The Pittsburgh Press (September 7, 1944)
Thomas hits Roosevelt peace plan
Socialist candidate visits city
Norman Thomas, who has had his eye on the White House door for 20 years, came to Pittsburgh today to continue his consistent, if futile, efforts to become the President of the United States.
Making his fifth stab at the Presidency on the Socialist ticket, the tall, gray-haired ex-minister is perfectly frank about his chances to beat out President Roosevelt or Governor Dewey.
He said:
No, I don’t think I’ll win this time, either. There’s no law against it but it doesn’t seem to be the custom.
‘Open ballot’ is goal
One of his main concerns, he said, was the keeping of the ballot open. He said:
There may come a time you know when a third party can muster sufficient strength to be more than just a name on the ballot.
Recently returned from a cross-country tour, the Socialist candidate declined to pick a winner in the Roosevelt-Dewey race. He did say, however, that he found more “anti” as well as “pro” Roosevelt feeling than he did Dewey backing or opposition.
During an interview in his room at the Fort Pitt Hotel, the well-known lecturer and writer talked more of winning the peace than of just winning the war.
Roosevelt plan hit
He claimed in no uncertain terms that the proposals of President Roosevelt are merely laying the groundwork for a third war and decried a “triple alliance,” masked as a new world order, that will “have cracks beneath the veneer in a few years.
He denied any infiltration of Communism into the Socialist Party, claiming beliefs of the parties were as far apart as the poles.
Mr. Thomas will speak at a rally arranged by local officers of the Socialist Party in the Fort Pitt Hotel tonight and will confer with Socialist leaders and a group of Allegheny County labor leaders.