Herman E. Talmadge interviewed by Harold Paulk (Hal) Henderson, Sr., 24 March 1986.

Harold Paulk (Hal) Henderson, Sr. Oral History Collection
Series I: Ellis Arnall
OH ARN 14
Herman E. Talmadge Interviewed by Harold Paulk (Hal) Henderson, Sr.
Date: March 24, 1986
Cassette: OH ARN 14, 0:38:08 Minutes, Side One Only

HENDERSON: since [Ellis Gibbs] Arnall was in the legislature [Georgia General Assembly]. He served two terms in the legislature while your father [Eugene Talmadge] was governor. He was considered at that time a Talmadge supporter, and your father supported his reelection as speaker pro tem[pore] of the House [of Representatives]. In fact, the Statesman [Hapeville, Georgia] even carried a front-line articleor a front-page articleon Arnalls marriage, which was rather unique. However, by 1936, Arnall is considered part of the anti-Talmadge faction. What accounts for this switch to the opposition?

TALMADGE: Ellis was mostly identified with Speaker [Eurith Dickinson] Ed Rivers who was then running as a candidate for governor on a pro- [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt platform.

HENDERSON: Was there any disagreement that he had with your father as far as political philosophy?

TALMADGE: Well, Im sure the political disagreement was on political philosophy regarding Roosevelt. My father was one of the first Democrats in the United States to attack Roosevelts policies in the country. He and Ellis met, and the governor of Massachusetts--I believe his name is Elia Edge [sic] [Joseph Buell Ely]--started attacking Roosevelt about the same time, which was about 34 and 35. And Ellis was speaker pro tem for the House at the time and Ed Rivers was speaker. And both of them knew that Roosevelt was extremely popular in Georgia, so they identified with Roosevelt rather than my father.

HENDERSON: Governor Rivers appoints Arnall to the position of attorney general in 1939, and the following year Arnall runs unopposed for that position. Theres been some speculation that there was some kind of arrangement made between your father and Arnall, whereas if he would remain inactive in the governors race, there would be no opposition to him from the Talmadge camp.

TALMADGE: What year was that?

HENDERSON: That was in 1940.

TALMADGE: When was Elliss first campaign for re-election for attorney general?

HENDERSON: 1940.

TALMADGE: I thought [John Stephens] Wood ran against him from Canton, Georgia, a former congressman at that time. Maybe that was a special election

HENDERSON: --In 39 there was a special election, and Wood did run against him.

TALMADGE: That was the one.

HENDERSON: Right.

TALMADGE: I dont know of any agreement that my father and Ellis might have had in 1940, and so far as I know, my father confined his activity at that time to election as governor. He was supporting Tom [Mercer] Linder, the commissioner of agriculture. And I dont recall that he got involved in any other campaigns except that.

HENDERSON: OK.

TALMADGE: I was managing his campaign at that time, and I knew we at headquarters werent involved in anything except I restricted my activity pretty much to my daddys campaign, but wherever Papa went, he told them to vote for Linder.

HENDERSON: What was the relationship between your father during his third term and Ellis Arnall while he was attorney general? Was it

TALMADGE: I dont know of any differences they had until my father got in that controversy regarding the professors over at the University of Georgia and the president down in Statesboro, Georgia. And then Ellis knew that that was most unpopular. He was extremely ambitious. He wanted to be governor, and he and my father split at that time over that issue. Of course, Ellis announced for governor later on and that was the principle issue in the campaign and thats what elected Ellis governor.

HENDERSON: According to one account that Ive read, your father requested only one opinion from Attorney General Arnall, but if he needed any legal opinions, he would try to go to assistant attorney generals, which if I understand some of them were appointed by the governor back then.

TALMADGE: Im not aware of that. I was in the [United States] Navy, I left in 19 for active duty September 41, and transported to New York in December 1941, January 42. I was not in the state during the heat of the political campaign.

