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{{Infobox military person
|name=Hugh Samuel Johnson
|birth_date= {{birth date|1881|8|5|mf=y}}<ref name="Registry1044">Cullum, ''Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates...,'' 1920, p. 1044.</ref>
|death_date= {{death date and age|1942|4|15|1881|8|15|mf=y}}<ref name="Obit">"Hugh S. Johnson Dies in Capital," ''New York Times,'' April 16, 1942.</ref>
|birth_place=[[Fort Scott, Kansas|Fort Scott]], [[Kansas]], United States
|death_place=[[Washington, D.C.]], United States
|placeofburial=
|placeofburial_label=
|image=1933 Time Man of the Year cover.jpg
|image_size=250
|caption=Hugh S. Johnson on the cover of ''Time''
|nickname=Iron Pants
|allegiance=United States
|branch=[[United States Army]]
|serviceyears=1903-1919
|rank=[[General (United States)|Brigadier General]]
|commands=
|relations=
|laterwork=
}}

'''Hugh Samuel "Iron Pants" Johnson''' (August 5, 1881 – April 15, 1942) [[United States|American]] [[United States Army|Army]] officer, businessman, speech writer, [[government]] official, radio broadcaster, and newspaper columnist. He is best known as a member of the [[Brain Trust]] of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] in 1932-34. He wrote numerous speeches for FDR and helped plan the [[New Deal]]. Appointed head of the [[National Recovery Administration]] (NRA) in 1933, he was highly energetic in his "blue eagle" campaign to reorganize [[American]] business to reduce competition and raise wages and prices. Schlesinger (1958) and Ohl (1985) conclude that he was an excellent organizer, but that he was also domineering, abusive, outspoken, and unable to work harmoniously with his peers. The NRA was terminated by a ruling of the Supreme Court, and Johnson [[left]] the administration after a little more than a year.<ref>Schlesinger (1958) pp 105-6; Ohl (1985)</ref> In later years he became an newspaper columnist and an outspoken citric of those pushing for the US to enter [[WWII]].  He became  an [[isolationist]] and an authored the book
[https://archive.org/stream/hellbentforwar000193mbp#page/n89/mode/2up ''Hell-Bent for War''].

==Early life and military career==
[[File:Distservmedal.png|thumb|left|75px|The Army Distinguished Service Medal, awarded to Brig. Gen. Hugh S. Johnson.]]
He was born in [[Fort Scott, Kansas]] in 1881<ref [[name]]="Registry1044"/><ref name="Hamby">Hamby, ''For the Survival of [[Democracy]]: Franklin [[Roosevelt]] and the World Crisis of the 1930s,'' 2004, p. 144.</ref> to Samuel L. and Elizabeth (Mead) Johnson.<ref name="Cyclopedia">[[White]], ''The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography,'' 1967, p. 5.</ref> His paternal grandparents, Samuel and Matilda (MacAlan) Johnson, emigrated to the [[United States]] from [[Ireland]] in 1837 and originally settled in [[Brooklyn, New York]].<ref name="Cyclopedia"/> Hugh's father was a lawyer, and he attended public school in [[Wichita, Kansas]], before the family moved to [[Alva, Oklahoma|Alva]], [[Oklahoma Territory]].<ref name="Cyclopedia"/> 
He attempted to run away from home to join the [[Military of Oklahoma|Oklahoma state militia]] at the age of 15, but he was apprehended by his family before he left town.<ref name="Crawford">Crawford, "He Risked Disgrace to Speed the Draft," ''New York Times,'' June 9, 1918.</ref> His father promised to try to secure him an appointment to the [[United States Military Academy]] (West Point), and was successful in obtaining an alternate appointment.<ref name="Registry1044"/><ref name="Hamby"/><ref name="Crawford"/> Johnson himself discovered that the individual who was first in line for the appointment was too old, and convinced him to step aside so that Johnson could enter the Academy.<ref name="Crawford"/>

