work of the Anti-Saloon League, to which he was from this time to devote his life. The Anti-Saloon League, the main force in carrying national prohibition in 132 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON the United States, differed materially from the older Prohibition Party. The purpose of "both was the same, to end the liquor trade, but the Prohibition Party had as a Party, to frame a program covering all kinds of political and social issues on which there were profound dif- ferences of opinion among men opposed to the liquor traffic. The American people were be- coming growingly wearied of party machines. The whole tendency of recent years had been in the direction of placing more and more power in the hands of the electors. The Aus- tralian ballot, the Power of Recall and similar measures all meant insuring the elector more direct power in actual legislation and control. The Prohibition Party was pulling right against the stream all the time. The Anti-Saloon League went on another plan. " The League pledges itself to avoid -affiliation with any political party as such and to maintain an attitude of strict neutrality on all questions of public policy not directly and immediately concerned with the traffic in strong drink," was the second clause in its Constitution. NATIONAL PROHIBITION 133 The League owes its life largely to the pio- neer activities of Dr. Howard H. Russell who organized the Ohio Anti-Saloon League in 1893 and who carried on a fight under very discouraging circumstances for ten years. He had special qualities for his task. He had been a lawyer with seven years' active general prac- tice before entering the Church where he had seven years of successful pastoral work pre- vious to undertaking his special campaign. An able organizer, a convincing speaker, a man of great physical strength and full of passionate devotion to his cause, he faced dark days cheer- fully. By 1903 his work had led to the or- ganization of Anti- Saloon Leagues in forty States and Territories. He then retired as chief executive of the organization, to be followed by Dr. P. A. Baker, also a clergyman, a man bred in pov- erty who had forced his way to the front rank by sheer executive ability and tremendous en- thusiasm. It was under Dr. Baker that the League made its full development. With him have been associated men like Mr. E. H. Cher- rington who controls the publicity work of 134 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON the Anti-Saloon League and whose activities are felt everywhere in America, Mr. W. H. Anderson, who is regarded by the American liquor interests as one of their most dangerous enemies, Dr. Dinwiddie and Mr. W. B. Wheeler. When these men entered into this campaign the brewing and whisky interests, with almost limitless funds behind them, seemed in secure control of the political ma- chine. They set to work, educating, organiz- ing, fighting. A tradition is already beginning to grow up around them and their methods. The liquor interests, fighting for their lives, spared no effort to defeat them by the vilest scandal, by expenditure of money and by, when occasion served, the organization of personal violence. The first fight was for local and State pro- hibition. In 1913 a fresh step was taken when the Anti-Saloon League launched a campaign for national prohibition embodied in the Con- stitution of the United States. A Committee of one thousand from the Anti-Saloon League, with a Committee of one thousand women re- formers, marched to the Capitol at Washing- NATIONAL PROHIBITION 135 ton and officially presented a petition tq Con- gress, demanding a prohibition amendment to the Federal constitution. The demand seemed to many at the time a mere extravagance of uncontrolled and irre- sponsible fanaticism. These folk soon discov- ered their mistake. State after State in the Union and province after province in Canada were now rapidly going " dry." In 1915, urged and aided by the spirit of individual and national sacrifice aroused by the war, a resolution calling for the submission of a na- tional Prohibition Amendment to the Legis- latures of the several States was carried in Congress by the necessary two-thirds majority. From that time the landslide began which ended in victory four years later. To this campaign, first for State and then for national prohibition, Johnson wholly de- voted himself from 1912 to the autumn of 1918. It was a time of great battles. There were States to be organized, books to be writ- ten, economic and political studies to be made, funds to be raised. The business interests had to be convinced that prohibition would be 136 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON good for them, that it was their duty to sup- port it with all their force. Churches had to be kept at white heat, and Legislatures had to be watched. Johnson and his friends were aided by the foolish tactics adopted by the defenders of the drink trade, who succeeded in arousing against themselves the women, the reformers, the churches, a large part of the manufacturing and business interests, and all the forces mak- ing for the uplift of the nation. They despised their opponents, and even when pro- hibition was sweeping like a prairie fire over the Union, they continued to assure the world that the thing was absurd, that it could never pass into law, and if it did pass into law, could never be enforced. Johnson before leaving the Indian Service had written a detailed and careful study of the national aspects of the drink question under the title, " The Federal Government and the Liquor Traffic." He issued other volumes and pamphlets during this time. One of the most remarkable and attractive of these was on the liquor question in Russia, written during the NATIONAL PROHIBITION 137 war. To obtain the facts for this he visited and spent some time in Russia. This book contains what is generally admitted to be the fullest and most exact account of the vodka monopoly to be found in the English language. His activities were more and more extend- ing outside of America. He visited England to study the situation there; he went to the Continent of Europe as delegate to various conferences. His name became well-known in temperance circles in many lands. In the summer of 1918 he and his colleagues looked around and knew that the battle, so far as seeing the passage of national prohibition ir* the United States was concerned, was substan- tially won. The hour had come for the next step forward. IX LAUNCHING THE WORLD CAMPAIGN IN November, 1918, a new step forward was taken in the history of the Prohibition movement, when the Anti-Saloon League of America resolved to launch a great cam- paign to make the world " dry." A great Conference was held at Columbus, Ohio, at- tended by delegates from all parts of the United States and from many foreign coun- tries. A world-wide program was there fixed. It was decided to extend the movement into other countries by sending speakers and writers abroad, by cultivating publicity and by using varied means, "to establish in the minds of the people of other countries the facts as to the benefit and successful operation of prohibition in the United States." The Anti-Saloon League pledged itself to render financial assistance to temperance or- 138 THE WORLD CAMPAIGN 139 ganizations, working along these lines, and to help to create fresh organizations. The League further proposed to take up with similar or- ganizations in other countries the importance of international action, with the idea of calling for a Conference " for the purpose of organ- izing a League of Nations in the interests of the complete extermination of the beverage liquor traffic throughout the nations of the earth." Johnson started out as a pioneer in the world campaign some weeks before the Columbus Conference passed its resolutions. In the sum- mer of 1918 he was invited by Mr. W. J. Allison, Secretary of the Scottish Permissive Bill Association, to cross the Atlantic and help in a coming liquor option campaign