HENDERSON: Do you thinkyou mentioned the university affair where your father was able to get rid of Dr. [Walter Dewey] Cocking and Dr. [Marvin Summers] Pittman. Do you think that was the major reason why your father was defeated in 1942?

TALMADGE: Uh-huh. [Unintelligible]

HENDERSON: As the campaign is progressing, does your father realize that this issue is getting larger and larger--Is there anything that he could do to deflate that issue? Maybe Im asking, could he repent for what he has done?

TALMADGE: My father was a very determined man, and he thought he was doing what he considered to be right. No power on Earth could deter him. I knew he was making a drastic political mistake, so did my mother [Mattie Thurmond Peterson (Miss Mitt) Talmadge]. We both tried to persuade him, but no way on Earth you could change his mind when he made up his decision and [was] planted firmly in concrete.

HENDERSON: I bet you could compare him to ABAC [Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Tifton, Georgia] to Andrew Jackson, very, very firm

TALMADGE: As a matter of fact, I read that three-volume edition on Andrew Jackson before I went down there. [Unintelligible] and I never saw two mens temperaments more similar in my life. Both of them had a fiery temper, low boiling point, tremendous determination, loyalty to friends, unhappy with their enemies

HENDERSON: Well, youve answered my next question then--that you tried to get your father to moderate or some way or another back up his strong position with that and he refused to. Did he ever have any indication prior to the election that this issue was going to do him in, in 1942?

TALMADGE: As I told you, I left to go to New York in the naval service in 1942. I was in midshipmans school most of that campaign. I had a few days leave before I went to sea in 1942, and I came back home. They were in the midst of the campaign at that time, and I had an opportunity to get around headquarters for a few days while I was there. [I] had an opportunity to talk with my daddy. I dont know what his view was, but before I left, I decided the campaign was lost.

HENDERSON: Now, this was several weeks in advance of the election?

TALMADGE: Yes. Ive forgotten the exact date, but I finished midshipmens school at Northwestern University [Evanston, Illinois]. I came home for a brief period of time before I reported to my ship that was in [unintelligible] dry dock over in California [in] 1942. And my ship had not been commissioned [unintelligible]. I called to get the returns and it was about like I thought it would be when I left home. [tape stops and starts]

HENDERSON: According to the press reports, your father had several liabilities in addition to the accreditation issue, the university issue. Ellis Arnall tried to use, and apparently rather effectively, the issue of dictatorship against your father.

TALMADGE: Well, thats been used time in memorial. [HENDERSON chuckles] They accused him of that in 34, and he carried every county in the state except three. Of course, that tied in somewhat with the university thing but what defeated him was the university thing. People want a governor to act firmly. That was demonstrated, I think, in my daddys 1934 campaign. He defied the state treasurer; he defied the comptroller general; hed removed the public service commissioners; hed removed the members of the highway board. And the dictatorship issue was brought out by Judge Pittman in the 34 campaign. And my daddy carried 156 out of 159 counties, so that issue was not very strong--except tied in the regents situation. Thats what defeated him.

HENDERSON: Well, were the circumstances a little bit different in 42, in that we were engaged in a war with a dictator, and its rather easy to get caught up in the mood of being against dictators?

TALMADGE: I dont think that issue was important. You see, all the college students, theyd discredited the University of Georgia [Athens, Georgia], and all the college students thought they drilled a hole in the head and emptied all the learning theyd ever possessed out in the street, and their diploma was worthless. So, that issue was what defeated him. I dont think the other issue cost him ten thousand votes.

HENDERSON: Did he ever talk with you about why he decided in May of 41, with an election coming up, to go ahead and take on that issue? Hindsight would indicate, why not get reelected--it was for a four year term--and then try to restructure the Board of Regents.

TALMADGE: My father didnt think that way. He despised peace and harmony. [HENDERSON chuckles] And if there was an attack to be made, a frontal assault was the only way to do it.

HENDERSON: To your knowledge did he ever express regret for doing what he did in that it led to his defeat?

