View source for Frank T. Johns

{{short description|American politician}}
{{infobox person
|name=Frank T. Johns
|image=Johns-Frank-T.jpg
|birth_date={{birth date|1889|2|23}}
|death_date={{death date and age|1928|5|2|1889|2|23}}
|death_place=[[Deschutes River]], Bend, Oregon, U.S.
|nationality=American
|occupation={{flatlist|
*Politician
*political activist
*carpenter
}}
|party=[[Socialist Labor Party of America|Socialist Labor Party]]
|children=2
}}
'''Frank Tetes Johns''' (February 23, 1889{{spaced ndash}}May 20, 1928) was a [[carpenter]] and American [[socialist]] political activist and politician. He is best remembered for having been twice nominated for [[President of the United States]] by the [[Socialist Labor Party of America]].
==Biography==
===Early life===
Frank T. Johns was born February 23, 1889. He was a carpenter by trade and made his home in [[Portland, Oregon]].<ref name="Johnson">Olive M. Johnson, "Frank T. Johns",  [https://archive.org/details/SeventeenthNationalConvention.SocialistLaborParty ''Seventeenth National Convention, Socialist Labor Party, May 12-14, 1928: Minutes, Reports, Resolutions, Platform, Etc.''] New York: National Executive Committee, Socialist Labor Party, 1929; pp. 3-4.</ref>
===Political career===
Johns ran twice for [[U.S. Congress]] in the Oregon 3rd District, where he was the 1920 and 1922 nominee of the "Industrial Labor Party."<ref>Lawrence Kestenbaum (ed.), [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/johnathan-johnsen.html "Frank T. Johns,"] Political Graveyard.com. Retrieved March 10, 2010.</ref> This organization was the name by which the [[Socialist Labor Party of America]] (SLP) was forced to appear on the Oregon ballot in those years due to state electoral laws.
Johns was nominated for [[President of the United States]] by the [[Socialist Labor Party of America]] (SLP) in 1924. At the time of his selection, Johns was the youngest person ever to be nominated by a political party to run for president, just 255 days over the [[U.S. Constitution|constitutional]] requirement of 35 years. Johns and running mate [[Verne L. Reynolds]] received 33,904 votes from 20 states in which they appeared on the ballot.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/TheSixteenthNationalConventionOfTheSocialistLaborParty ''16th National Convention, Socialist Labor Party, May 10-13, 1924: Minutes, Reports, Resolutions, Platform, Etc.''] New York: National Executive Committee, Socialist Labor Party, 1924; inside cover, pages 2 and 3, quoting ''The Weekly People,'' January 24, 1925. A modern website shows the 1924 SLP tandem receiving 28,633 votes, 0.10% of the total. See: "[http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1924&minper=0&f=1&off=0&elect=0 1924 Presidential General Election Results]," ''Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.'' Retrieved October 2, 2008.</ref>
The official report by the SLP's governing National Executive Committee to the organization's 1928 convention cast the 1924 campaign of Johns and Reynolds in a favorable light:
<blockquote>
"An intense campaign was carried on in 1924 with the two candidates heading the force of [[Demonstration (protest)|agitators]] in the campaign. Both Comrades Johns and Reynolds performed splendid work for the Party, both of them exerting themselves almost to the point of exhaustion. Both candidates toured from east to west and addressed a great number of outdoor meetings with the number of attentive listeners running into the thousands. We succeeded in getting on the ballot in twenty states and although the vote that was cast might not seem proportionate to the effort expended, still we have cause to be satisfied with the result, for the SLP understands that it is not primarily a question of the number of votes cast, but the amount of agitation done and the number of workers reached, that counts."<ref>Arnold Petersen, "The Report of the National Executive Committee to the Convention," [https://archive.org/details/SeventeenthNationalConvention.SocialistLaborParty ''Seventeenth National Convention, Socialist Labor Party, May 12-14, 1928: Minutes, Reports, Resolutions, Platform, Etc.''] New York: National Executive Committee, Socialist Labor Party, 1929; pg. 14.</ref></blockquote>
Satisfied with their previous performance, the May National Convention of the Socialist Labor Party in [[New York City]] renominated their 1924 ticket of Frank T. Johns for President and Verne L. Reynolds for Vice President for the 1928 campaign.
