HE GREW UP
HE GREW UP Norman Thomas Started Ont as a Teddy Roosevelt EnthHsiast, Bui He Grew Up Politically As He Found Capitalism Destroying American Workers THE story of Norman Thomas Is the story of...
...Norman Thomas now...
...Did anything happen In the Intervening 28 years to upset his life and catapult his mind from Roosevelt Republicanism into SocialIsm...
...He had read a book about college life,— about the chivalry and glamor of life at Princeton University...
...Candidate for President THAT at 20—what, at 48 T Candidate for President of the United States on the Socialist ticket...
...When Norman Thomas was about 16, he sold papers on the streets of Marion, Ohio, for the Marion Star, the paper owned by the late President Warren O. Harding...
...and the earnestness that is written on his face would make every one understand that the President of our country was a man as unafraid to pioneer in the search for social security s s the early American pioneers were unafraid to brave the unknown wilderness of their tune...
...He offered to pay part of Norman's expenses at Princeton...
...But he can be a fighter when the occasion requires...
...One relishes the picture of Norman Thomas perched in the branches of a tree, making a speech on constitutional liberty to several thousand strikers in Passaic, N. J. He has been arrested a number of times In his fights for strikers, but always he has been sole to prove that not he was violating the law, but the officials who arrested him...
...D. added to his name at the commencement of his own Alma Mater, Princeton University, this week, the highest honor the university can bestow...
...The average American boy does not grow up...
...He enjoys country life, loves music and feels that his marriage In 1910 to Frances Violet Stewart la, to use his own words, "unquestionably the best thing for me personally that I ever did...
...the few who succeed are nothing more than gray-haired boys, without the eagerness anO hope that make boyhood a happy time...
...The American people have desperate need of Socialism...
...His life, indeed, ran a smooth course...
...Thomas doesn't think it a bit strange that a young Roosevelt enthusiast of 1905 should be a fighting Socialist in 1982...
...In 1917, occurred the memorable campaign of Morris HlUqutt for Mayor of New York Local Issues were] involved in this campaign, but...
...They spend all their thought, time and energy in an exhausting struggle to realize a boyhood ambition...
...He was opposed to war on religious grounds;- he was opposed to war on economic grounds...
...And young Norman had another important qualification for becoming a millionaire...
...He has utmost confidence in the ability of his comrades in the Socialist Party to AH the Important places in the cabinet and in the Government departments...
...After two years he had an opportunity to travel around the world as companion to an Invalid...
...Norman Thomas, a graduate of this university In thev class of '06...
...Irrespective Of party preferences we Jota to honor this valiant and distinguished ton of Princeton...
...He was not only wellto-do, but wished to do well by the youngster...
...I can picture Norman Thomas aa our President and I can picture a united American people working together to wage war—not, upon other peoples—but upon poverty, hunger, disease and misery...
...He is sociable, agreeable and happy...
...Long before I joined toe Socialist Party I had voted the Socialist ticket...
...Long before the war I was becoming convinced of the necessity for reorganising society along Socialist lines...
...e • A Construct!ve Party AND thus the boy grey up to be a man, and the leader of man...
...From Princeton he came to New York, where he has lived ever since...
...He is fully prepared to be President of the United States...
...Most boys are forced Into shops and factories at that age...
...But capitalism has enough sins on its head besides war, to require its replacement by Socialism...
...People do not understand the close relationship between government and their own lives," he says...
...Thomas tries, in language that is concise and.simple, to make people see how their lives are made, miserable by poor management of public affairs, and how their Uvea can be made brighter by sensible management of public affairs...
...Morris Hillquit's books and speeches helped to shape my outlook...
...Norman Thomas, the American boy who grew up to be A man and a leader of men, is inspiring millions of bis countrymen to grow with him to Socialism...
...HE GREW UP Norman Thomas Started Ont as a Teddy Roosevelt EnthHsiast, Bui He Grew Up Politically As He Found Capitalism Destroying American Workers THE story of Norman Thomas Is the story of an American boy who grew up...
...He emphasises the fact that It Is the only political party with A definite, far-reaching program for curing America's ills...
...In the meantime he bad become associate pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church of which Dr...
...At 17 01 18, a boy must make up his mind about his future.—doctor, lawyer, poor man, rich man,—which shall it be...
...It would be a clear, simple speech that the whole nation would understand...
...Now, in a questioning mood, he began to read the other side of the story...
...He has five children...
...They were practical Idealists—that Is to...
...In awarding the degree President Hlbben made the following citation...
...A well-todo relative turned up...
...They never grow up...
...He Didn't Stop Growing TIERS IS an answer to the riddle of why a happy, rising young man enjoying the companionship of other happy, rising young men should become the great leader of the Socialist Party...
...The boy considera himself lucky If at 17 or 13 he has the means of preparing himself for the future...
...Teddy Roosevelt was then scolding the standpats of his dsy and Norman Thomas became a booster of Teddy...
...Henry van Dyke was the minister...
...He began to check up on what his professors at Princeton had told him...
...Socialism Needed De-.perai«ly I CAN picture him as President, making his first speech to Congress...
...Thomas does sot look upon the Socialist Party merely as a party of protest...
...While Thomas has stepped forward to the leadership of advanced economic and political thought, he has not lost contact with the mass of people who have failed to move along...