there. A measure had been passed through the British Parliament, giving the people of Scotland the right to decide by ballot whether they would have prohibition in their localities or not. This was a radically new departure in British legis- lation and a battle had been maintained for two generations before the right had been granted. Even now the powers extend only 140 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON to Scotland and not to the rest of the United Kingdom. Under this measure, the local authorities were required, on receipt of a requisition signed by not less than one-tenth of the electors in any area, to cause an election to take place, each elector being given the choice of voting for leaving things as they were, for reducing the number of licensed houses by one quarter, or for prohibition. Fifty-five per cent of the votes must be recorded in favor of no license in order to carry prohibition and these must represent not less than thirty-five per cent of the electors on the register. The first election was to take place at the end of 1920. It was now up to the prohibitionists to convince the electors, hence the appeal for Johnson's aid. At first he refused, but after a conference with his friends he changed his decision. Johnson arrived in Britain on September 13, 1918. He first traveled over Scotland and in- vestigated conditions there. He sent a series of reports home to his colleagues in America, and they thereupon suggested that he should THE WORLD CAMPAIGN 141 go to London, take an office and begin work there. He found admirable headquarters on the first floor of a building in Fleet Street, in the very heart of newspaper land. The Englishman by tradition and instinct places great emphasis on the liberty of the sub- ject. He absorbs almost from infancy an atmosphere of hostility to officialism and to regulations which prevent him from doing what he likes with his own. He learns in youth that " An Englishman's home is his castle." " If any policeman or State official dared to try to invade the privacy of my home," said an outspoken reformer, Mr. W. T. Stead, on one occasion, with passion, " I would shoot him down without hesitation." The war with Germany had for the time removed the individual Englishman's personal rights. He had " voluntarily made a tempo- rary surrender of liberty in order to secure permanent liberty for all men." But the results of this voluntary surrender made the English- man more bitterly hostile to officialism than ever before. The extravagances, the excesses and the absurdities of Government service 14-2 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON were the favorite topic of conversation wher- ever half a dozen men gathered together. There was one field in which Government regulation had, without question, produced enormously beneficial results. The Govern- ment had, as a war measure, instituted the stricter control of the liquor traffic, closing all public houses except for two hours and a half at mid-day and for three hours and a half in the evening, forbidding treating, forbidding the sale of spirits in bottles from Friday afternoon until Monday morning and forbidding the sale of drink on credit. The alcoholic quantity and strength of beers and of spirits had been con- siderably lowered, and the price had been very greatly increased. As a result of all this the convictions for drunkenness had declined by over seventy per cent, in two years, and all diseases and crimes associated with drunkenness had shown a cor- responding decrease. Cases of delirium tre- mens were becoming reduced to a minimum, the number of deaths from diseases caused by alcohol sharply dropped : the overlaying of in- fants, due in the vast majority of cases to the THE WORLD CAMPAIGN 143 accidental smothering of babies in bed by drunken mothers, had been reduced by over two-thirds. On the other hand the brewers and distillers had made enormous profits during the war and had accumulated greater funds than ever be- fore. The public in its impatience of control, was ready to jump at any relaxation of Gov- ernment regulations about anything, including the liquor traffic. The Prime Minister, Mr. Lloyd George, was individually exceedingly sympathetic to temperance reform, and was an old advocate of strict regulation, if not prohi- bition. But the leading brewer of Scotland, Sir George Younger, was the chief Coalition Whip and it was evident that the liquor inter- ests had such powerful friends in the Coalition Cabinet that no strong action by the Govern- ment supporting temperance could be ex- pected, for a time at least, after Peace had come. Anyone who had studied the situation at the beginning of July, 1919, must have regarded the outlook as almost hopeless from the pro- hibitionist point of view. Then in a day, by 144 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON a single newspaper interview, the whole aspect of affairs was changed. A member of the staff of the Daily Mail, Mr. Ferdinand Tuohy, heard of Mr. John- son's campaign and went to see him. Next day nearly a column and a half in the most prominent position in the Daily Mail was given to a vividly written interview with the " Field Marshal of the Prohibition Forces of North America, who is reputed to have done more to make the United States ' dry ' than any other single man." " Mr. ' Pussyfoot ' Johnson," said the writer, " is today established in commodious Fleet Street offices. He is a stout, heavy-featured, be- spectacled man with the gentlest, almost in- audible, pleasantly modulated voice. He first made Oklahoma ' dry ' it took him ten years then Kansas, then, largely, the United States. Now he has come over here to make this country ' dry.' " The Anti-Saloon League, an organization that it would be infantile to scoff at, has sent its best man to this country. It has sent him with carte blanche in strategy, tactics and finance. The others are coming, * large numbers of men and women experts, including Mr. THE WORLD CAMPAIGN 145 Bryan ' ; meanwhile Mr. ' Pussyfoot ' Johnson is inaudibly, invisibly clearing the field for action." What, however, particularly startled the British public was a statement, based on a misunderstanding of what Johnson had said, that the Anti-Saloon League was going to take active part in the British Elections. John- son had been telling of what they did in Amer- ica and of what might happen in England. His interviewer understood him to say that this was what the Anti-Saloon League would do: " Your British organizations have been at us for over a year to come over here. The whole thing has been in response to their asking. We're going to teach them how to get this coun- try dry. I've reported to my headquarters that the position here is entirely different from that back home, but that is far from being as hope- less as appears on the surface. Our workers who come over here field representatives are all going to be paid by us $300 (60) a month and upwards. " The United Kingdom Alliance may, of course, pay their expenses when they speak at their meetings, but we'll pay their expenses as well. Our steady income at home is about 300,- 146 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON ooo a year, though, of course, we have good capi- tal besides. We have 500,000 regular subscribers and 500,000 irregular ones. We don't particu- larly search for wealthy men." " Are you going to butt in on our elections ? " " Why, yes. Our intelligence service will keep us informed as to when a district is possible, and down we'll send our campaigners. We'll bill the place and buy space in the local newspapers and show films at the kinemas, and give ad- dresses. Why, we're over here to get behind all your organizations and press the matter home." The average Englishman after reading this interview was convinced that the Americans were sending an army of spell-binders across the Atlantic to sweep the country, with enor- mous funds behind them, and that they were going to enter into a great campaign, obtain control over