TALMADGE: I dont recall that he ever did. Im sure he realized, after the fact, thats what defeated him.

HENDERSON: Arnall also tries to use what he called the pardon racket against your father. Do you think that was

TALMADGE: I dont think that was very effective. That was also used in the previous campaigns without results.

HENDERSON: Your father never did have much support in the press. I dont think that bothered him too much.

TALMADGE: No.

HENDERSON: Why was there so much opposition to your father in the press?

TALMADGE: Well, he never did cultivate the press. He never did go around speaking to civic clubs. He was a man of independent action and independent decision. [If] he got an invitation from some Kiwanis club or Rotary club or something like that, hed usually regret it. He wanted to go where he could speak to the masses. Usually, [the] medias influenced by people that cultivate em, socialize with em. My daddy never did do any of that. And they dislike a fellow thats abrupt, a man of action and determination, anyway. They dont want to swallow[?] such a fellow that doesnt make many records.

HENDERSON: The 42 election is rather unique because, I believe Im correct in this, this was the only time where your father ran head-to-head with an opponent. Usually there were several candidates running for governor. And [Allen Lumpkin] A.L. Hensen, in his biography of your father, says this is the reason, and not the university issue, that defeated your father.

TALMADGE: Well, I dont think thats true at all. During my fathers career, there was about a third of the people in the state that would go with him to the gates of hell. There was about a third of them that wanted to see him in hell [HENDERSON chuckles]. About a third of them that would support him when they thought he was right and oppose him when they thought he was wrong. He and [Thomas Edward] Tom Watson were the only two people in the twentieth century that had that sort of a following. Hes the only man, since Tom Watson, that was able to transfer his support to anyone he supported. He would go into Tift County [Georgia] [when he was in his prime?] and say leave Joe Smith home next election. And Joe Smith would be left home, if he was a member of the legislature.

HENDERSON: That reminds me. I was reading a dissertation written about your father and it says after his 36 defeat, he went back to farming in McRae [Georgia] and in Tifton [Georgia]. Now, I didnt realize he had any farm interest in Tifton.

TALMADGE: No. I dont think he ever had any farming interest in Tifton. He bought the old ancestral home in Monroe County [Georgia] in the 1930s. He was farming there and for a brief period of time he and Hudson Moore ran a livestock barn in Alma, Georgia, in Bacon County [Georgia]. But to my knowledge, my father never had any property of any kind in Tift County.

HENDERSON: Well, thats the first time Ive seen that.

TALMADGE: That shows you the error of newspaper reporting. [HENDERSON chuckles] Ive been familiar with that all my adult life.

HENDERSON: So, youre saying that your father really wasnt concerned about the fact that there was not two or three opponents running against him to split the anti-Talmadge vote.

TALMADGE: Oh, Im sure that he would of probably preferred that the field be divided.

HENDERSON: Did he make any efforts to get anybody into the race to your knowledge?

TALMADGE: Not to my knowledge. So far as I know, he never did. He believed that running for public office was the only [unintelligible]. My father used to say that it didnt take but about one white man and two nigger women to make a fellow think the Earth was clamoring for him to run for public office. Thats about right.

HENDERSON: During your fathers third term, an issue came up dealing with building a pipeline through Georgia.

TALMADGE: Yes.

HENDERSON: And I believe your father vetoed a bill that the oil interests wanted. And because of that they began to support Ellis Arnall and began to finance his campaign.

TALMADGE: [Unintelligible]

HENDERSON: Did your fatherand from the accounts that I read about thisthese oil interests were putting a good bit of money into Ellis Arnalls campaign because of this. Did your father look down the road and see [that] this could be a possible liability to him in 42?

TALMADGE: Not to my knowledge. I think he considered that an issue between the railroads and the pipelines, mostly railroads was the issue is my recollection.

HENDERSON: One of the interesting politicians during this period of time was Roy V. [Vincent] Harris.

TALMADGE: Yes.

