Tom L. Johnson

Tom L. Johnson (1854-1911) was a street railway entrepreneur and mayor of Cleveland, Ohio.

He made significant contributions to the development of mass transit in the United States. His advancements included the fare-box, the single-fare transfer, and a shallow-conduit for conduct of power.

He was one of the founders of the American Street Railway Association.

As mayor of Cleveland, he fought for "three-cent fares" and municipal ownership. In 1910, he advocated for, and the council created, the first municipal regulatory commission for a street railroad. [Massouh, 204]

Bibliography

By Johnson

Thomas L. Johnson. My Story. Edited by Elizabeth J. Hauser. New York: 1911.

Available online through the Cleveland Memory Project.

About Johnson

Lorenz, Carl. Tom L. Johnson. New York: 1911

Murdock, Eugene. “Buckeye Liberal: A Biography of Tom L. Johnson.” Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1951.

Post, Louis F. “Tom L. Johnson.” The Public 8 (January 1906): 646-57

Bremner, Robert H. “Tom L. Johnson.” Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly 59 (January 1950): 1-13

Phillips, David Graham. “Tom Johnson.” Appleton’s Booklovers Magazine 7 (April 1906): 457-60.

Massouh, Michael. “Innovations in Street Railways before Electric Traction: Tom L. Johnson’s Contributions.” Technology and Culture 18, No. 2 (April 1977): 202-217.

Massouh, Michael. “Technological and Managerial Innovations: The Johnson Company, 1883-1898.” Business History Review 50 (Spring 1976): 46-68.

Massouh, Michael. “Tom Loftin Johnson: Engineer-Entrepreneur 1869-1900.” Ph.D. diss., Case Western Reserve University, 1970.

Johnson in Broader Context

Hoyt Landon Warner. Progressivism in Ohio 1897-1917 Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1964.

Raymond Moley. 27 Masters of Politics in a Personal Perspective New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1949.