Olin D. Johnston - Politics

Politics

In 1922, while still attending college, Johnston was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives as a Democrat and represented Anderson County for one term before he stepped down in 1924 to run his law practice. He was elected to the same body in 1927 as a representative from Spartanburg County and served for two terms. Johnston proved a capable and popular campaigner. As a young legislator, Johnston was an advocate of the state's textile mill workers, and his major accomplishment was shepherding a law that required mill owners to install sewers in mill villages.

Johnston made his first campaign for governor in 1930, and led the slate of candidates in the primary, but lost by around 1,000 votes in the runoff election. Undeterred by the loss, Johnston ran again and was elected Governor of South Carolina in 1934, serving for one term. In his inaugural address of 1935, Johnston stated--"This occasion marks the end of what is commonly known as 'ring rule' in South Carolina." Among his achievements as governor were the repeal of the state's personal property tax; the initiation in South Carolina of the country's first rural electrification program, a pilot program personally authorized by President Roosevelt; the $3.00 license plate; and the establishment of the Industrial Commission, Labor Department, Planning and Development Board, and Ports Authority.

On taking office, Johnston proposed a series of bills to aid the state's textile workers. An ardent New Dealer, Johnston managed to push his legislative program through the state house of representatives only to meet defeat in the Lowcountry-dominated state senate. In what has become the most famous fight between a governor and legislature in South Carolina history, Johnston tried to dismiss a number of members of the powerful State Highway Commission. After the commissioners refused to leave their posts, Johnston mobilized the National Guard to occupy the offices of the Highway Department. Ultimately, Johnston lost his battle with the Highway Commission, and severely wounded his already poor relationship with the legislature. Johnston lost his power to name highway commissioners, a power that the governor's office has never regained.

In 1935, Johnston passed the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law to regulate the sale of alcohol in the state following the end of national prohibition. In 1937, he signed the South Carolina Public Welfare Act into law and established a state system for social security, worker's compensation and unemployment compenation. Where previous governors used the National Guard and martial law to crush strikes, Johnston used both to protect strikers and seal off mill precincts from strikebreakers. He often forced management to accept him as mediator and occasionally found state jobs for strikers whom mills refused to rehire.

Following Roosevelt's re-election, Johnston drew more ire from the state's local businessmen when he showed his support for the President's new push for labor reform and outspokenly supported the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. South Carolina US Senator James Byrnes, though also an ardent New Dealer, opposed this new push, claiming it would make the state's textile mills uncompetitive. As a result of Johnston's support for new labor reform, Byrnes- a highly popular figure in the state who won re-election in the 1936 Democratic primary by a margin of over 87%- declined to support Johnston and instead endorsed the re-election of US Senator "Cotton Ed" Smith in the 1938 Democratic Primary.

Unable to run for re-election in 1938, Johnston challenged "Cotton Ed" Smith for his seat in the United State Senate. The race brought national interest, as Smith had developed into an opponent of the New Deal and Johnston was a strong supporter. Smith was one of the senators whom President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to purge. Ultimately, Johnston lost the race to Smith. However, it was widely accepted that Smith was highly unpopular in South Carolina and that Johnston would have won the primary if Roosevelt had not intervened in his behalf or if he had focused on either pleasing the state's influential textile mill owners or preserving racial segregation. Though Johnston did not defend rights for African Americans, he would largely ignore the issue of preserving racial segregation, believing that improving the public welfare was more important. Meanwhile, Smith had opposed the Roosevelt's labor reform and for years campaigned on a two-plank platform to "keep the Negro down and the price of cotton up," and had recently demonstrated that he intended to maintain his fight to preserve racial segregation after he had walked out of the 1936 Democratic National Convention when he heard that a black minister was going to deliver the invocation.

Following Roosevelt's re-election, Johnston drew more ire from the state's local businessmen when he showed his support for the President's new push for labor reform and outspokenly supported the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. South Carolina US Senator James F. Byrnes, though also an ardent New Dealer, opposed this new push, claiming it would make the state's textile mills uncompetitive. As a result of Johnston's support for new labor reform, Byrnes- a highly popular and influential figure in the state who won re-election in the 1936 Democratic primary by a margin of over 87%- declined to endorse and instead endorsed the re-election of Smith. Following his loss in 1938, Johnston then ran for the Senate in a 1941 special election to replace Byrnes, who had just been appointed to the Supreme Court, but lost to South Carolina Governor Burnet R. Maybank.

Johnston was elected Governor of South Carolina again in 1942. He won a narrow victory in the Democratic primary, and ran unopposed in the general election. However, he still desired a Senate seat. The outbreak of World War II meant that labor issues would not be as prominent in Johnston's second term. During that second term, Johnston focused more on preserving racial segregation and signed laws which attempted to circumvent the Smith v. Allwright decision, which declared racially segregated primaries to be unconstitutional, by allowing political parties in the state to operate as private organizations separate from state control and beyond the reach of the US Supreme Court. He served until his resignation on January 3, 1945, the same day he was sworn in as a U.S. Senator, to accept his U.S. Senate seat.

Johnston was elected to the Senate in 1944, defeating "Cotton Ed" Smith in a rematch of their 1938 race. Johnston was re-elected three times, serving in the Senate until his death in 1965. Johnston served on the committees on Agriculture and Forestry, District of Columbia, Judiciary, and Post Office and Civil Service. He became chairman of the Post Office and Civil Service Committee in 1950 and gained the nickname "Mr. Civil Service" for his leadership on that committee and dedication to the needs and interests of postal and other federal employees. Johnston also joined with fellow Southerners as part of the conservative Southern Democratic coalition.

Johnston was not as conservative as most other Senators from the Deep South, retaining a populist position on many economic issues. In the Senate, Johnston was a staunch advocate of public power, parity programs for farmers, a broad strong social security program, and the provision of lunches to needy school children. He also generally opposed foreign aid, viewing it as support of foreign interests at the expense of American industry and consumers. Unlike most Southern Democrats, Johnston opposed the anti-union Taft-Hartley labor law in 1947 and he voted for both the War on Poverty in his last full year in office, 1964, and for Medicare shortly before his death in 1965. However, like virtually all other politicians from the Deep South during this period, Johnston was orthodox on the "race question", opposing all civil rights legislation.

Under his administration, South Carolina executed the youngest person in the United States in the 20th Century, the fourteen-year old African American, George Junius Stinney Jr. Stinney was convicted of murdering two young girls after police claimed he confessed to the murders, despite questions regarding the validity of the officers' testimony and his alleged confession. Local churches, the N.A.A.C.P., and unions pleaded with Johnston to stop the execution and commute the sentence to life imprisonment, citing Stinney's age as a mitigating factor. But he did not act, instead allowing the execution to take place.

While not a prominent figure nationally, Johnston was very well-entrenched in his home state. He may be the only Senator to have defeated two future Senators. He retained his seat despite challenges from Strom Thurmond in the Democratic primary in 1950 and Ernest Hollings in the 1962 primary. In both cases Johnston was the more liberal candidate. Hollings, then serving as Governor, attacked the Senator as "the tool of the Northern labor bosses", but Johnston defeated Hollings by a 2-1 margin.