Friend William Richardson | |
|---|---|
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| 25th Governor of California | |
| In office January 9, 1923 – January 4, 1927 | |
| Lieutenant | C. C. Young |
| Preceded by | William D. Stephens |
| Succeeded by | C. C. Young |
| 21st Treasurer of California | |
| In office January 5, 1915 – January 9, 1923 | |
| Governor | Hiram Johnson William Stephens |
| Preceded by | Edward D. Roberts |
| Succeeded by | Charles G. Johnson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | William Richardson (1865-12-01)December 1, 1865 Friends Colony,Michigan, US |
| Died | September 6, 1943(1943-09-06) (aged 77) |
| Political party | Progressive;Republican |
| Spouse | Augusta Felder |
| Children | 3 |
| Profession | Publisher,politician |
Friend William Richardson (bornWilliam Richardson; December 1, 1865 – September 6, 1943) was an Americannewspaper publisher and politician. A member of theProgressive Party and later theRepublican Party, Richardson was elected as theCalifornia State Treasurer from 1915 to 1923 and shortly afterwards as the 25thgovernor of California from 1923 to 1927.
Richardson's governorship marked a sharp reversal in policies from previous administrations by rolling back many of theProgressive reforms and state governmental agencies put in place by previous governorsHiram Johnson andWilliam Stephens.
William Richardson was born in December 1865 to William and Rhoda Richardson at Friends Colony,Michigan, aQuaker township located outside ofAnn Arbor. Early in his life, William legally changed his first name to "Friend", the traditional Quaker greeting.[1] In his young adult life, Richardson worked as a county clerk and law librarian, and following his move toSan Bernardino, California, married Augusta Felder in 1891 with whom he had five children. Five years later, Richardson became the owner and newspaper editor ofThe San Bernardino Times Index.[2][self-published source]
In 1900, Richardson relocated toBerkeley, where he purchased within a yearThe Berkeley Daily Gazette and became active in the California Press Association. Due to greater name recognition, Richardson was increasingly noticed by the state government.[2] In 1901, Richardson was appointed as Superintendent of the State Printing Office with the consent of theCalifornia State Legislature and GovernorHenry Gage. The Richardson family relocated toSacramento, where he assumed state printing responsibilities while at the same time continuing to own his newspapers in both San Bernardino and Berkeley.
In 1914, Richardson officially entered politics by running as aProgressive forCalifornia State Treasurer. Richardson easily defeated hisSocialist andProhibitionist rivals by a voting gap of 66 percent.[3] Following the Progressive Party's collapse, Richardson won a second term as Treasurer in 1918, this time as aRepublican, and again won a landslide victory against his Socialist and Prohibitionist rivals by garnering 78.2 percent of the vote.[4]
After two successful terms as state treasurer, Richardson set his sights on the governorship as the Republican Party's nominee in 1922. Running against theincumbent,William Stephens, in the party's primary election, Richardson campaigned on a conservative platform, capitalizing on electoral fatigue withProgressive-minded politics. The campaign worked by successfully defeating Governor Stephens and effectively returning the state Republican Party to a more conservative bent.
With Stephens out of the1922 general election, Richardson facedDemocratThomas L. Woolwine, the popularDistrict Attorney of Los Angeles County. Amongst Richardson's supporters in the election were theKu Klux Klan, although California state Republican chairman A. E. Boynton repudiated their support.[5] The Klan deeply opposed Woolwine'sCatholicism and was rumored to count Richardson as a member.[6] Richardson's campaign manager in the election,AssemblymanFrank Merriam, would himself become governor in 1934. In the end, Richardson triumphed in the election and defeated Woolwine by nearly 24 percent of the vote.[7]
Richardson began his governorship on January 9, 1923, promising a no-frills administration to deeply cut governmental expenditures.[1] Despite his past affiliation with theProgressive Party, Richardson blamed both the party and itsProgressive movement with excess in his inaugural speech for replacing theSouthern Pacific Railroad political machine with a Progressive machine: "In 1911 the people did a good job of political house cleaning," Richardson said, alluding toHiram Johnson and his Progressive majority in the Legislature. "During the past few years another greatpolitical machine has come into power which has cost the people millions of dollars. It will be necessary to first wreck this political machine before the state can be put on an economical basis and the government again handed back to the people."[8]
Richardson embarked on a program to eliminate "unnecessary boards and officers, by consolidation, and by doing away with overlapping functions" and called it a massive waste of taxpayers’ money.[8] In the preface to his proposed 1923 budget to the Legislature, Richardson declared his opposition topork barrel politics and that "[m]y chief burden has been to relieve the people of their great burden of taxation."[9] In his various modifications to the state bureaucracy, Richardson appointed various individuals that were favorable to corporate interests.[10]
An electoral backlash against his deep-rooted fiscal conservatism came during the 1924 legislative elections, when resurgentProgressives regained control of theCalifornia State Legislature, beginning a legislative bulwark against more proposed cuts to the state government and increased corporate influence.[10] A proposal by Richardson to close two state universities, believing that education had become too costly for state coffers, was successfully defeated by the Progressives.[1] Meanwhile, Richardson blocked the Progressives' passage of a bill in the Legislature to create a professionalState Bar of California with apocket veto in 1925.[11]
As the legislature and Richardson thwarted each other's political agendas, the governor attended to other duties outside of the political realm. Richardson personally accompaniedSwedish PrinceGustaf Adolf and PrincessLouise Mountbatten on a portion of their tour throughSouthern California in 1926.[12]
That same year, the increasingly-embattled Richardson faced a crucialprimary election. Growing anger at Richardson's overly-conservative administration led to the progressive wing of the Republican Party supportingC. C. Young, thelieutenant governor under bothWilliam Stephens and Richardson.[10] Young emerged victorious in the primary vote, depriving Richardson of the chance to run in the general election.
Defeated by his own party, Richardson left the governorship as his term expired on January 4, 1927. One accomplishment to his various eliminations and consolidations to the state government was a surplus of $20 million in the state treasury.[1]
Richardson returned to newspaper publishing and became the chief publisher of theAlameda Times Star in 1931. He became politically active again in the 1930s though in appointed positions. He served as the State Building and Loan Commissioner underJames Rolph from 1932 to 1934 and as the State Superintendent of Banks from 1934 to 1939 under his 1922 campaign manager,Frank Merriam. He retired from public life in 1939.
In July 1943, Richardson suffered aheart attack from which he never recovered, and he died at his Berkeley home on September 6, 1943. His ashes are now interred at theChapel of the Chimes inOakland.
Throughout his life, Richardson was a member of theFreemasons, theKnights Templar, theShriners, theOrder of the Eastern Star, theElks, theKiwanis, theMoose, theIndependent Order of Odd Fellows,Rotary, and theWoodmen.
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forGovernor of California 1922 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor of California 1923–1927 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Treasurer of California 1915–1923 | Succeeded by |
| Under Spain (1769–1822) |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Under Mexico (1822–1846) | ||
| Under U.S. military (1846–1850) | ||
| U.S. state (since 1850) | ||
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