the newspapers, subsidize kinemas, and flood the country with printed matter. The interview created an enormous sensation. There was no more question of the temperance movement being in a rut. It had been lifted out of the rut at a bound. Johnson, by the time the interview had been published, had gone to Finland to assist in THE WORLD CAMPAIGN 147 helping to celebrate the coming of prohibition there. He first learned of the sensation the interview was causing from the Scandinavian and the Finnish press. He purposely remained away from England for some weeks to give the situation time to cool down. The general reception given to the interview was exceedingly hostile. There were furious protests everywhere, and even leading British temperance organizers expressed their doubts and hesitations as to the possibilities of a for- ward movement. The brewers and distillers came together and established organizations to fight the new prohibition campaign. An Anti- Prohibition League was established, and the retail trade, the brewers and distillers all en- tered into special movements of their own against this new menace. When after an absence of five weeks John- son returned to England, his office was be- sieged by newspaper men seeking statements. " I understand that you have been having a sort of Sioux Indian ghost dance over my af- fairs and the affairs of the Anti-Saloon League in America," he said. 148 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON " What I have been doing, and what I expect to do in the future," he told a representative of the Manchester Guardian, " is merely to explain the American action against drink. " Neither I, myself, nor the Anti-Saloon League has had the slightest intention of inter- fering in any way with British affairs. We will not take any part whatever in any British elec- tions. I am under the most positive instructions not to interfere in any way with such things: I have not discussed British affairs in Britain, and will not in the future. What I have been doing and what I expect to do in the future is merely to explain the American action against the drink, tell why and how we did it, and the result of this action. The British people are under no obligation to adopt the same policy unless they choose to do so. "All this is in the direction of promoting friendly relations between the two countries along the line of the work of the English-speak- ing Union, of which I am a member, and of which Mr. William H. Taft, and Mr. Arthur J. Balfour are the presidents. America and Eng- land are arranging an interchange of college pro- fessorships and interchange of clergymen, and why not an interchange in other things which will help to make each side understand the view- points and ambitions of the other. " We sent a couple of million soldiers over to France to work side by side with the sons of Britain. That helps us to understand each other. THE WORLD CAMPAIGN 149 Before America entered the war the British publicists flooded America with literature explain- ing the British purpose in the war, and seeking American aid. The British Government even opened a publicity headquarters on Fifth Ave- nue, New York, in charge of a capable publicity man, Mr. Geoffrey Butler, seeking to enlist American sympathies for the Allied cause. No loyal American objected to that. We welcomed it all and only wish that it had been done on a larger scale so that we would have seen our duty sooner and got into the conflict sooner. " During the past few weeks, according to your own newspapers, British bondholders in brewery stocks and bonds have sent large sums of money to America to fight the enforcement of our National Prohibition Program. According to American newspapers this money has been used in part in employing Mr. Samuel Unter- meyer, of New York, one of the best American lawyers, to fight against Prohibition in the courts. Mr. Untermeyer himself announces that he has been so employed. No loyal American objects to this. We will help British shareholders to spend the money. The fact that British capi- talists got stung by investing their gold in Ger- man breweries in America is no concern of ours. " All this interchange of discussion helps to promote a community of help and a community of interest among English-speaking people. I came over here at the urgent and repeated invi- tation of the dry organizations of Great Britain 150 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON to tell the story of prohibition in America, and to counteract some of the grotesque yarns that are being circulated on this side of the water about the effects of the dry policy in America. Those who wish to listen ought to have the British right to do so : those who do not wish to listen can have the British right to stop their ears or make whatever comment they please. Then the British public will likely exercise the good old British right to do whatever they please about it." But the British public had received an im- pression which no explanation could remove. The country was quickly flooded with litera- ture, not prohibition literature, but anti-pro- hibition. One cartoon which was displayed in most of the public houses in the country showed the figure of a long-nosed individual whose nasal extremity stretched from the United States into the private premises of John Bull in England. " Pussyfoot Nosey Parker from across the sea," it was headed. " Dollars for Dirty Work in England. Shall he Pro-boss-us ? " Leaflets were issued widely, urging the pub- lic to " send the alien agitators home." Meet- THE WORLD CAMPAIGN 151 ings called by the temperance supporters in many parts of the country were broken up. The name of " Pussyfoot " was in everyone's mouth. It was introduced in the music halls and theaters, and the writers of pantomine songs made ready to exploit him to the full. " Pussyfoot " bade fair to become the bogey of England. HOW "PUSSYFOOT" LOST HIS EYE yi MONG the numerous invitations which /"\ Johnson received to address all kinds of assemblies in Britain was one from Major Evelyn Wrench of the Overseas Club, asking him to take part in a debate on the " How and Why of American Prohibition." Mr. Johnson assented and November 12, 1919, was fixed as the date. Mr. R. Mitchell Banks, a barrister, representing the anti-prohibition- ists, was to speak on the other side. The Overseas Club is an active British Im- perial organization with a large number of members scattered throughout the world. It has club rooms in Kingsway, London, close to the Law Courts, and regular afternoon lec- tures and debates are usually held in these rooms. So many applications came, however, for tickets, for the Prohibition debate that the 152 HOW HE LOST HIS EYE 153 club rooms were too small and Essex Hall in Essex Street nearby was taken. About this time the students of the Univer- sity of London took it into their heads to dem- onstrate to the world that London is really a University city. On the Monday of the second week in November two groups of University students from University College and St. Bartholomew's Hospital had engaged in a pitched battle in the grounds of University College over the possession of a gun valued by both of them as a relic. On Tuesday they had marched down into Fleet Street and dem- onstrated in front of a newspaper office as a protest against some criticisms passed on them. The Prohibition debate was to be on Wednesday. All the students, from King's College and University College, and from the hospital schools, resolved to come together to rag " Pussyfoot " Johnson. There was no in- tention to injure him. Word was passed round by the organizers that no real damage was to be done. If he was pelted it was to be with little bags of flour and nothing harder. Essex Street is a narrow thoroughfare run- 154 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON ning from the eastern end of the Strand to- wards the River Thames. The organizers of the meeting knew nothing of what was being planned. The newspapers, however, were better