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A Look at the Pigs. Cotton Ed's opponent in the 1938 purge attempt was Governor Olin D. Johnston, who campaigned on the slogan: "A vote for Olin D. is a vote for the principles of Franklin D." Last week Johnston opposed Cotton Ed again. By now Olin Johnston, though a supporter of Roosevelt's foreign policy, was only lukewarm to the New Deal. This time he snatched the bloody flag of "white supremacy" from Cotton Ed and raced down the field with it.
In joint speaking bees with Cotton Ed up & down the state (as required by South Carolina custom) Governor Johnston boasted of how he had changed the state's laws to keep Negroes from voting. Said he: "Had it not been for my action, tomorrow you would be walking along with Negroes to the ballot box. I am not . . . in favor of social or political equality of the white and black races. I believe in action, and not mere words." Bull-necked Governor Johnston, 47, is a tough, chunky six-footer, a "linthead" (he worked in cotton mills as a boy), and was a front-line sergeant in World War I. Beside him, Cotton Ed seemed aged and tired. In one appearance, Cotton Ed spoke a few minutes, then played a recording of a speech he made six years ago. The audience was shocked: his voice now was a whisper.
Cotton Ed heard the news of his defeat while slumped in a chair at his 2,500-acre farm near Lynchburg. He chomped his jowls for a moment, then rose and said matter-of-factly: "Well, I guess I'd better go out and look at the pigs."
* On August 4 he overtook Senator William B. Allison of Iowa, who served 35 years, from 1873 to 1908.