Johnson entered West Point in 1899,<ref name="Registry1044"/><ref name="Hamby"/><ref name="Howard">Howard, "Our Twenty-one Generals of Forty Years and Under," ''New York Times,'' August 24, 1919.</ref> and graduated and was commissioned a [[Second Lieutenant]] in the [[1st Cavalry Division (United States)|1st Cavalry]] on June 11, 1903.<ref name="Registry1044"/><ref name="Howard"/> [[Douglas MacArthur]] was one of his West Point classmates.<ref name="Hamby"/> From 1907 to 1909 he was stationed at [[Pampanga]], [[Philippines]], but later was transferred to [[California]].<ref name="Registry1044"/><ref name="Howard"/> In the early years of the [[20th century]], most [[national park]]s in the United States were administered by units of the United States Army.<ref>See, generally: Hampton, ''How the U.S. Cavalry Saved Our National Parks,'' 1971.</ref> Johnson was subsequently stationed at [[Yosemite National Park|Yosemite]] and [[Sequoia National Park|Sequoia]] national parks.<ref name="Registry1044"/> He was promoted to [[Lieutenant|1st Lieutenant]] on March 11, 1911, and was named Superintendent of Sequoia National Park in 1912.<ref name="Registry1044"/>

Wishing to follow in his father's footsteps, Johnson won permission from General [[Enoch Crowder]]<ref name="Crawford"/> to attend the [[University of California, Berkeley|University of California]] (at [[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]]) where he received his [[Bachelor of Laws]] degree (with honors) in 1915 and his [[Juris Doctor]] in 1916 (doubling up on courses to graduate in half the [[time]] required).<ref name="Registry1044"/><ref name="Crawford"/> Transferring to the [[Judge Advocate General's Corps]] (JAG), from May to October 1916 he served under [[General officer|General]] [[John J. Pershing]] in [[Mexico]] with the [[Pancho Villa Expedition]].<ref name="Registry1044"/> promoted to [[Captain (land)|Captain]] on July 1, 1916, he transferred to the JAG headquarters in [[Washington, D.C.]], in October 1916.<ref name="Registry1044"/><ref name="Howard"/> He was promoted to [[Major]] on May 15, 1917, and to [[Lieutenant Colonel]] on August 5, 1917.<ref name="Registry1044"/><ref name="Howard"/> He was named [[United States Army Provost Marshal General|Deputy Provost Marshal General]] in October 1917,<ref name="Registry1044"/><ref>"Col. H. S. Johnson Deputy Provost Marshal," ''New York Times,'' January 25, 1918.</ref> and the same month was named to a [[United States Department of Defense|Department of War]] committee on military training (the U.S. had entered [[World War I]] on April 6, 1917).<ref name="Registry1044"/><ref>"Plans to Mobilize Schools to Aid War," ''New York Times,'' February 17, 1918.</ref> As a Captain, Johnson helped co-author the regulations implementing the [[Selective Service Act of 1917]].<ref name="Hamby"/> Without Congressional authorization, he ordered completed several of the initial first steps needed to implement the draft.<ref name="Crawford"/> The action could have led to his [[court-martial]] had Congress not acted (a month later) to pass the conscription law.<ref name="Crawford"/> He was promoted to [[Colonel]] on January 8, 1918, and to [[Brigadier|Brigadier General]] on April 15, 1918.<ref name="Registry1044"/><ref name="Howard"/><ref>"Promotes 10 Brigadiers," ''New York Times,'' April 17, 1918.</ref> At the time of his promotion, he was the youngest person to reach the rank of Brigadier General since the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], and the youngest West Point graduate to remain continuously in the service who had ever reached the rank.<ref name="Crawford"/> Ohl (1985) finds that Johnson was an excellent second-in-command during the war in the Office of the Provost Marshal under Brigadier General [[Enoch H. Crowder]] as long as he was closely watched and tightly supervised. His considerable talents were effectively drawn upon in the planning and implementation of the registration and draft before and during the conflict. However he was never able to work smoothly with [[others]].<ref name="Ohl 1985">Ohl (1985)</ref> 