informed and shortly before 4 o'clock on the afternoon of the meeting, flashlight photographers mounted various points of van- tage around Essex Street and took possession of windows opposite the entrance to the hall. Company after company of students marched in military formation for the one point. The first section rushed the door keepers and oc- cupied the greater part of the seats in the hall. A great host waited outside with banners and beer bottles to seize " Pussyfoot " on arrival. Every taxicab approaching the place was searched. Johnson, however, quietly walked through the crowd into the hall, no one recog- nizing him. A few policemen were on the scene and later on the iron gates of the hall were shut. Long before the meeting started the stu- dents within and without were shouting: " Pussyfoot, Pussyfoot, we want Pussyfoot. Bart's wants Pussyfoot; HOW HE LOST HIS EYE 155 Guy's wants Pussyfoot; We all want Pussyfoot. Pussyfoot ! " As the Chairman and the two speakers mounted the platform, they were greeted with wild shouts and cat-calls. The Chairman ap- pealed and called upon the interrupters to be sportsmen and give the speakers a fair hearing. He might as well have spoken to the winds. Major Wrench appealed for fair play, mention- ing that the Overseas Club had collected 1,000,000 for the war and had presented the Government with three hundred aeroplanes. " As Britishers, as I understand most of you are, I ask you to give our guests a fair hear- ing." He was shouted down. " I have as much time to spare as you have," said the Chairman. " And I am prepared to wait here all night, if necessary, until you are will- ing to listen." Mr. Johnson intimated that he was willing to wait also. "We want Pussyfoot," came the chorus in reply. Then the Chairman offered to allow a representative of the students to state their case from the platform. One of them, dis- 156 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON guised as a stage Irishman, promptly came up from the back and was enthusiastically greeted. "We say that if Britain wants to be wet or dry," he declared amid tumultuous cheers, " that is a thing for Britishers alone to decide. We don't want Americans coming over here with elaborate and ornate speeches, telling us what we ought to do. We won the Battle of the Somme on rum, and rum only, and the sooner Mr. Johnson realizes that the better." Several newspaper photographers who had taken possession of the little gallery to the rear of the hall were busy receiving flashlight pic- tures and the flashes added a weird touch to the extraordinary scene. Mr. Banks, the anti-Prohibitionist, now made a strong appeal for fair play for his op- ponent. Then Johnson himself mounted the platform, quiet, smiling and looking, as the reporters next day said, as cherubic as Mr. Pickwick. The tumult had left him quite unruffled. He started by declaring that he quite sym- pathized with the views of those people who HOW HE LOST HIS EYE 157 said that it was for Britishers alone to decide if Britain wanted to be wet or dry. " I came to this country not on my own initiative, but on the invitation and partly at the expense of a body of British people. I claim for the Brit- ish the right to invite anybody into their homes that they think fit and if this right is denied them, then this country is false to its tradi- tions." Amid yells and songs a party of students rose from their seats as though going out. Then at an arranged signal, one section opened a barrage of bags of flour on the platform and another section rushed up. Picked men had been allotted to the task of seizing " Pussy- foot " and his Chairman. Chairs were smashed,, tables overturned. Johnson, getting his back to the wall, put up a first-class fight and with hands and knees tried to keep his opponents back. A clergy- man rushed to his assistance and the two to- gether made it very lively for a brief space of time for the army of lusty youths around them. Then Johnson was momentarily blinded by little bags of flour bursting in his face and he 158 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON was seized and borne out triumphantly. The Chairman had already been knocked down a couple of times while trying to reach " Pussy- foot's " side and he too was seized and borne into the street. The kidnapping occurred so quickly that it was impossible for the ordinary members of the audience to do anything to prevent it. Most of the audience, apart from the students, were ladies. " The situation in the body of the hall," said one paper next day, " was at one time dis- tinctly dangerous. Chairs were overthrown and broken and women who were roughly pushed aside screamed for mercy. One of them, turning boldly around and facing the mob, shouted defiantly, ' You scoundrels ! You cowards ! I wish I were a man ; I would soon show you what I would do with you.' ' After the tumult had died down Mr. Mitchell Banks returned to the platform and said, " I hope you will take my word of honor that I know nothing of this disgraceful scene. I repudiate it. I propose to you that we pass a vote of condolence with Mr. Johnson on the HOW HE LOST HIS EYE 159 unfair and rough treatment he has received." Essex Street and the Strand facing it were now packed with an army of close on two thousand students. Some had commandeered a newspaper cart and had taken the horse out of the shafts. The Chairman was carried into this, the police vainly trying to rescue him. Then he was dragged off to King's College near by, the top of the covered cart being smashed in by crowds of young fellows around. Johnson was borne by another route and the two were carried into the yard of King's College amid triumphant yells of " Pussyfoot, Pussyfoot, we've got Pussy- foot." The wilder spirits demanded that Pussy- foot and his companions should be ducked in the Thames or in the fountains at Trafalgar Square, but the leaders of the " rag " had the matter well in hand. They wanted a " rag," not a tragedy. Johnson was carried along to King's Col- lege and offered beer, which he, of course, refused to drink. Speeches were demanded, but there was too much noise for any except 160 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON those in the immediate circle around to hear what Johnson and his companion had to say. The Prohibition leader realizing now that the thing was no more than a " rag," entered good- humoredly into the spirit of the proceedings. Another enormous procession was formed. Johnson was placed on a stretcher, his Chair- man behind him in a cart drawn by a number of lads, and all set out in slow march through the West End of London, up the Strand, around Charing Cross Road, through Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, and up Regent Street. Some of the students bore banners. One of these bore the inscription : " Pussyfoot, Pussyfoot, why are we here ? We've come to prevent you from stopping our beer. Pussyfoot, Pussyfoot, there'll be a big riot. We drink in pubs, but you on the quiet." The streets were lined with thousands of people. The police having vainly attempted rescues, marched alongside of the procession. Chorus after chorus was sung, rival sections of the students singing against each other. HOW HE LOST HIS EYE 161 "What won the war?" one man would thunder. " Beer," the chorus would answer amidst tumultuous cheers. College poets had written their rhymes for the occasion. Some of them were very halt- ing, such as : " We don't want beer and whisky, We don't want gin and bitters. All we want is frisky Pussyfoot." But the favorite chorus kept up nearly the whole time was : " Pussyfoot, Pussyfoot, we've got Pussyfoot. Guy's have Pussyfoot; Bart's have Pussyfoot; We've all got Pussyfoot. Pussyfoot." Meanwhile Johnson, his clothing covered with flour, sat smiling on his stretcher. His hat had gone; one of the students offered him his. Another student offered the Chairman, who was securely guarded on his cart, whose 162 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON shirt was ripped open, and