Editing Culbert Olson (section)

===Governor of California 1939-1943===
[[File:Inauguration of new California Governor Culbert Olson Trim Edit.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.2|Olson takes the [[oath of office]] with his hand in his pocket, January 2, 1939]]
Olson was inaugurated as California's twenty-ninth executive on January 2, 1939, the first Democrat to serve as governor of California in 40 years. He refused to say "so help me God" during his [[oath of office]] to [[Supreme Court of California|state Supreme Court]] chief justice [[William H. Waste]]. Olson remarked earlier to justice Waste that "God couldn't help me at all, and that there isn't any such person." Instead, Olson said, "I will affirm."<ref name=AmericanAtheists/>

In his inaugural address, Olson pointed at progressives and the [[Left wing|Left]] for his inspiration, citing that "[t]hey point the way forward - toward the achievement of the aspiration of the people for an economy that will afford general employment, abundant production, equitable distribution, social security and old age retirement, which our country, with its ample resources, great facilities and the genius of its people, is capable of providing."<ref name=address>{{cite journal | author=Culbert Olson | title=Inaugural Address | journal=The Governors' Gallery | publisher=California State Library | url=http://governors.library.ca.gov/addresses/29-olson.html | date=January 3, 1939 | access-date=28 April 2012}}</ref>

{{multiple image
| align         = left
| caption_align = center
| total_width   = 310
| image1        = Mrs. Culbert L. Olson 1940 Edit.jpg
| caption1      = Olson's wife, Kate, who died just three months into his term<ref>{{cite web |title=Kate Olson |url=https://governors.library.ca.gov/firstladies/27-Olson.html |website=governors.library.ca.gov |publisher=California State Library |access-date=10 April 2025}}</ref>
| image2        = Richard Culbert Olson 1940 Edit.jpg
| caption2      = Olson's son Richard, who served as his secretary early in his term<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thurman |first1=V. E. |title=Who's Who in the New Deal (California edition) |date=1940 |publisher=New Deal Historical Society |location=Los Angeles |page=58 |url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhoinnewdeal00thur/page/58/mode/1up |access-date=8 April 2025}}</ref>
}}

Olson's tenure in the governorship got off to a rocky start. He collapsed four days after his [[inauguration]], and doctors discovered that he was suffering from an ailing heart. On top of personal health matters, Kate Jeremy Olson, the Governor's wife of nearly thirty-nine years, died shortly after he assumed the office.<ref name="time">{{cite magazine | title=Olson's Luck | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761572,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930073853/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761572,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=September 30, 2007 | magazine=Time  | date=July 3, 1939 | access-date=28 April 2012}}</ref>

Among those Olson appointed to his cabinet were businessman [[George Killion]] as [[California Department of Finance|director of Finance]], labor leader [[George G. Kidwell]] as [[California Department of Industrial Relations|director of Industrial Relations]], and social worker [[Martha Chickering]] as [[California Department of Social Services|director of Social Welfare]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Peek |first1=Paul |authorlink=Paul Peek (politician) |title=California Blue Book, 1942 |date=1942 |publisher=California State Printing Office |location=Sacramento |page=122 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112039337529&seq=142&view=1up |access-date=25 April 2025}}</ref> During his tenure, he appointed four associate justices to the state Supreme Court: [[Jesse W. Carter]], [[Phil S. Gibson]], [[Roger J. Traynor]], and [[B. Rey Schauer]]. After the death of chief justice Waste in 1940, Olson elevated Gibson to the position.

Contrasting with the conservative policies of Governor [[Frank Merriam]], Olson promoted friendly relations with the state's labor unions. In September 1939, he officially pardoned [[Thomas Mooney|Tom Mooney]], a labor activist and [[political prisoner]] accused of plotting the [[Preparedness Day Bombing|1916 Preparedness Day Bombing]] in [[San Francisco]]. Olson cited scant evidence against Mooney as the reason for his pardon. The next month, Olson pardoned Mooney's alleged accomplice, [[Warren Billings]].<ref name=AmericanAtheists/>

[[File:Culbert Olson Official.jpg|thumb|right|Campaign portrait, 1938]]

Olson's relationship with the [[California State Legislature]] was often bitter. With conservative [[United States Democratic Party|Democrats]] controlling the [[California State Assembly|Assembly]], and business-friendly Republicans in the [[California State Senate|Senate]], Olson had little room to promote his [[New Deal]] politics, while the Legislature remained wary of Olson's [[leftist]] agenda. In the first year of his governorship, Olson's proposed budget was cut by nearly 100 million dollars, and his proposal of compulsory [[universal health insurance]] for every Californian was defeated. The Legislature also defeated legislation to raise income, bank and corporate taxes, as well as Olson's bills to regulate [[lobbyists]] and reform the state penal system. State-subsidized relief for farmers was cut nearly in half.<ref name="time"/> Olson installed a telephone [[hotline]] to the Legislature to get immediate word of lawmakers' positions on bills in committee or on the floor for a vote.<ref name=CALibrary>{{cite web | title=Culbert Olson 1939 - 1943 | url=http://governors.library.ca.gov/29-Olson.html | work=The Governors' Gallery | publisher=California State Library }}</ref>

