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. 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.
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.