Evening star., 1932-10-30
BY WILLIAM HARD.

upplsh and-if one may jOcularly say
so-even inpudent in this campaign.
They have gone, for instance. and es-
tablished a new local Massachusetts
headquarters in Northampton. in the
very building in which Calvin Coolidge
has his law office. They hesitate at
nothing now.
From the headquarters In Calvin
Coolidge'S law Office building they are
conducting a smart. vivid campaign
for electing Mr.. Ralph Harlow to the
House of Representatives of the Con-
gress of the United States And who is
Mr.. Ralph Harlow? He is professor of
religious education in Smith College,
NorthamptOn,s eminent institution for
the education of young women.
When Mr. Coolidge was Vice Presi-
dent he wrote a lot of magazine articles
claiming that our colleges were getting
devOured by the monsters of radicalism
and pinkness and redness and revolu-
ton. Now in his own town he can more
or less see his worst fears justified.
When a professor of religious education
in girls school starts out to put a
hook into the nose of capitalism right
next to the working quarters of capital
lsn's classic champion among us, it can
readily be seen that now is the time for
whatever they should defend.
X x
The Socialists now are claiming that
they perhaps will get as many as 3.000.-
900 votes for their presidential candi-
date, Norman Thomas, on November 8.
If so. it will be the cheapest got line
Of votes in recent American political
history. The campaign fund of the So
clallStS probably does not much exceed
100000.
1t accordingly will be quite impossible
to attribute the Socialist voting sue
cess, such as it may be, to the lavish
use of money At the same time there
seems not to be the slightest doubt that
the total Socialist demonstration on
election day will be extremely impress
sive. The question arises: What is it
that is giving the Socialist party and
Mr.. Thomas their momentum?
One reason is undoubtedly Mr.
Thomas personality. He has good man
ners. He is well read. He has an
agreeable voice The material in his
speeches is ably organized. He seems,
and is, thoroughly sincere. His speeches
are not marked by excessive bitterness
In fact, it might be said that in certain
ways he gives a fairer show to Hoover
and to Roosevelt than either of them
gives to the other In sum. Mr.. Thomas
manners and methods are consider
able positive asset to the Socialist
party's general campaign.
In the second place, 1t is now just
about time, anyway, for the Socialist
party to begin to revive a certain pro-
portion of its old-time following in this
country. Four years ago Mr.. Thomas,
then, as now, the partys candidate for
the presidency. polled only 267.000
votes. The Studious reader will con-
traSt that showing with the results Sc
cured by the Socialists way back in 1912
under Eugene V. Debs. In that year
Debs, as their presidential candidate.
rolled up to his credit on election day
a total of $4,000 believers
What happened between 1912 and
1928 to diminish the Socialist strength
SO seriously? Three things.
In the first place, the great war split
the American Socialists into two camps
One camp held firm against all par
ticipation by the United States on either
side Of "capitalistic war" The other
camp went bodily over to the PROPOSE
ton that we Americans should fight on
the side of the allies and liberty"
against the side of the central powers
and "militarism" This division of
sentiment among the Socialists was
grievous blow to their party.
In the next place, the Communist
revolution broke out in Russia, and
thereupon some American Socialists
went Communist and embraced belief
in revolution by force, while others OF
them remained Zealots for the peace
full process of democracy and insisted
that revolution could be achieved in the
polling places. This second division of
sentiment among the Socialists was
again a grievous blow to their party.
X X
The third blow was in 1924. when the
Socialists forsook their allegiance to
themselves and indorsed the independ-
ent presidential candidacy of Robert
Marion La Toilette. They now bitterly
regret that deviation from their natural
party course. They most especially re-
gret it when they now observe a certain
lack of reciprocity on the part OF the
La Toilette family. Senator Robert
Marion La Toilette, jr., seeding from
Hoover, does not indorSe Thomas. He
indorses Roosevelt. Hence Thomas de-
termination to wind up his campaign
with a speech at Milwaukee, where he
will literally attack young Mr. La Fol-
lette for faltering in the path OF pro-
gressivism and for contenting himself
with the fake liberalism" as Mr..
Thomas may probably call 1t, OF the
Democrats.
The World War, the Russian revolu-
ton, the 1924 La Toilette movement
those three things distracted and almost
disrupted the Socialist party. Now Mr.
Thomas is endeavoring to reorganlze
and rebuild it. There should be nc
questioning of the proposition that Mr.
Thomas is genuinely, wholly a So
ciahst. He is no mere-as he might
express it-"reformist." He believes IN
Socialism itself, and his main aim Is
to recreate a truly Socialist party COM
petent to change the United States into
totally Socialist country.
We accordingly have MI. Thomas