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"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
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Governor Hiram Johnson Inaugural Address January 3, 1911
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| Parent | Parent Candidate |
| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Post Date | , 12:am |
| Description | To the Senate and Assembly of the State of California:
In the political struggle from which we have just emerged the issue was so sharply defined and so thoroughly understood that it may be superfluous for me to indicate the policy which in the ensuing four years will control the executive department of the State of California. The electorate has rendered its decision, a decision conclusive upon all its representatives; but while we know the sort of government demanded and decreed by the people, it may not be amiss to suggest the means by which that kind of administration may be attained and continued. “Successful and permanent government must rest primarily on recognition of the rights of men and the absolute sovereignty of the people. Upon these principles is based the superstructure of our republic. Their maintenance and perpetuation measure the life of the republic.” It was upon this theory that we undertook originally to go to the people; it was this theory that was adopted by the people; it is upon this theory, so far as your Executive is concerned, that this government shall be henceforth conducted. The problem first presented to us, therefore, is how best can the government be made responsive to the people alone? Matters of material prosperity and advancement, conservation of resources, development of that which lies within our borders, are easy of solution when once the primal question of the people’s rule shall have been determined. In some form or other nearly every governmental problem that involves the health, the happiness, or the prosperity of the State has arisen, because some private interest has intervened or has sought for its own gain to exploit either the resources or the politics of the State. I take it, therefore, that the first duty that is mine to perform is to eliminate every private interest from the government, and to make the public service of the State responsive solely to the people. The State is entitled to the highest efficiency in our public service, and that efficiency I shall endeavor at all times to give. It is obvious that the requisite degree of efficiency can not be attained where any public servant divides his allegiance between the public service and a private interest. Where under our political system, therefore, there exists any appointee of the Governor who is representing a political machine or a corporation that has been devoting itself in part to our politics, that appointee will be replaced by an official who will devote himself exclusively and solely to the service of the State. In this fashion, so far as it can be accomplished by the Executive, the government of California shall be made a government for the people. If there are in existence now any appointees who represent the system of politics which has been in vogue in this State for many years and who have divided their allegiance between the State and a private interest of any sort, or if there be in existence any Commission of like character, and I can not alone deal with either, then I shall look to the Legislature to aid me in my design to eliminate special interests from the government and to require from our officials the highest efficiency and an undivided allegiance; and I shall expect such legislative action to be taken as may be necessary to accomplish the desired result.
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