Thomas, Norman M. (1884–1968)

AMONG THE PROMINENT socialist leaders of 20th-century America, Norman Thomas has a unique place. He was born in Marion, Ohio, and after graduating from Princeton University in 1905 and Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1911, he became the pastor of the East Harlem Church and accepted the chairmanship of American Parish, a settlement house in one of the poorest areas of the city.

Thomas entertained pacifist ideas and opposed the participation of United States in World War I. Increasingly, Thomas developed a liking for socialist ideology and finally in 1918 officially joined the Socialist Party. In the same year, he left the pastorship of East Harlem and was appointed secretary of the Fellowship of the Reconciliation, an international pacifist organization. In 1921 he joined the liberal weekly The Nation as an associate editor. In the following year, he was appointed executive codirector of the League of Industrial Democracy. His association with the league lasted for a decade. He was also one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union.

He ran for the governor of New York on the Socialist Party ticket in 1924. Twice (1925, 1929) he ran for mayor of New York City and he ran for president of the United States in six consecutive elections beginning in 1928. He polled his highest vote, about 880,000, in 1932. An advocate of evolutionary socialism, Thomas was a constant critic of the American economic system and of both major parties; he strongly opposed American entry in World War II while bitterly denouncing both fascism and Soviet Communism. He was openly critical of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Democratic New Deal administration, which espoused solution of the economic emergencies to the neglect of moral issues, according to Thomas.

In 1935, Thomas disengaged himself from the New Leader, a Marxist magazine dominated by “hard-liners” of the Socialist Party. Instead, he supported Socialist[Page 452]Call, a newly founded magazine. His socialism became diluted by his advocacy of mixed economy. The internal factionalism in the party weakened his public influence, though for years he remained the party's de facto spokesman. After the war, he lectured and wrote extensively on the need for world disarmament and the easing of Cold War tensions. As the chairman of the Postwar World Council, he constantly devoted himself to unravelling the problems of international peace and strongly advocated a cessation of fighting in Indochina, though he backed the Korean War. Thomas passed away in 1968 at Huntington, New York.

From his busy public life, Thomas managed to find time to write several books, including: The Conscientious Objector in America(1923), Socialism of Our Time (1929), Human Exploitation (1934), Appeal to the Nations (1947), Socialist Faith(1951), The Test of Freedom (1954), Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen(1955), The Prerequisite for Peace (1959), Great Dissenters (1961), and Socialism Re-examined(1963).