As a Brigadier General, Johnson was appointed Director of the Purchase and Supply Branch of the General Staff in April 1918,<ref name="Registry1044"/><ref name="Crawford"/> and was promoted to Assistant Director of the Purchase, Storage and Traffic Division of the General Staff in October 1918.<ref name="Registry1044"/> In this capacity, he worked closely with the [[War Industries Board]].<ref name="Hamby"/> He favorably impressed many businessmen, including [[Bernard Baruch]] (head of the War Industries Board).<ref name="Hamby"/> These contacts later proved critical in winning Johnson a position with President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s administration.<ref name="Hamby"/> He was put in command of the [[15th Division (United States)|15th Infantry Brigade]], but the unit did not deploy to [[Europe]] because the war had ended. {{dubious|15th Brigade|date=March 2011}}<ref name="Registry1045">Cullum, ''Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates...,'' 1920, p. 1045.</ref> Johnson resigned from the U.S. Army on February 25, 1919.<ref name="Registry1045"/> For his service in the Provost Marshal's office and in executing the draft, he was awarded the [[Distinguished Service Medal (Army)|Army Distinguished Service Medal]] in 1926.<ref name="Registry1045"/>

==New Deal career==
Johnson was named assistant general manager of the [[Moline Plow Company]] on September 1, 1919.<ref name="Registry1045"/> Moline Plow's president, [[George Peek]], and Johnson were both supporters of the [[McNary–Haugen Farm Relief Bill]], a proposed federal law which would have established the first farm [[price support]]s in U.S. [[history]].<ref name="Hamby"/>

Johnson left Moline Plow in 1927 to become an adviser to Bernard Baruch. He joined the [[Brain Trust]] of [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt|Franklin D. Roosevelt]] in [[United States presidential election, 1932|the 1932 presidential election]]. His major role was drafting speeches, most notably one that FDR delivered in Pittsburgh denouncing the reckless spending of the Hoover administration and calling for a very conservative fiscal policy.<ref>Frank Freidel, ''Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Triumph'' (1956) 361-63</ref>

===NRA===
Johnson played a major role in the [[New Deal]].  In 1933 Roosevelt appointed Johnson to administer the [[National Recovery Administration]] (NRA). One author claims Johnson looked on [[Italian]] Fascist corporativism as a kind of model.<ref>[[Stanley G. Payne]], ''A History of [[Fascism]], 1914-1945,'' 1996, p. 230.</ref> He distributed copies of a fascist tract called "The Corporate State" by one of [[Mussolini]]'s favorite economists, including giving one to Labor Secretary [[Frances Perkins]] and asking her give copies to her cabinet.<ref>Martin, ''Madam Secretary: Frances Perkins,'' 1976, p. 335.</ref>  The NRA involved organizing thousands of businesses under codes drawn up by trade associations and industries. He was recognized for his efforts when ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' named him [[Time Magazine Person of the Year|Man of the Year]] of 1933—choosing him instead of FDR. 

[[File:Front view - Hugh S Johnston headstone - Arlington National Cemetery.JPG|thumb|Grave of Hugh S. Johnson in Arlington National Cemetery.]]
He was faltering badly by 1934, which historians ascribe to the profound contradictions in NRA policies, compounded by heavy drinking on the job. The NRA continued to deteriorate—it was abolished in 1935—and he came under [[attack]] by Labor Secretary [[Frances Perkins]] for having [[Fascist]] inclinations.  Therefore Roosevelt fired Johnson in September 1934 <ref>Martin, ''Madam Secretary: Frances Perkins,'' 1976, p. 337.</ref>   

==The Business Plot==
Johnson was implicated by retired Marine Corps Major General [[Smedley Butler]] in the [[Business Plot]], an alleged [[political]] conspiracy in 1933 to overthrow United States President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], in testimony before the McCormack-Dickstein Committee, whose deliberations began on November 20, 1934 and culminated in the Committee's report to the United States House of Representatives on February 15, 1935. Johnson was not called before the committee because "The committee will not take cognizance of names brought into the testimony which constitute mere hearsay." Supposedly General Johnson would be the new American [[dictator]].