During his tenure, Olson grew increasingly critical of the [[Roman Catholic Church]] and its presence in the state educational system, and raised the ire of Archbishops [[John J. Cantwell]] of Los Angeles and [[John J. Mitty]] of San Francisco. A [[secular]] [[atheist]], Olson was disturbed by the state legislature's passage of two bills in 1941, one to give free transportation to students attending Catholic schools, and the other to release Catholic children from public schools in the middle of the school day in order to attend [[catechism]], leaving the schools and other students idle until the Catholic students returned. Olson signed the first bill into law, later citing the enormous pressure of the Catholic Church on his office and on state lawmakers, but he vetoed the second ("early release") bill.<ref name=AmericanAtheists/>

[[File:Franklin D. Roosevelt and Culbert L. Olson in Long Beach, California - NARA - 195522 Trim.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|President Roosevelt visits [[Long Beach, California|Long Beach]], September 1942]]
After the Japanese attack on [[Pearl Harbor]] in December 1941, and the entry of the United States into the [[Second World War]], many in California feared a [[Imperial Japan|Japanese]] invasion. In the wake of the attack, Olson urged calm from Californians.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Newton|first1=Jim|title=Justice For All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made|url=https://archive.org/details/justiceforallear0000newt|url-access=registration|date=2006|publisher=Riverhead Books|location=United States of America|isbn=1-59448-928-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/justiceforallear0000newt/page/122 122]}}</ref> In a plea for racial tolerance, broadcast on December 14, he stated he had assurances from "every racial group" of their loyalty and devotion to the United States, even reading a telegram he had received from a Japanese citizen.<ref>Burke, Robert Eugene. ''[https://archive.org/details/olsonregcal00robe The Olson Regime in California (1946-1947)]'', pp 201.</ref> Olson attempted to revoke the business licenses of "enemy alien" Japanese in California.<ref name=Newman>{{cite web|last=Newman |first=Esther |url=http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Culbert%20Olson/ |title=Culbert Olson |publisher=Densho Encyclopedia |access-date= 15 October 2014}}</ref> (Japanese immigrants were prohibited by law from becoming U.S. citizens and were therefore permanent aliens, although many had resided in California for decades.) On February 19, 1942, President [[Franklin Roosevelt]] issued [[Executive Order 9066]], allowing U.S. military commanders to create zones from which "any or all persons may be excluded." Based on that, all West Coast [[Japanese American]]s, including American-born [[Nisei]] and [[Sansei]], in addition to the non-citizen [[Issei]], were forcibly relocated to isolated [[Japanese American internment|internment camps]] over the next several months.

The pro-internment recommendations of General [[John L. DeWitt]] (head of the [[Western Defense Command]]) were embarrassing for Governor Olson. On February 2, 1942, the Governor, following a meeting with DeWitt, said that mass evacuation would not be necessary; DeWitt pursued his plans regardless of Olson's disagreement.<ref>Burke, Robert Eugene. ''[https://archive.org/details/olsonregcal00robe The Olson Regime in California (1946-1947)]'', pp 482-85.</ref> However, despite his preference for excluding Japanese Americans only from "coastal California", and allowing adult men to work in labor camps as an alternative to incarceration, Olson wholeheartedly supported the eviction.<ref name=Newman/> A long-time supporter of nearly every Roosevelt position on economics, politics and foreign policy, on March 6, 1942, he testified before a [[U.S. House]] committee on the danger of allowing Japanese Americans to remain free: "Because of the extreme difficulty in distinguishing between loyal Japanese Americans, and there are many who are loyal to this country, and those other Japanese whose loyalty is to the [[Emperor of Japan|Mikado]], I believe in the wholesale evacuation of the Japanese people from coastal California."<ref>{{cite news | author=The United Press | title=Olson Wants All Japs Moved | url=http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist8/evac3.html | work=The San Francisco News | date=March 6, 1942 | access-date=28 April 2012}}</ref>

[[File:Re-elect Culbert L Olson Governor 1942.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.2|Advertisement for Olson's re-election, 1942]]

By the [[1942 California gubernatorial election|1942 election]], Republicans were accusing Olson of blatant partisan politics during wartime, citing Olson's often bitter divides with the State Legislature. The Republicans nominated [[California Attorney General]] [[Earl Warren]] as the party's nominee for the governorship. Warren, a centrist Republican, campaigned as a moderate who would appeal to both liberals and conservatives during a time of war, where California was considered as a possible front line, while accusing Olson of being an uncompromising [[left-wing]] Democrat.

Olson lost re-election to Warren in an electoral landslide, receiving just 42% of the vote to Warren's 57%. In later years, Olson blamed "the active hostility of a certain privately owned power corporation and the [[Roman Catholic Church]] in California" for his defeat.