HENDERSON: And hes been on both sides of the political fence. Now in 42, he was supporting Arnall. Why?

TALMADGE: Well, Roy was close, originally, to the Ed Rivers faction. Theyd served in the legislature together. He managed Ed Rivers campaign for governor in 1936. He was Ed Rivers speaker [of the House] in 1938, 37 and 39, and he was allied at that time with a Roosevelt faction in Georgia and opposed to my daddy. And he didnt support my father until 1946. I think he supported him in 32 probably. [In] 34, when the split came with Ed Rivers, he went with Ed Rivers faction in the legislation.

HENDERSON: There was another person who was associated with the Talmadge administration, commissioner of agriculture Tom Linder. But in 42 he deserts the Talmadge side and goes over to Arnall. What accounted for that?

TALMADGE: He wanted to run for governor, I mean, for the United States Senate. See my father had picked up Tom Linder, elected him commissioner of agriculture in 1934. They were defeated together in 1936. My daddy picked him up again and elected him commissioner of agriculture in 1940, and he wanted to run against [Richard Brevard] Dick Russell in 1942. My father didnt want him to run and to prohibit him from running, the Democratic committee passed a rule that anyone who was then an incumbent for a constitutional state office had to resign before they could run. That infuriated Tom Linder, and he got mad and supported Ellis Arnall.

HENDERSON: Now, why didnt your father want him to run against Russell?

TALMADGE: Because he knew it would be another anchor around his neck. He figured he already had a difficult campaign of his own, and people associated Tom Linder with him. And to take on Dick Russell and the governorship at the same time was too much of a burden.

HENDERSON: Did FDR [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] play any role in that campaign in 42?

TALMADGE: Well, Im sure I dont know that he made any public statement, but Im sure every federal agency in the state that he could politically control was active in behalf of Arnall.

HENDERSON: In the 38 senate race, your father charged that the election was stolen from him.

TALMADGE: Yes.

HENDERSON: Roy Harris, I read in a quote somewhere, that he said under the county unit system there were about sixty counties that could be bought or sold. How honest was the 42 election? Did the charge of one side stealing it from the other side come up?

TALMADGE: Yes, it came up before the convention down at Macon [Georgia] in 1938 and the convention went with Senator [Walter Franklin] George. Im sure that the George group was extremely well financed--the best finance campaign in the history of the state up til that time. And I dont know what they did after midnight. The early returns indicated my father had won with a plurality, and the late returns went to Senator George. I dont know that anyone will ever know how much was stolen, if any.

HENDERSON: Now, how about the election in 42. Was that charge ever raised there?

TALMADGE: Not to my knowledge.

HENDERSON: One of the accomplishments that Governor Arnall liked to point to was the constitution in 1945. And former Governor Rivers, and Harris, and Arnall go out and campaign and try to get it ratified throughout the state. And I believe your father was the only major politician that opposed it. Why did he oppose that constitution?

TALMADGE: I dont know.

HENDERSON: What time--just so we can get an idea about the time frame here--what time did you get back from the navy?

TALMADGE: It was early 46. When was the war over? I know about World War I, but I was in Manila [Philippines].

HENDERSON: 45.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMANS VOICE: 45.

TALMADGE: I got back about Christmas or early 46.

HENDERSON: Well, you may not have been aware of some of this, but Im sure your father may have mentioned it to you at the time but let me go ahead and ask the question. As you well know there was a constitutional prohibition that said the governor could not succeed himself.

TALMADGE: Yes.

HENDERSON: Arnall tried, on two occasions, to get that tradition changed. And Harris and Rivers and from what Ive been able to read, your father, opposed that. Is that a pretty fair statement?

TALMADGE: Yes.

HENDERSON: Now, the Atlanta papers made it whereas your father was opposed to this because if he ran for governor he didnt want to run against Arnall who at that time was riding a high popularity crest. And the best way to keep him from running again was to deny him that privilege. Is that a fair

TALMADGE: I dont know why my father opposed it, but he did.

