WALTER PALMER JOHNSON.
 


	No more convincing evidence of his efficiency as a public officer could
be produced for Walter Palmer Johnson than his record of nearly twenty
years as chief of the Moose Jaw police force. He was appointed to that
highly important position on the 5th of September, 1905, and has been
continuously in office to the present date. Under his direction a police
force has been organized that is notably successful in maintaining law and
order and has given Moose Jaw the desirable reputation of being one of
the best policed cities in western Canada.
	On both sides of his family Mr. Johnson is descended from United Em-
pire Loyalist stock, his ancestors having come to Canada from the rebel-
lious Thirteen Colonies in 1776 and settled in Prince Edward county,
Ontario, where their descendants have lived for generations. His father,
William Henry Johnson, was a native of that county. He married Miss
Amy Short, whose birthplace was on the shores of the Bay of Quintei.
Their son, Walter Palmer Johnson, was born near Picton, on February
20, 1865. After completing his education in the public schools of Prince
Edward county he spent a period of seven years in farming there. In
1892 he moved west to Winnipeg and five years later came out to Kenora,
where he became interested in police work for the first time. He remained
in Kenora for eight or nine years, finally resigning his position there in
order to accept an appointment as chief of police of Moose Jaw, on Sep-
tember 5, 1905. His home has been in this city for nearly two decades,
during which he has become widely known through his official work and
has made many personal friends.
	Mr. Johnson is a Mason and an Odd Fellow and attends the Methodist
church. Politically he votes with the Liberal party. Aside from his police
work and family interests, he devotes most of his time to the management
of an excellent farm located three and half miles north of Hazenmore,
Saskatchewan. This farm, which consists of a section and a half of the
finest kind of agricultural land, is given over to diversified farming and
is in a high state of cultivation. In addition to the crops all kinds of stock
are raised. The methods Mr. Johnson is employing in operating his farm
are among the most advanced in use in the province.  He was among
the very first of the progressive agriculturists to abandon the one great
staple crop bonanza farming idea, for diversified crops that do not wear
out the soil so quickly and prevent the great fluctuations between "bumper"
crops and failures. The results he has obtained by the newer methods
have been most satisfactory and he rightly feels that by proving the value
of the revolutionary ideas for western farming he has made a substantial
contribution to agricultural progress in his province.
	On the 28th of December, 1887, Mr. Johnson was united in marriage
to Miss Phoebe Jane Williamson, daughter of Robert R. Williamson and
a native of Prince Edward county, Ontario. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have
one son, Richard Claire, who was born in Prince Edward county in 1891
and is a traveling representative of the Robin Hood Mills.



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