The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1948-05-20
Socialists Draft
Norman Thomas TO
Run Another Time

Reading (LPA)-An enthusiastic
convention of the Socialist Party
last week drafted its veteran stand
ard bearer Norman Thomas to rur
for President of the US again
Thomas vice-presidential team
mate in his sixth campaign is Tuck
er Smith, one-time CIO leader II
Michigan, and now president OF
his local of the American Fedora
ton of Teachers-AFL.
Thomas said that altho extreme
ly reluctant to run he had decided
to yield to the unanimous sentiment
of his party, in face of the "bank-
ruptcy of the Republican and Dem
ocratic parties and the confusion
caused among decent people by the
Wallace-C Communist coalition"
The Socialist platform asserts
that there are three forces contest
ing for mems loyalties: "an econo-
mic system calling itself free en-
terprise which has brought US re-
peatedly depressions and wars
Fascist and Communist totalitar-
ianism, which promises security
and speaks Of freedom but deliv-
ers only economic bondage and die
tatorship; and the third force, de
mocratic socialism, devoted to dem
ocratic planning and international
order"
Specific planks call for more
TWAS, a national health program,
repeal of the Taft Hartley law, an
increased minimum wage, socializa-
ton of basic industries, and dem
ocratic planning by government,
unions and cooperatives to avert
depression and raise the standard
of living.
International economic coopera-
ton, such as embodied in the Mar
shall plan for European recovery,
universal disarmament, and closer
ties between democratic govern
ments and trade union and social
list organizations were seen as the
keys to a lasting peace.
Among the people who sent
greetings to the convention We're:
Emil Macy, secretary-treasurer,
United Auto Workers-ClO; Arnold
Zander, president, State, County &
Municipal Employes-AFL; Hugo
Ernst, president Hotel & Restau-
rant Workers-AFL; John p. Burke,
president, Paper, Pulp & Sulphite
Wcrkers-AFL; G.. ID. Procopio,
president, Shoe Service Employees
CIO; James d. Graham, president,
Montana Federation of Labor;
Frank Crosswaith, chairman, Negro
Labor Committee; and Louis p.
Goldberg, New York Liberal Party
city councilman.
One of the convention speakers
was Ben McLaurin, international
representative of the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters-AFL and
a member of the national board of
Americans for Democratic Action,
who said that all progressives
should support the campaign of
"the nations outstanding liberal
leader-Norman Thomas"
Prior to the convention McLau-
rim and Graham had joined Presi-
dent II. l.. Mitchell of the Natl
Farm Labor Union-AFL and other
liberal and labor leaders in urging
the Socialist Party to renominate
Thomas.
Commenting on the Taft Hartley
law, the Socialists said, 1T is a
conglomeration of rules and regu-
lations which out do each other in
hampering the free functioning Of
labor unions. The Taft Hartley law
interferes with the right to strike.
The Taft Hartley law virtually
strips the union of its ability to
protect its members, and makes the
achievement of grant gains through
collective bargaining more difficult.
"The Socialist Party believes that
the answer to the Taft Hartley law
is not the kow-towing of unions to
the politicians of the Republican or