whose tie had dis- appeared in the struggle, an overcoat to keep him warm, for it was a cold autumn evening. The procession reached Portland Street at a point near where Oxford Street and Regent Street meet. Police reserves had been called for and arrived on the scene. They maneuv- ered in such fashion that they cut off the sec- tion with Johnson from the rest of the pro- cession. Then they made a rush and bore him away from his captors. A motor car was near by and they hurried him into it. Up to now the affair had been nothing more than a " rag." At the last moment it took a more serious turn. Someone on the outside of the crowd the students declare that it was none of them threw a stone which caught Johnson full on the ball of his right eye. The police took him quickly off to Bow Street Station where a surgeon, Dr. Thomas Rose, attended to his injury. The pain was intense and it was evident that the damage was seri- ous, but owing to the suffusion of blood it was impossible to tell its full extent. Johnson went on to his home with heavily bandaged eye. HOW HE LOST HIS EYE 163 The reporters sought him out. They found him smiling, despite the pain of his bandaged eye. ' Tell the boys there is no ill-will on my side," he said, " not a grain." XI THE "BOGEY MAN" BECOMES A POPULAR HERO THE Englishman loves a "good sport." By a " good sport " he understands a man who plays the game, who can take punishment without whimpering and who goes through hard times with a smile. When the news was published that John- son's eye had been badly injured in the strug- gle on the Thursday afternoon and that he had made light of it and sent a message of good cheer to the students who ragged him, there was a tremendous reaction in his favor, shared by every class of the community. The stu- dents themselves wrote a letter of sympathy and sent a deputation to visit Johnson in his home and to express their sorrow. " It was not one of us who threw the missile," they said. " There was a distinct order given from 164 (C) Daily Mail The Morning after " The Rag ' "BOGEY MAN" BECOMES A HERO 165 the first that no sticks or other weapons were to be used, and that there was to be no ' rough- house.' " Expressions of sympathy were heard as freely in public house bars and hotel saloons as anywhere else. The Chairman of the Wine & Spirit Trade Defense Fund sent a letter expressing sincere regret at his treatment. " Your campaign to secure prohibition in Great Britain will be strenuously opposed by British methods, but we entirely deprecate anything which is not fair play." Johnson was removed on the following day to a nursing home. " Tell everybody that it is not serious and that I had a good time," he said. " It is only this little eye trouble which is the fly in the ointment. I have nothing against the boys. They are all right, and I hope to meet them again soon when I will give them the interrupted address." A portrait of him sitting up in bed smiling, with bandaged eye, which appeared in many newspapers, helped still more to turn the cur- rent of popular sympathy in his favor. " Any- one who could smile like that under the cir- 166 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON cumstances must be a real good sort," said men to one another. "Don't let the boys think that I am a martyr," he told a correspondent. " I'm not. I am fifty-seven, but last night the boys made me feel twenty years younger. I am feeling today a bit stiff, and the eye gave me a bad night, but the only thing that really bothers me is that the doctors won't let me read the story of the ' rag ' in the papers." The King made inquiries about Johnson's progress, and made no secret of his feelings over the matter. The students had rather a surprise when on the Friday evening Lord Birkenhead, Lord Chancellor of England, took opportunity when speaking at the Connaught Rooms in London, to condemn the " rag " in severe language. " I speak with all sincerity," he declared, " when I say that I profoundly regret the incident in which a citizen of the United States was concerned. Mr. Johnson holds views which I do not happen to hold. He was invited here by associations of Eng- lish people who shared his views. He was entitled to express his opinion in this country " BOGEY MAN " BECOMES A HERO 167 just as freely as I would be entitled to do if I were invited by American Associations to express my opinion in that country. Making every allowance for the high spirits of youth, I profoundly regret that a citizen of the United States should have been subjected to such an outrage. I do not know that anybody would be advised to treat with levity and flippancy what has happened." The public encouraged by Johnson's cheer- ful words were not inclined to take the damage to his eye seriously. It was impossible at first to tell what damage was done owing to suf- fusion of blood. After a few days word came that the eye was worse. It was feared that the optic lens had been broken. Then the bulletins stated that Johnson was in great pain and that there was little hope of saving the eye. A fortnight after the " rag " it was found necessary to remove the eye. " We found in consultation," said Mr. Harold Grimsdale, "that it was impossible to save a useful eye; so in view of the pain which could not be relieved, we found it necessary to remove it." 168 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON The London Evening News promptly started a popular subscription as a mark of public sympathy. Johnson was in no state to be told anything when the subscription was opened, but when he learned of it he found himself in a somewhat awkward position. He fully appreciated the kind intentions that lay behind the proposal, but he was anxious not to do anything that might make it appear that he was trying to exploit the accident for his own benefit. He asked that the money which had been subscribed should not be given to him but should be devoted to Sir Arthur Pearson's great work for blinded soldiers at St. Dun- stan's House in London. This was done. The reformer's letter bag at this time bore striking evidence of the wave of feeling in his favor. Messages of sympathy came in from all parts of the country and from many parts of the world. Societies of all kinds met and formally expressed their disapproval and re- gret over what had happened. Non-prohibi- tionists wrote cordial letters telling Johnson that while they did not like his doctrines, they admired him. Here is a typical letter : " BOGEY MAN " BECOMES A HERO 169 45 Queen's Gate, London, S.W./. Good Old Pussyfoot, I don't agree with your opinions, but no one can deny you're the greatest sport living. I am just about to drink your health, and not in water either!! Here's wishing you the very best of luck, and every success in your campaign. Yours in sport, (Sgd) ARNOLD L. HASKELL. The editorial staff of the King's College Review wrote : King's College, (University of London) Strand, London, W.C. Dear Sir, We are sorry to hear of the accident which happened to you last night and trust that it may not prove serious. We are also sorry that your speech from the balcony at the College was not given a fair hear- ing. Therefore we are writing to ask if you will send a letter to the students of King's College through the medium of the official magazine, "K. C. Review"? We are just going to press and your letter could be included in this number. This would enable you to get a fair " hearing " from every one of the students which, unfortunately, you 170 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON were not accorded last night when in the college precincts. We are, Sir, Yours truly, (Sgd) C. H. DRIVER, Editor. MAY G. MINNS (Sub Editor), " REG. HATTON (Business Editor). The message which Johnson looked at first, however, was a cable from his wife away in Ohio: Westerville. Antisalleg London. Keep courage Will come right Am praying for you With love LILLIAN JOHNSON. The Minister for Education, the Rt. Hon. H. A. L. Fisher, sent a cordial letter express- ing his