Tom L. Johnson

Tom L. Johnson (1854-1911) was a street railway entrepreneur, US congressman, 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 and the single-fare transfer.

He began his business career as an office boy for the Louisville, Kentucky, horse-drawn Central Passenger Railway Company. By 1873, he had been promoted up through the ranks to cashier, secretary, and superintendent. The key to Johnson's rapid rise was his innate grasp of the relationship between technology and management. In order to properly plan for the future companies needed to know basic data about ridership. Often because either employees or passengers were cheating the company, railways had little credible data about how many people rode their cars. The fare-box solved this data collection problem by registering each fare as coins were deposited into the box. Cheating was reduced as inspectors could readily see whether or not a fare had been registered. Johnson patented this device in 1872 and formed a manufacturing company (Tom L. Johnson Farebox Company) for its production. By 1888, he sold his interests in street railways and the farebox company. The farebox company was sold to the St. Louis Car Company. He moved to Cleveland and entered politics. (Massouh 1977, 205-209)

Johnson was also one of the founders of the American Street Railway Association.

He was an advocate of Henry George's Single Tax.

His Johnstown Steel Company was the chief supplier of street rails for many years. He built a steel mill in Lorain, Ohio, only to sell out to Federal Steel upon its completion.

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 1977, 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.