===Death and legacy===
The 1928 convention of the SLP adjourned on May 14 and the party's candidates immediately began to prepare to start their tours of America to speak on behalf of their candidacies and the socialist cause. Frank Johns headed home for [[Oregon]], making his first appearance of the campaign in the [[Central Oregon]] town of [[Bend, Oregon|Bend]] on Sunday afternoon, May 20.<ref name="Johnson" /> At the end of his speech, delivered at a park on the banks of the [[Deschutes River (Oregon)|Deschutes River]], Johns was answering the questions of some of those who had attended his speech.<ref name="Johnson" /> Suddenly, cries rang out from a young boy who had fallen from a footbridge into the river and was being swept away by the current.<ref name="Bulletin">"[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1344&dat=19360820&id=hL0WAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RCEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2836,4093880 Socialists Plan Meeting in Bend: Late Frank T. Johns to Be Honored Here]," ''Bend Bulletin,'' August 20, 1936.</ref> Johns instantly threw off his coat and dove into the frigid river in an attempt to retrieve the boy. He swam about 75 yards to reach the youngster and began to swim with him, pulling the boy to shore.<ref name="Bulletin" /> A short distance from safety Johns' strength gave out and the pair were swept away to their deaths.<ref name="Johnson" />
Frank Johns was 39 years old at the time of his death, and the boy he unsuccessfully tried to rescue, John C. "Jack" Rhodes Jr. of Bend, was 10.<ref name="Bulletin" />
Distressed by the loss but choosing to move onward, on May 22, 1928, the NEC of the Socialist Labor Party made Verne Reynolds its new nominee for president.<ref name="Johnson" /> The party then added [[Jeremiah D. Crowley]] of [[Syracuse, New York]] to the ticket as its new choice for vice president on June 7.<ref name="Johnson" />
Johns was [[posthumous recognition|posthumously]] awarded a [[Carnegie Hero Fund|Carnegie Medal for Heroism]], which paid his widowed wife (who died in 1933) and the couple's two daughters a stipend of $1,000 per year.<ref name="Bulletin" />
==Footnotes==
{{reflist|2}}
==Works==
* "Reform Straws Show How the Revolutionary Wind Blows," ''Weekly People,'' vol. 34, no. 5 (April 26, 1924), pg. 5.
* "Letter of Acceptance of Frank T. Johns, Socialist Labor Party Candidate for President of the US," May 15, 1924. Appendix to [https://archive.org/details/TheSixteenthNationalConventionOfTheSocialistLaborParty ''16th National Convention, Socialist Labor Party, May 10-13, 1924: Minutes, Reports, Resolutions, Platform, Etc.''] New York: National Executive Committee, Socialist Labor Party, 1924; pp.&nbsp;149–153.
==Further reading==
* [[William Ross Knudsen]], ''Memorial Souvenir to Frank T. Johns, Candidate for President of the United States, 1924-1928 for the Socialist Labor Party of America: Memorial Oration.'' n.c.: n.p., n.d. [1928]. <small>—One copy only extant, Multnomah County Central Library, Portland, OR.</small>
* {{cite journal|title=Comrade Johns: Oregon's Socialist Presidential Candidate|first1=Nate|last1=Pedersen|first2=Jeffrey|last2=Johnson|volume=116|number=4|year=2015|url=http://ohs.org/research-and-library/oregon-historical-quarterly/upload/04_Johnson-and-Pedersen_Comrade-Johns_OHQ-116_4_Winter-2015.pdf|journal=[[Oregon Historical Quarterly]]|pages=476–499 |doi=10.1353/ohq.2015.0019 }}
==External links==
* [http://www.carnegiehero.org/ Carnegie Hero Fund Commission official website], carnegiehero.org  Retrieved March 10, 2010.
* [http://www.c-span.org/video/?318252-1/socialist-labor-party-candidate-frank-t-johns Socialist Labor Party Candidate Frank T. Johns] [[C-SPAN]], March 3, 2014
{{Socialist Labor Party of America}}
{{United States presidential election, 1924}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johns, Frank}}
[[Category:1889 births]]
[[Category:1928 deaths]]
[[Category:American Marxists]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1924 United States presidential election]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1928 United States presidential election]]
[[Category:Socialist Labor Party of America presidential nominees]]
[[Category:Socialist Labor Party of America vice presidential nominees]]
[[Category:Oregon socialists]]
[[Category:Politicians from Portland, Oregon]]
[[Category:Accidental deaths in Oregon]]
[[Category:Deaths by drowning in the United States]]