==Journalism, later life and death==
Upon leaving the Roosevelt administration, Johnson, who had long been a successful essay writer for national magazines, now  became a syndicated newspaper columnist specializing in political commentary.  He supported Roosevelt in [[United States presidential election, 1936|the 1936 presidential election]], but when the Court-packing plan was announced in 1937 he denounced Roosevelt as a would-be dictator. In 1939 he endorsed isolationism—staying out of [[World War II]]; he endorsed [[Wendell Willkie]] the [[Republican]] candidate in the [[United States presidential election, 1940|1940 presidential election]].<ref name="Ohl 1985"/> In addition to being a columnist he gave anti-Roosevelt radio broadcasts over the CBS network which were published in the [[isolationist]] magazine ''[[Scribner's Commentator]]''.<ref>''Roosevelt, Churchill, and the World War II Opposition'', by [[George T. Eggleston]], page 73</ref>

Johnson wrote a number of articles and [[stories]].  One [[future history]] piece, ''The Dam'', was written in 1911 and appears in the [[Sam Moskowitz]] anthology, ''[[Science]] Fiction by Gaslight''.  In the story, [[Japan]] invades and conquers California.

General Hugh S. Johnson died in Washington, D.C., in April 1942 from pneumonia.<ref name="Obit"/> He was buried in [[Arlington National Cemetery]].

==Footnotes==
{{Portal|Biography|United States Army}}
{{Reflist|2}}

==References==
*Cullum, [[George Washington]]. ''Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.: From Its Establishment, in 1802, to 1890.''  3d ed. New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1920.
*Hampton, H. Duane. ''How the U.S. Cavalry Saved Our National Parks.'' Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1971. ISBN 0-253-13885-X
*Hamby, Alonzo L. ''For the Survival of Democracy: Franklin Roosevelt and the World Crisis of the 1930s.'' New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004. ISBN 0-684-84340-4
* Hawley, Ellis W. ''The New Deal and the Problem of Money: A Study in Economic Ambivalence'' (1966) on NRA
*Ohl, John Kennedy. ''Hugh S. Johnson and the New Deal.'' DeKalb, Ill.: Northern Illinois Univ Press, 1985. ISBN 0-87580-110-2, standard scholarly biography
* Ohl, John Kennedy. "Tales Told by a New Dealer: General Hugh S. Johnson," ''Montana: The Magazine Of Western History'' 1975 25(4): 66-77
*Schlesinger, Arthur, Jr. ''The Coming of the New Deal'' (1958), extensive coverage of Johnson's NRA
*White, James Terry. ''The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography.'' Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1967.

===Primary sources===
*Johnson, Hugh S. ''The Blue Eagle From Egg to Earth.'' New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1935.
*[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9803E1D9103BEE3ABC4153DFB0668383609EDE Crawford, William H. "He Risked Disgrace to Speed the Draft." ''New York Times.'' June 9, 1918.]
*[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9805E2DC1E30E633A25757C2A96E9C946896D6CF Howard, C.B. "Our Twenty-one Generals of Forty Years and Under."] ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]].'' August 24, 1919.
*[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9903E7DE103FE433A25756C2A9679C946996D6CF "Col. H. S. Johnson Deputy Provost Marshal." ''New York Times.'' January 25, 1918.]
*"Hugh S. Johnson Dies in Capital." ''New York Times.'' April 16, 1942.
*[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,882190,00.html "Not Since the Armistice..."] ''Time.'' September 25, 1933.
*[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C0DE7DE113FE433A25754C1A9649C946996D6CF "Plans to Mobilize Schools to Aid War." ''New York Times.'' February 17, 1918.]
*[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C0CE6DE1F3FE433A25754C1A9629C946996D6CF "Promotes 10 Brigadiers." ''New York Times.'' April 17, 1918.]

==External links==
*{{Find a Grave|6941882}}
*[http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1933.html "1933 Man of Year." ''Time.'' January 1, 1934.]
* [http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/J/JO008.html Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Johnson, Hugh]

{{Time Persons of the Year|27-50}}

{{Authority control|VIAF=167826805}}
{{Persondata
|NAME=Johnson, Hugh Samuel
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=American administrator
|DATE OF BIRTH=August 5, 1881
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Fort Scott, Kansas]], United States
|DATE OF DEATH=April 15, 1942
|PLACE OF DEATH=[[Washington, D.C.]], United States
}}

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