Norman Thomas: Man of Many Faiths
GERTZ, ELMER
Norman Thomas: Man of Many Faiths ELMER GERTZ This enthralling biography, like its protagonist, Norman Thomas, is both tender and tough. Thomas began life with many advantages. The more of these...
...he fought for all of them, and, in the end, he and the faiths were diminished in the public mind...
...The great gift of biographer Swanberg is that he tells of the life of Norman Thomas as if it were occurring while we are reading the often enriching words of the narrative...
...Early in his career, Thomas was a minister in his ancestral Presbyterian faith...
...Here, too, he regarded himself as a failure...
...He was never too busy or indisposed to preach socialism...
...Charles Scribner's Sons...
...Swanberg tells too little of Thomas's books and of some of the major events in his life...
...He was a constant loser, but the more he lost the more he gained in stature...
...He could have become one of the renowned preachers and leaders in the church, but he believed more fervently in works than in words and devoted himself tirelessly to his poor immigrant parishioners...
...He tells everything, from the most personal to the most public, as if all were of equal importance...
...Even if his fame should dim, as is not improbable, we will be the beneficiaries, whether we know it or not, of his sacrificial efforts...
...Swanberg...
...A lesser man, engaging in so many activities, would have been regarded as a mere busybody...
...Swanberg depicts in Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist, Thomas was an important part of almost everything that occurred in the Twentieth Century...
...But, as in all else, he was a magnificent failure...
...Many of the ideas he advocated in his campaigns became the law of the land, pilfered by Democrats and even by Republicans...
...But, essentially, he used his vocal gifts for good causes in no demagogic spirit...
...The strength of Swanberg's biography is also its weakness...
...He was a prime mover and left his mark upon his country and time...
...It had histrionic qualities...
...Characteristically, the two he had removed were dear friends of his, then and later...
...This is especially true for those of us, like Thomas himself, who, in the sad pageantry of the age, lived through both world wars, the crash and Great Depression, the earthshaking discoveries, the giants and pygmies of the times...
...Bit by bit, he began to distrust and disbelieve in a God who was heedless of the poor and disadvantaged, and, except in a sentimental way, he lost faith in all religious dogmas...
...14.95...
...Like many others in that period, he was in the difficult position of both attacking and defending communists at the same time...
...After Eugene Debs, he became the best known advocate, in this country, of the socialist creed...
...He loved especially communion with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, less so with his children...
...If he is remembered, as he richly deserves, it will be, at least in part, because of this extraordinary book...
...There is little capitulation of Thomas's basic philosophy, although it is implicit...
...The Russian experience in particular made him fear that the big and omnipresent state would reduce the dimensions, dignity, and freedom of the individual...
...We live with the private and public man every moment and he becomes a part of our lives...
...He had many faiths...
...He worked tirelessly in that cause, going from one end of the country to the other and throughout the world as an inspired educator...
...As W.A...
...He measured all persons, parties, groups, and causes by the contribution they made to ridding the world of the scourge of war...
...That glorious voice was an essential part of the man...
...programs...
...His words were always lucid, reasonable, and eloquent He ran for the Presidency as the Socialist candidate six times and lost overwhelmingly each time...
...To his last days, he could sing joyously the old hymns and carols in his rich Welsh voice, but he no longer had literal belief in what they portended and foretold...
...His was a voice of reason in an often mad world...
...He was, in truth, greater than all of the parts of his personality and career...
...It was not unlike the golden speech of such famous Welshmen of our own and other days as Lloyd George, Dylan Thomas (no relative), and Richard Burton...
...518 pp...
...Thomas was an honorable part of all of these men and events...
...The overriding cause for which he struggled from youth to his death at eighty-four was peace...
...Despite his firm belief that the communists as well as the fascists were the common enemy, he knew that it was indispensable to have good relations with the Soviet Union and Red China if the peace of the world was to be preserved...
...He was familiar with virtually every college campus...
...By the end, his popular vote was minuscule and the Socialist Party almost ceased to exist...
...If human beings were truly free, all else that was desirable might ensue...
...Perhaps the dominant lesson here is that one cannot go off in every direction and for every good cause, as Thomas did, without losing much of one's effectiveness...
...Despite the depth of his feeling, he could often love the sinner while hating his sin...
...He wrote innumerable articles and books...
...As he lost his Christian faith, Thomas gained faith in a secular religion: socialism...
...he, no less than others, could be beguiled by it...
...He gives meaning and morality to the American dream and dilemma...
...Perhaps no man in his time did more in that cause...
...Just as he had lost faith in religion, he began to lose some of his ardor for socialism in its pristine form...
...Thomas did not have the inclination to hold fast to only one fighting faith...
...The older he became, the more youthful were his audiences...
...Elmer Gertz, a lawyer, writer, and community activist, is a professor at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago and is the author of the book, "To Life...
...Lesser men have prevailed and endured because they concentrated on one cause...
...Yet, he led the successful fight to expel communists from the ACLU board of directors on the ground that their slavish allegiance to Moscow made them incapable of a true faith in freedom...
...The more of these he discarded, the better man he became...
...His was not the cold calculus of Marxism, but the warmth of one who was concerned with individuals rather than with impersonal masses...
...He was never a spectator, never indifferent, always a participant, always concerned...
...Above all else, he prized free men...
...He appeared on countless radio and television NORMAN THOMAS: THE LAST IDEALIST, by W.A...
...He appealed especially to the young...
...Yet, he was on familiar if not endearing terms with Presidents, Senators, public and private leaders everywhere...
...With the indestructible Roger Baldwin, he was a founder and, for half a century, a leader of the American Civil Liberties Union, ready to defend the constitutional rights of Nazis as well as communists...
...True, war is an omnipresent danger, but it is less near because of men like him...
Vol. 40 • December 1976 • No. 12