...I cannot truthfully say just when I became an active Socialist," he says...
...Returning to the United states, ha went back to social work...
...He sees as his duty the awakening of the minions of men and women whose minds, have been preoccupied by the crushing burdens that an outdated, inefficient and cruel system of society has heaped upon them...
...His first Job was as a settlement worker in the Spring Street Church Neighborhood House...
...His professors were nice people...
...His dreams had hot been false to him...
...He was distressed to see that image shattered—to see millions of Americans bent by poverty, enslaved to masters, and made hopeless by their plight...
...The Socialist candidate had the letters Litt...
...A vigilant assailant of the corruption and the crime which batten on our complacent civic Indifference notably In the conduct Of municipal affairs...
...Thomas does not date his active Socialist career from that campaign...
...Wasn't he the champion high kicker of the Marion High School...
...He has struggled In his own mind with the multitudinous problems that the government faces and he has labored upon them aa thoroughly and conscientiously aa though the responsibility rested with him, rather than with Herbert Hoover...
...It grew on me gradually...
...The answer lies in the fact that Norman Thomas didn't stop growing at 17 qr 18...
...He saw much of China, India and other countries...
...His keen eyes would tell htm how his every word was being received...
...Slowly, since his college days, Norman Thomas began to drift toward Socialism...
...I can picture htm a s President, and I can vote for hint and . for the whole Socialist program...
...Norman Thomas himself says that nothing striking happened to set him apart from other Roosevelt Republicans...
...Opposed to World War NORMAN THOMAS stood uncompromisingly opposed to the world war...
...He Enters Princeton ATALL, skinny lad of 17 entered the realm of his dreams...
...But I want to make it clear that I did not become a Socialist merely because of the war...
...The war was a shock, of course, and caused me to take inventory of my own mind and to clarify my own views...
...A brilliant and successful clergyman, son and grandson of ministers of the religion whose earliest disciples held all things in common 'for the common good, who, for conscience sake gave up a conventional form of ministry to his fellow men to become the fearless and upright advocate of change In the social Order...
...At about this time Thomas resigned from the clergy and threw himself wholeheartedly Into the Hillqult campaign...
...Princeton life was pleasant and seemed ennobling...
...Towards them he displays a patience and friendliness that Is winning...
...But he wasn't entirely complacent...
...It would not contain a superfluous word, but It would not evade a single issue...
...They realize they are lost in this uncertain world unless they accumulate money...
...Since Princeton was so expensive as to seem unattainable, it was natural that the high-spirited youngster should turn his dreams in that direction...
...Then what caused this rising young man to desert the placid majority of his countrymen and take the leadership of the Socialist Party...
...His life work now is to awaken the masses of people who have been too busy fighting life's battles to be aware of what has been happening...
...And I can picture scores of millions of Americans also becoming familiar with Thomas and with the Socialist P a r t y program, voting the same way...
...Of course, It was apparent that capitalism was responsible for the war...
...Thomas resents the attitude of some of his well-wishers that it ia a good thing to have a "party of protest," but that .he cannot be elected...
...And surely, all newsboys want to become millionaires...
...Fate seemed to be determined to turn the lad into the usual channel of boyhood ambition...
...The unexpected then happened...
...Then he entered Union Theological Seminary and was graduated In 1811...
...They face life with a definite purpose...
...There, he had read only books refuting Socialism, without ever having read the books written by Socialists...
...We have, next, at 20—a young fellow, taller and skinnier than ever before, with the polish of Princeton, the ambition of a newsboy, the conscience of a clergyman's home, the popularity of a champion high kicker and the American assertiveaess of a Rooseveltlan...
...He began to feel that the America of his boyhood image—the America of free and ambitious men must, somehow, oe created...
...Norman Thomas has no hankering for standing alone...
...He had been given a boyhood image of the American citizen as an up-standing, free land ambitious man...
...The chance to grow isn't given and only in few cases does any one fight for the chance...
...He feels that he has merely moved along with the times...
...he was opposed to war because war ia nothing less than world-wide insanity...
...the broaJBer^aoctrines of Socialism and opposition to* war were stressed...
...But my contact with Morris Hillqult and bis campaign drew me closer into the battle...
...P. H. Princeton Gives x Norman Thomas j Title of Doctor r'S Dr...
...say, they believed that suffering and misery should be ended, but that there was no sure way of ending it and, therefore, no sense in getting worked up about it His professors discussed Socialism with what they regarded as enlightened tolerance—that is, they felt that Socialism couldn't be right because they hadn't taken to it Norman didn't violently disagree with the complacency that surrounded him at Princeton...
...Things have happened since 1905, he says, to open a man's eyes—if the man .were not'asleep...
...Now, it's a good old American tradition that all bright young newsboys must become multi-millionaires .later In life...
...Most of them fail...
...He moved along with the world, and he saw the world moving toward Socialism...
...And Thomas, while' making no claims, la prepared for the responsibilities, of office...
...His boyhood environment — his father was a* clergyman—had given him a social conscience...
...Then came the world war...
...the tone of ardent conviction in his voice would make his hearers forget the petty .prejudices that always stand between Congress and action: his glowing smile would disarm the doubters and the hostile...
Vol. 13 • June 1932 • No. 26