regret at the occurrence. The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis sent a message to the American Consul-General : " The Commissioner desires me to assure you that there were no steps that he would not have taken to prevent this deplorable incident, had it been possible to have foreseen it, and he wishes me to express his personal regret, which he hopes you will convey to Mr. Johnson." "BOGEY MAN" BECOMES A HERO 171 Here is a letter from the famous Admiral, Sir G. King-Hall : 7 Albany Villas, Hove, I7th November, 1919. Dear Mr. Johnson, I send you my sincerest sympathy on the das- tardly outrage that you have been the victim of, so foreign to all gentlemanly and chivalrous feel- ing, and as an Englishman cannot understand the childish and ungenerous conduct of young men in having treated you thus. I am a lifelong T. A. and President of the Royal Naval Temperance Society, consisting of some 50,000 members, and thank you for having come over to show what an advantage T. A. in America has been in the cause of efficiency. I sincerely trust your eye may not be per- manently hurt, and as a British officer, apologize for the unwarrantable conduct of a small num- ber of my young countrymen, for having for- gotten the rules of hospitality to a stranger. Yours sincerely, A. KING-HALL. His old friends of the Anti-Saloon League sent him long messages and the Executive Committees of the League passed a resolution on the matter on January 19, 1920. Two of 172 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON the letters are specially worth producing. The first comes from Mr. E. H. Cherrington, one of the foremost figures in the League. He wrote : " Your eyes have been of great service to the cause of righteousness in general and the pro- hibition movement in particular, and yet I am fully persuaded that all the great service which both your eyes have rendered in the years gone by is not to be compared with the remarkable service which you have rendered in the loss of one of them. " In fact, you have gone Samson one better, for you still have one eye, and from aH evidence there are other assets still remaining. " I want to congratulate you, first of all, on the faithful, persistent, determined and success- ful effort which you have made since you have been in England to properly represent the Anti- Saloon League movement in America. " I want to congratulate you, in the second place, on standing your ground to the point of physical exhaustion in defending your right as a free man and an American citizen lawfully to express your views. " I want to congratulate you, in the third place, for the masterly manner in conducting yourself and the remarkable qualities of good sportmanship shown in the way in which yon BOGEY MAN " BECOMES A HERO 173 accepted the inevitable and tried to make the world believe you enjoyed it. " I want to congratulate you, in the fourth place, for the superlative good judgment in de- clining to accept for yourself the contributions raised through the London News and the turn- ing of the same to the benefit of the hospital for blind soldiers. " I want to congratulate you, in the fifth place, for the fortitude and diplomacy you have shown toward other temperance representatives from America and the leaders of other temperance organizations in England and the British Isles other than those which were first recognized in the formation of the World League. " I want to congratulate you, in the sixth place, because you have ' run true to form ' and have been able to more than justify the confidence which some of us have always had in your ability to make good on practically any propo- sition. " I want to congratulate you, in the seventh place, for having the privilege of rendering the greatest service to the prohibition cause through- out the world, that has ever been rendered by one individual in the space of time which it took you to make good in England. " The Anti-Saloon League of America is, and * of right ought to be/ proud of your remarkable achievement. " Most cordially yours, " (Sgd) ERNEST H. CHERRINGTON." 174 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON Mr. William H. Anderson, New York State Superintendent of the League, another of the foremost figures in the American reform, sent this message, dated November 14, 1919 : " In the opinion of the New York Office of the Anti-Saloon League you are a Christian gentleman and a game sport. " We have read the newspaper accounts of your ' ragging ' by a mob of London medical students, and we feel a keen sense of pride in the sportsmanlike manner in which you took the experience. " Over here they have a way of presenting the prohibitionists as long-haired, sour-faced, kill- joys. If there are such and we have never met them yet you don't belong to that school. " It did us all good to read that when you were interviewed after you had been manhandled by the mob you were ' cheerful and chuckling ' and said you had had ' quite a good time and thor- oughly enjoyed it.' " It made us swell with pride to note your gameness and absolute fairness in not wanting the medical students to be blamed for throwing the missile which caused a hemorrhage of the eye and in saying ' The police worked it very nicely indeed.' " It was a joy to hear as we could almost hear you say ' At first I scrapped a little, but BOGEY MAN " BECOMES A HERO 175 when I found it was a " rag " then I played the game.' " You have always played the game fair and square. You have always come up smiling and you have always won out in the end. We trust your injuries are slight. We know the gains to the cause of decency and fair play will be great in England as a result of your experience. " John Bull loves and admires a good, clean fight and you are making one." The resolution adopted by the Executive Committee of the Anti-Saloon League of America on January 19, 1920, was as follows : The Executive Committee of the Anti-Saloon League of America has learned with deep regret of mal-treatment of our Mr. W. E. Johnson by students in London. Concerning the moral qual- ity of such treatment we do not wish to say more than to express our surprise and disap- pointment that an honored and eminent citizen of the United States should be so treated by the citizens of Great Britain, when his only offence was to respond to an invitation by Britishers to visit their country and to give testimony concern- ing the benefits of Prohibition in America. It is a matter of great satisfaction to us, and, we believe, to the American public that English public opinion as expressed by telegram and 176 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON letter, and through the press, has strongly con- demned the conduct of the students. We hereby record our unbounded admiration for the fine qualities exhibited by Mr. Johnson under the trying circumstances and throughout his suffering and loss. While his course in no sense surprised us it is none the less gratifying. We congratulate Mr. Johnson upon the forti- tude, chivalry and good temper which he ex- hibited throughout. We would also hereby record and instruct our secretary to convey to Mr. Johnson reassurances of our continued esteem and support in his faith- ful and efficient services. We do not believe that such services will fail of appreciation and moral support from the British public. XII ENGLAND "DRY" BY 1930 WHEN the Englishman wishes to do anyone honor, he raises a fund for him or gives him a public ban- quet. Johnson had refused the fund, so as soon as he was fit the temperance workers tendered him a luncheon, followed by a great public meeting at the Central Hall, Westmin- ster. The gathering was described by the Methodist Times as one of the largest, most enthusiastic and representative of its kind ever held in Britain. Over three thousand people were present and many could not obtain ad- mission. " Our guest," said Dr. C. W. Saleeby, who presided at the luncheon, "has given his eye to lighten the darkness of the dupes, victims and parasites of the liquor trade and to free them from the miseries of their condition. 