HENDERSON: I think the big issue in the Arnall administration was his stand on the white primary. Why do you think he made the decision to comply with federal courts and not try to save the white primary?

TALMADGE: I dont know. He was politically ambitious for national office, something I didnt understand.

HENDERSON: He made the statement to me, when I interviewed him last, that if he had gone along with your father, your father and Roy Harris wanted a special session in the legislature--

TALMADGE: Yes.

HENDERSON: --and to repeal all the laws dealing with the primaries, and make it a private situation and that way get around Federal Court decision. And he said that if hed gone along with that, he could have controlled Georgia politics for the next forty years. [Do] you think thats a fair statement?

TALMADGE: No, I dont think anyone can control the people of Georgia that long. We didnt have any laws for the records. The primary and to renew a primary act in the past, 1917, it was by party regulations. They had nobody that controlled politics in the state during that period. Tom Watson came nearer controlling it than anybody else in Georgia, but he couldnt get elected to the chair. [If] he had enough support for it, he could make governor, he would[?].

HENDERSON: But in hindsight, this is the issue thats most used against Arnall. I believe you used it and your father used it against him that here was somebody who was not standing up and trying to save segregation and so forth. And, if I remember correctly, he is the only southern politician anywhere thats taken the stand. Everybody else is saying lets do what we can to save the white primary. So he is out here on a limb, which is making him politically vulnerable.

TALMADGE: Yes.

HENDERSON: Was that a mistake from your viewpoint?

TALMADGE: Well, it was a political mistake because it was completely out of harmony with the thinking of the people of Georgia at the time and the people of the South at that time. Of course, in the aftermath, the Supreme Court outlawed it anyway, you know. He might have done it because hes ambitious for national office. I dont know why.

HENDERSON: Arnall has a reputation of being the liberal in Georgia politics. Any time discussion of him comes up, his liberalism comes up. Do you think he was a liberal?

TALMADGE: Well, he projected that image himself. When you consider the statement liberalism, in the first place, it is difficult to define what it means. In the second place, you have to consider the time and the time frame in which it would apply. He was liberal in some things: he was liberal in the eighteen-year-old voting law and things of that nature.

HENDERSON: Youve already mentioned that you thought he had national political ambitions. You think for the vice presidency--

TALMADGE: I dont know. He nominated [Henry] Agard Wallace, you know. For president at the convention in, when was it, 46?

HENDERSON: 44.

TALMADGE: 44. Maybe he thought Wallace would pick him in the vice president. I dont know what his thinking was. But at that time Wallace was out of kilter in his thinking with people in the South and in the state.

HENDERSON: All right, now, you were back in the states by the 46 election.

TALMADGE: Yes, I managed my daddys campaign then.

HENDERSON: All right. There are three candidates running in that election. And one of them is Ed Rivers. And theres a lot of speculation that Ed Rivers got in that campaign to get back at Ellis Arnall. He said that Arnall had promised him that hed support him for governor and then Arnall supported [James Vinson] Jimmy Carmichael. Was it to your fathers advantage to have Ed Rivers in the campaign to split the anti-Talmadge vote?

TALMADGE: I dont think it made much difference one way or another. In the final analysis, Ed wound up carrying only ten counties, you know. But it didnt make a great deal of difference. I think most of the people that voted for Ed Rivers, had he not been in the race, would probably have voted for my daddy. Counties that he carried [were], if you looked at them down there south of Tifton, in areas where my daddy was traditionally very strong.

HENDERSON: Was there any type of understanding or discussion, or whatever you want to call it, between you or your father and Ed Rivers about him continuing in that campaign?

TALMADGE: No.

HENDERSON: Of course thiswhen your father was elected, by then, his health is deteriorating rather badly. Where did the idea originate to write in your name in the general election in 1946?

