Norman Thomas

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Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 - December 19, 1968) was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party.

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The son of a Presbyterian minister, Thomas was born and raised in Marion, Ohio, and graduated from Marion High School. As a primary school age child, Thomas was a paper carrier for Warren G. Harding's Marion Daily Star. Thomas later attended and graduated from Princeton University in 1905. He then attended Union Theological Seminary, and there became a socialist. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1911, ministering in New York's East Harlem.

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Thomas opposed the United States' entry into the First World War. He founded The World Tomorrow publication in January of 1918. In an April 1918 editorial Thomas wrote:

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:"Only those who have felt something of passion for social justice and industrial democracy can realize how truly revolutionary Russia, with all its faults and excesses, is the promised land, the fatherland of the spirit to multitudes of radical workers throughout the world."

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The Russian revolutionaries never felt obliged to return the compliment; Thomas, said Leon Trotsky, was "just a political misunderstanding."

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From 1921-1922 Thomas was associate editor of The Nation, and became (1922) codirector of the League for Industrial Democracy. After the war, he was one of the founders of American Civil Liberties Union. He was an unsuccessful Socialist candidate for Governor of New York in 1924. Following Eugene Debs' death in 1926, Thomas became the Socialist standard-bearer and was the party's Presidential nominee in 1928, 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944, and 1948. As an articulate and engaging spokesman for democratic socialism, Thomas' influence was considerably greater than that of the typical perennial candidate. He made clear the difference between socialism and Communism, and explained the differences between the movement he represented and that of revolutionary Marxism. Thomas wrote several books, among them his passionate defense of World War I conscientious objectors, Is Conscience a Crime?, and his statement of the 1960s social democratic consensus, Socialism Re-examined.

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In Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 alternate universe, Norman Thomas appears as a Socialist official. He is chosen to tell George Custer that it is the President's will that he retire, news that the old general takes very badly.

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1884: 1884 is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar)....

December 19: December 19 is the 353rd day of the year (354th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 12 days remaining....

1968: 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar)....

Norman Thomas related Images and Photos (experimental)

Movie Director Norman Jewison at Time of Directing "Thomas Crown and Company"	Thomas Vanek	Norman Gnome	Thomas Jones
Norman Gnome	Thomas Jones	Thomas Otway	Norman Wisdom
Thomas Mellish	Thomas de Mahy	Thomas Mitchell	Thomas Jefferson