177 178 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON He has succeeded in making prohibition in Britain a live political issue and it will hence- forth so remain." " I can see the demonstration just accorded to me with my glass eye," said Johnson when the applause and musical honors accorded him had died down. " So far as the affair in Essex Hall was concerned, I do not intend to grieve about that. The benefits which I believe have accrued to the cause we have at heart more than outweigh my sense of personal injury through the loss of an eye." Sir Alfred Pearce Gould, the famous sur- geon, presided over the public meeting, and it would have been difficult to surpass it for enthusiasm and high spirits. When Johnson arose the audience rose too, and applause ended in the whole audience uniting in singing, " For he's a jolly good fellow." " The welcome you give me," he said, " reminds me of the words of King Agrippa to Paul, ' Almost thou per- suadest me to be a Britisher.' ' Was it not possible, he asked, that under the leadership of England's " oldest daughter," the whole world and especially the English- ENGLAND " DRY " BY 1930 179 speaking world might speedily see the end of a business which Gladstone said was a greater curse than either pestilence or war ? " If I can contribute in a small measure to the consum- mation of this great ideal, I shall esteem it to be the highest privilege granted to me by my great Creator, who I believe is with me in the effort. Once again, may I say ' Thank you * for this magnificent greeting. God bless you all." The strain and suffering before the opera- tion had told on the reformer and made it necessary for him to go for a time to North Africa to recover his health. On his return to England he found a very different atmos- phere awaiting him from the previous summer, when he started his London campaign. Then the temperance cause in England had seemed almost moribund; now prohibition was in the air. The apathy of the Government in dealing with temperance reform in Parliament and the growing relaxation of the old wartime pro- hibition restrictions were producing a marked increase in drunkenness and in crimes due to 180 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON drink. But many men were convinced that this in itself would, when the right moment came, lend real force to the campaign for re- form, proving in the clearest fashion the rela- tion between relaxed control and crime. It would be too much to say that even then any large section of the British people in the United Kingdom were in favor of prohibition, but the movement had begun and great sections of in- fluential people were beginning to openly avow themselves as favoring limitations of the sale of spirits and the heavier alcoholic drinks, to a degree never yet attempted or thought possible. Johnson was not to be long in England; urgent affairs were calling him to America. The great Encyclopedia on Alcohol which his assistants there had been working on during his absence, now required his personal super- vision. He was wanted for a short public cam- paign. He started from Southampton on April 1 3th. A day or two before he sailed I discussed with him the outlook in the United Kingdom. I remembered how, some years before, he had ENGLAND " DRY " BY 1930 181 prophesied that the United States would be " dry " by 1920 and how his forecast had come true. What would happen in Eng- land? " England will be ' dry ' by 1930," the re- former assured me. " That is not my view alone. * If America stands firm and makes good on prohibition, England will adopt the same policy within ten years,' Mr. Lloyd George told a friend a few weeks ago. Many heads of industry admit that England must, within a decade, follow America's example if only for economic reasons, provided America makes good. " America is going to make good. Let there be no mistake about that. You will hear much concerning reaction, but prohibition has come to stay. On the surface the drink traffic seems to be triumphant here. It is enormously wealthy, strongly entrenched, and during the past few months has won victory after victory. That is a fact. It has secured the relaxation of wartime restrictions on the sale of drink, despite overwhelming official proof of the benefits of these restrictions. 182 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON " It has obtained for itself such place in the very Government itself that it can prevent for the time all effective temperance legislation. Here you have the Premier distinctly and sin- cerely in favor of reform of the liquor laws. But you have the representative brewer of Scotland, Sir George Younger, holding the of- fice of Coalition Whip, and nullifying by his influence the praiseworthy ardor of the Premier. " You may ask me on what grounds then do I base my prediction of England becoming * dry ' in ten years ? I expect it first from the character of the Prime Minister. Mr. Lloyd George is for the moment unable to do any- thing effective. But Mr. Lloyd George is known to be a fierce opponent of the liquor traffic, and no man in Britain more cer- tainly has his own way in the end than the Premier. " I expect Britain to go ' dry ' because of what I know of the character of the British people themselves. Here is a nation that studies facts and acts on them. England has led the way in all kinds of great reforms, ex- ENGLAND " DRY " BY 1930 183 cept in the reform of the liquor traffic. Trace out history for the last hundred years and see how often Britain has been in the van for advance. "When the Englishman is first offered a new idea, he grouses at it or ignores it. If he grouses, it's hopeful. England has been passing through the grousing stage over pro- hibition. Meetings have been smashed up all over the country. Now men are beginning to cease grousing, and to recognize the facts. " Two great classes are being won, business men, and organized labor. The working man knows what the cutting out of the public house will mean for him. " Drinking habits among employees mean a loss of ten per cent in efficiency. That is the calculation of some of the largest American employers. Great manufacturers here are more and more recognizing that a drinking nation cannot hope to compete economically with a nation that has finished with drink. Some of the most important gatherings I have had here have been with the heads of great undertakings, who are to-day placing them- 184 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON selves behind the prohibition movement. Some of them are not even teetotalers, but they are willing to have their own whisky cut out for the general benefit. The whole Eng- lish-speaking world is moving our way. The United States is ' dry ' ; almost the whole of Canada is 'dry'; the majority of New Zea- land voters have supported prohibition; Aus- tralia is growing 'dry'; Wales wants local option, and is only prevented from having it by the English votes; Scotland will declare large areas ' dry ' in a few months; both Ulster and the south of Ireland will adopt local option when Ireland has Home Rule. Eng- land will not remain permanently in the tail of the procession. Like the man from Mis- souri, she wants to be shown why. The example of her own kinsmen will show her." Confident, smiling, quiet-spoken, he made his farewell. A fortnight later, as his ship passed by the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor, and approached the dock side, he was to discover that his own countrymen were preparing for (C) Topical Press Lxandon Welcomes Johnson ENGLAND " DRY " BY 1930 185 him a reception such as Americans tender only to those of their own people who have worthily upheld American traditions and the American name overseas. XIII THE WELCOME HOME WILLIAM " PUSSYFOOT " JOHN- SON, was welcomed home on his return from Europe much after the manner of a conquering hero or great states- man. His New York friends would fain have staged a demonstration, but