TALMADGE: County school superintendent by the name of [Gibson Greer] Ezell from Jasper County [Georgia]. He was a good friend of mine and my fathers. His hobby was reading biographies and history and books, constitutions, things of that nature. Gibson came up to see me after the election--after the primary election--and he brought me back the version of the constitution, in which if I had read before, I didnt realize its importance. And I looked at it and the more I looked at it, the more I realized that if anything happened to my daddy, the legislature would have to elect a governor. And I didnt trust my own judgment. I had several of what I thought was the best constitutional lawyers in the state, look at that version also. And every one of them agreed with my interpretation of it. So we passed the word very quietly to four or five of my friends to get me a few write-in votes around the state who knew that a lot of people would be disgruntled and supporting Carmichael. We knew hed get several hundred votes. We wanted to pick up a little insurance. Thats why we did it.

HENDERSON: Is there anything to some speculation that Arnall was working to have Carmichaels name written in?

TALMADGE: Not to my knowledge. I bet that he did get five or six hundred votes, but I had always assumed that that would be [not] him so much as some effort on Ellis part or some of his friends. I dont know.

HENDERSON: When they begin to canvas these write-in votes, the first time they count them I think you come in third. Theres some votes missing. Do you remember anything about that?

TALMADGE: Yes. I dont know what the situation was but there was some votes, I believe, from Telfair County [Georgia] mailed in a separate packet there and they didnt find them until later. The election process in Georgia, as you know, involves the legislature just like the electoral college does the president. The governor is not formally elected until their candidacy return [unintelligible] the result. And they had some difficulty in locating those missing votes from Telfair County or wherever it was.

HENDERSON: Now, some people raised some eyebrows about all of a sudden youre in third place and they stop everything and then they go out and find some votes that happen to be from your native county. And then this will put you in first place as far as write-in votes. How do you respond to something like that?

TALMADGE: Well, some peoplell raise their eyebrows about anything that theyre unhappy with. I didnt go up and deliver the votes; they were in the box when they found them. Sometimes I have difficulty finding a document in my files.

HENDERSON: Over the objection of Governor Arnall, the legislature goes ahead and elects you governor and youre sworn in and you begin your term of office. And then the Georgia Supreme Court, a couple of months later, rules against you and says the legislature did not have the power to elect you. Did you have any idea prior to that Supreme Court decision that the court was going to go against you?

TALMADGE: No, Ellis did though. He and I were on the joint television program, Emory University [Atlanta, Georgia] and Channel 5. And he stated, much to my surprise, publicly, that he knew what the court was going to do. I was young and nave at the time and I thought the courts, regardless of their political inclination, they followed what they thought was the law. I knew that Judge Bond Almand in Fulton County [Georgia] with the Atlanta Constitution [Atlanta, Georgia], beating my brains out everyday, ruled in my favor. And hed been appointed by Ellis Arnall. I knew that Judge [Walter] Clifford Hendrix, also in the same jurisdiction, had ruled in my favor, and hed been appointed by either Ed Rivers or Ellis Arnall. The only lower court judge that ruled against me was Claude [Holmes] Porter up at Rome, Georgia, and he was the most partisan, political judge in the state. And hed been appointed either by Ed Rivers or Ellis Arnall. I knew that the majority of the Supreme Court had been appointed by Ed or Ellis or both of them, but I didnt think their political persuasion would affect them. So, I was surprised at the decision. I can say, however, that I was vindicated eighteen months later by the electorate of the state and twenty years later by the Supreme Court of the state, the [Lester Garfield] Maddox-[Howard Hollis] Callaway decision, and by the U.S. [United States] Supreme Court--the same decision.

HENDERSON: Yes, he told me about asking the justices how they would vote. He knew it way in advance.

TALMADGE: He told me that or made the statement one time. [TALMADGE excuses himself from the interview]

HENDERSON: Yes, sir. [tape stops and starts] Governor, let me come back to Arnall again.

TALMADGE: All right.

