New Britain herald., 1929-11-20
CANNON CRUMBLES;
 THOMAS SURPRISES
Republicans Believed Losing South h-SQCiaHSt Shows Power

Washington. Nov. 20 -- The de. cline of Bishop Cannon in Virginia and the rise of Norman Thomas in New York, by common consent the two most significant phases Of tho recent elections, provide excellent material for political speculation as well as for post mortems.
 Defeat of Bishop Cannon's candI- date for governor. who carried tn, banner for both anti-Smith demo. crats and regular republicans in Nir- ginia, was in effect q sound spank. ing for one of Americas 8 most prom inent churchmen who went into politics up to his neck and risked hi, power and prestige in an attempt te superimpose both definitely upon tho state.
 The result indicatcs-for the dem ocratic majority was record breaking that if the republicans hope 10 re- tain any Of the southern states in 1932 they will have to get the demo crats to nominate another wet Catholic
 Cannon is Finished
 It also indicates that Bishop Can non will not in the future have any important political influence in his own state Thanks 10 his own CT TOT in deserting wct-dry and re- ligious battles for a campaign in which neither Of those issues was involved, the national prestige which he gained last fall is now fast on the wane and it is rather to be feared that his voice will be found losing some of it's old power in the councils Of the drys at Washington.
 Norman Thomas. who boiled To- 600 votes in the New York mayoral- " election. may not live long enough to be elected to anything. But the unprecedented size of his socialist vote suggests the likelihood that in municipal contests at least the sO- cialists will before many years be- come a factor which must be taken into account. That is not because there is any marked popular trend toward socialist doctrines, but be- cause in many cities voters are now forced to chose between two more or less corrupt machines. democratic and republican.
 That kind of a set-up was one of the main factors which piled mp the j7o,000 Thomas votes in New York, Another factor was the general ad mration for Thomas himself Thom- as has run for mayor, governor and president and in most of these con tests he has been the best man among the candidates. The socialists are lucky 10 have him. The fact that he had the support of such papers as the New York Telegram and the New York World in the New York campaign despite his so cialism was a remarkable tribute.
 The possibility of the rise of a strong third party in such graft ridden cities as Philadelphia and Chicago is also suggested by the fact that two good sized cities, Reading Pa. and Milwaukee. Wis. are al. ready getting along well under go cialist rule. Milwaukee has had { socialist mayor, Daniel Hoan. for 1 . years, though he has sometimes had a minority in the city council. Mil waukee seems satisfied with Hoan The other day the Milwaukee county supervisors voted to accept the state old age pension law.
 The socialist municipal govern ment of Reading, about two years old, is distinguishing itself by re- ducing the cost of public improve ments and public works and has just built new $75O,000 city hall which it contends would have cos, two or three times as much under it's predecessors. The outstanding personality there is James H. Maur- CT, public works commissioner, who ran for vice president on the so- cialist ticket with Thomas last year Maurer was president of the Penn sylvania State Federation of Labor and the only socialist member of the legislature,
 Nationally. the growth Of the so. cialist party will be slow unless thl country is let in for hard times. The domestic conditions which drove England into the arms of th" social ists arc not likely to be duplicated over here for long time The ia3D election, however, is likely 10 pro duce socialist congressman ana possibly two.
 Mistake to Fight Glass
 All of which has nothing 10 dc with Bishop Cannon. one assumcs that the bishop has given mp his intention of defeating Senator Car ter Glass for reelection uc.t year Glass might possibly lose in tn, primaries, but it von't be on Can. mons account II was a mistake or Cannon's part to go after Glass SC bitterly in the last presidential cam. paign when the senator stood by A smith.
 It was also a mistake when. after his stock market dealings had booI disclosed. the bishop blamed GMs, for the disclosures. Glass hadn' had anything to do +ith II. Aftni that. however Glass G..otDd his rn thuslastic attention to Cannon. 8o fore long he had the bishop on th,