were per- suaded not to do so, because of previous plans made to welcome Mr. Johnson to his home and office in Westerville, Ohio. New York, nevertheless, did welcome him. He was repeatedly photographed in pose and repose. He was interviewed by all the New York newspapers and representatives of news agencies. Column after column of copy was written about him, and cabled back to Great Britain. But it was in Columbus, the capital of his state, and seat of his county, that his real 186 THE WELCOME HOME 187 reception began. There he was met at the station by a long procession of automobiles, in which were crowded his neighbors, officials of Westerville, representatives of the several lodges of which he is a member, and other friends. Columbus was also represented officially by the Mayor of the city and the president and secretary of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce. Points of interest were visited including Ohio State University, where " Pussyfoot " was met by the faculty members and students. He was then conveyed to Westerville, twelve miles away, stopping to be welcomed in the neighboring town of Linden. Westerville made a general holiday of the occasion. The town, decorated throughout with flags bore a photograph of " Pussyfoot " in every window, Moving picture machines and cameras were busy. Newspaper men were alert and appreciative. On the campus of the Anti-Saloon League Johnson was welcomed by Dr. Howard H. Russell, founder of the League, in a short ad- dress, to which Mr. Johnson responded. 188 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON Through the crowded streets of his village, Johnson was conveyed and cheered, a band leading. Then the students of Otterbein exe- cuted a coup. They expressed themselves as being desirous of " hazing " their good friend, which they did in regular American college fashion, but without bad results, such as had marked his treatment at the hands of the medical students of London. Requisitioning a decrepit old one-horse buggy, they put Pres- ident W. G. Clippinger into it, then rushing up the street to the head of the automobile procession, captured " Pussyfoot ". He was a willing captive. Putting "Pussyfoot" alongside " Prexy," the students themselves becoming the mo- tive power, pulled the buggy and its pas- sengers to the college campus, where they listened attentively to an address by Mr. Johnson in which he proved, at least to the satisfaction of the students, that the Anglo- American tug-of-war in which he participated on shipboard, was won by the American team, because it was captained by a former Otterbein student. THE WELCOME HOME 189 Johnson's first afternoon at home was a con- tinuous reception, affording him scanty time to enjoy his first meal with wife and daughter. His sons, Clarence T., who is in Indian service in California, and Clifford L., an attorney of Washington, D. C., were unable to be present to greet their father; Mrs. Johnson and Miss Clara represented the family. At the Presbyterian Church on the Sunday evening following his homecoming, there was held a union meeting of Westerville churches, of which church Johnson is a member. There Johnson told of his work abroad and of the prospects for a " dry " Britain. A mass of wires and letters from old as- sociates in the Western States urged him to speak in half a hundred places. But his itinerary, carefully planned, had already been arranged. His first address made under that itinerary was delivered at Columbus on May 2. Then, in rapid succession, with at least one meeting every week-day and three on Sunday, Johnson spoke throughout the length and breadth of the United States telling of his work in Europe, of the need for help in Eng- 190 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON land and of the appeal which the temperance forces of other lands are making to the tem- perance forces of America. One of the striking things about " Pussy- foot's" welcome home is that everywhere he was welcomed, greeted and cheered regardless of his affiliations, beliefs and work. Naturally enough the " drys " were glad to see him, but it was a big surprise to find that men not at all of his way of thinking were just as cordial in their welcome as were those of his own household of faith. Newspaper articles, especially editorials, re- flected the general feeling. Throughout a great mass of news and comment one could not find a discordant note. Johnson was everywhere praised as a good man, an honest man, a good sport. Many who do not believe in prohibition declared that if Johnson were a true sample of prohibitionists, then the cause he stood for was invincible. And the interest in the man lasted. Idaho was not on the schedule of his tour. Yet Idaho wanted him so badly, that citizens of Twin Falls arranged to convey him by airplane from THE WELCOME HOME 191 his train at Granger, Wyo., to their town and thence to catch the same train again at Sho- shone. As has been pointed out by many speakers and editors, Mr. Johnson might have made an appeal on the strength of losing an eye in the cause of prohibition. He might, too, have fallen back on his own popularity, a popularity which existed long before he went to England, and which was merely increased by what hap- pened abroad. He might have signed up (at a very attractive financial figure), with some of the numerous interests that wanted to capitalize him. Yet he did none of those things. The very humility of the man was one of the chief things that appealed to the crowd, especially to that portion of it not in accord with his pro- hibition views. In short, Mr. Johnson's speaking tour of the United States was a veritable triumph. The usual " ballyhoo " and publicity methods were not resorted to. He is, first of all, able to take care of himself in any place or under any circumstances. He is a good newspaper man. He knows how to " spin a yarn," to dig up 192 "PUSSYFOOT" JOHNSON a feature for an interviewer or to furnish material for a " story." Not only does he know how to do all this, but he has lived through all of it. In his case there is some- thing to write about, and resort to usual press agent methods has not been necessary. Johnson tells everybody he is soon going back to Great Britain. He expects to be over there a year in aid of the campaign of the drys, especially in Scotland. That he will carry on an active and effective program none can doubt. It may not be out of place to add to this appreciation of Mr. Johnson's personality and his effective work, the following editorial from the New York Times: " Mr. William E. Johnson, affectionately known as ' Pussyfoot,' is back in his native land after his adventures and triumphs abroad. With undiminished good nature he jokes at the glass eye which is a memorial of the un- intended barbarity of the London Ben Aliens and Tom Sawyers, and foresees a dry world. Probably in another ten years England will be dry." France is growing drier. Esthonia THE WELCOME HOME 193 is " on the wagon." Even India, among whose woes we scarcely remember to have seen alco- hol included before, will be rescued by Govern- ment prohibition before long. In short, every- thing is for the best for the best of causes. It is mighty well, and the radiant optimism and immitigable cheerfulness of Mr. Johnson are beyond praise. . . . He is the kind of a pro- hibitionist that the most devoted opponents of prohibition have a fondness for. He has an ample sense of humor. He is as gay as the gayest old-fashioned bacchanalian song. He can take and give a joke. No heckling ruffles him. If anybody can persuade and win the wicked, it is a man of his type. For years the late Sir Wilfrid Lawson, the famous foe of drink, was the wittiest man in the British House of Commons. Why should the devil have all the good tunes ? He doesn't so long as there is a "Pussyfoot" Johnson to temper the rigor of those prohibitionists who are a bit too good for human nature's daily food." University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. A 000124865 7