Hugh (Samuel) Johnson

Army officer and government official, born in Fort Scott, Kansas, USA. He trained at West Point (1903) and held several posts including superintendent of Sequoia National Park. He earned a law degree (1916), served with Pershing in Mexico (1916), and helped to draft the Selective Service Act (1917). He became a brigadier-general at age 35 (the youngest such since the Civil War), but World War 1 ended before his division sailed for France, and he retired from the army in 1919. In 1927–33 he worked for Bernard Baruch. A member of Franklin Roosevelt's ‘brain trust’, he headed the National Recovery Administration (1933–4) but his autocratic manner offended virtually everyone he dealt with and he had to resign. As a syndicated newspaper columnist and radio commentator, he opposed Roosevelt over the ‘packing’ of the Supreme Court and the issue of a third term.

Hugh Samuel Johnson (1882 - 1942) American soldier and National Recovery Administration official. After graduating from the United States Military Academy in 1903, Johnson became an officer in the US Army. Johnson served under General John J.

When the United States entered the First World War, Johnson helped draft the Selective Service Act. By 1918 Johnson had reached the rank of brigadier general.

In 1933 Roosevelt appointed Johnson to administer part of the National Recovery Administration (NRA). "Old Iron Pants" could mix theorizing about industrial reorganization with evangelism for the NRA's omnipresent symbol, the "Blue Eagle." He was faltering badly by 1934, which historians ascribe to the profound contradictions in NRA policies, compounded by heavy drinking on the job. Roosevelt replaced him in September 1934, reassigning him to a Works Progress Administration position. Johnson, who some said to have Fascist inclinations, praised Benito Mussolini as a "shining name" in his farewell speech for the NRA. Johnson supported Roosevelt in 1936, but when the Court-packing plan was announced in 1937 he denounced Roosevelt as a would-be dictator. He supported Wendell Willkie the Republican candidate in 1940, and in retaliation Roosevelt denied him any role in World War II.