HENDERSON: He has this reputation of a being a liberal. But you really dont find him departing from southern orthodoxy until he makes this decision on the white primary. Now, I could be wrong in that, but

TALMADGE: I think youre right.

HENDERSON: I think thats probably

TALMADGE: Matter of fact, I remember he was campaigning against my daddy and in his opening speech for governor, he indicated that if they ever tried to integrate the schools, that the people of Georgia knew what do. Hed be the leader.

HENDERSON: Yes, thats right.

TALMADGE: So, the indication is [unintelligible] keep them out.

HENDERSON: In fact, I think [William] Anderson, who wrote the biography of your father, said in 42, there were really two segregationists running but one segregationist wanted to keep the university going and reaccredited and that sort of thing. That was the only difference. In reading through the Statesman, I get the impression that youre leery about Arnall trying to do in the county unit system. Is that political propaganda that youre putting out to these rural counties or was there ever any real effort on his part to do in the county unit system?

TALMADGE: Not to my knowledge, but of course, at that time he was projecting liberalism and indicated that he might be anxious to do that.

HENDERSON: Of course, that made good reading in some of these rural counties, too.

TALMADGE: Yes, of course, when I was running against [Melvin Ernest] M.E. Thompson, hed represented [unintelligible] and I believe that [unintelligible], but I never did hear [unintelligible].

HENDERSON: Thompson, of course, becomes acting governor. Did it ever enter in your mind that in 48 maybe Arnall would take up the banner against you like he did against your father? And [he would] try to use this business of the legislature elected you and I think he used the terminology, You were the great pretender. And I think, one time, in a very strong speech he said that Roy Harris was dictating[?] and that sort of thing.

TALMADGE: No. The whole issue against Ellis running in 48. See, hed gone out of office in 46. I believe that after having a four-year break.

HENDERSON: OK.

TALMADGE: So, Ellis could have run, conceivably, in 1950, but he could not have qualified under the constitution in 48. Of course, M.E. was the acting governor. They had no choice except to support the acting governor.

HENDERSON: Well, all right, lets move it two years forward. In 50, did it ever enter your mind that he might be a candidate against you?

TALMADGE: No. If I did, I didnt know ostensibly, but I knew Id have opposition of some sort. I didnt know what form it would [take].

HENDERSON: Let me ask a rather obvious question I think, but would you have rather had run against Thompson again or taken on Arnall? Or did it matter?

TALMADGE: I dont think it mattered. They were representing the same camp at the time. They were substantial at the same boat. Now, Ellis would have been a better campaigner. [TALMADGE excuses himself from the interview]

HENDERSON: Yes, sir.

[End of Interview]

Name Index

A
Almand, Bond, 22
Anderson, William, 24
Arnall, Ellis Gibbs, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
C
Callaway, Howard Hollis (Bo), 22
Carmichael, James Vinson (Jimmy), 19, 20
Cocking, Walter Dewey, 4
E
Ely, Joseph Buell, 1
Ezell, Gibson Greer, 20
G
George, Walter Franklin, 14
H
Harris, Roy Vincent, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 24
Hendrix, Walter Clifford, 22
Hensen, Allen Lumpkin, 9
J
Jackson, Andrew, 5
L
Linder, Thomas Mercer (Tom), 3, 12, 13
M
Maddox, Lester Garfield, 22
Moore, Hudson, 10
P
Pittman, Claude Cleveland, 6
Pittman, Marvin Summers, 4
Porter, Claude Holmes, 22
R
Rivers, Eurith Dickinson (Ed), 1, 2, 12, 14, 15, 19, 22
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 1, 12, 13
Russell, Richard Brevard, Jr. (Dick), 12, 13
T
Talmadge, Eugene, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24
Talmadge, Mattie Thurmond Peterson (Miss Mitt), 5
Thompson, Melvin Ernest (M.E.), 24, 25
W
Wallace, Henry Agard, 18
Watson, Thomas Edward (Tom), 9, 17
Wood, John Stephens, 2


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