Thomas for President

(Ed. Note--The Crimson does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in printed communications. No attention will be paid to anonymous letters, but under special conditions, at the request of the writer, names will be withheld.)

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

For the past few days a few of us have been giving serious thought to the casting of our first vote at a presidential election next fall. And at the same time, we became convinced that the situation at it is, is unsatisfactory, not only for the country at large, but for the college man in particular.

Just now we are faced with the apparent necessity of voting for the Republican or Democratic nominee. Herbert Hoover may or may not be an efficient secretary of commerce; we do know, however, that he sat silent in the very cabinet that nursed the foulest national scandal in our history. That Al Smith is a regular feller and a good governor, we won't deny; but exactly what he stands for, no one has yet been able to discover.

In short, despite the personal excellence of these men, it is quite obvious that they do not stand for a single definite idea. They are both actuated by a laudable desire to be president. We submit that college men as citizens have a right to demand of political parties and their leaders more than they have given there in the past. When Democrats are out, they want to get in; when Republicans are in, they fight to stay there.

There is one other man in the field, however, and that is Norman Thomas. He is the Socialist candidate for president, and in him is centered a movement toward a definite, worthwhile goal. He is the rightful heir to the LaFollette movement of four years ago; and we know that Norman Thomas can bring into being a liberal party that shall not have for its aim the good-natured joshing of the populace, the policy of the party out of power; nor of political corruption, an important activity of the party in power but the hitherto unrealized program of concrete social progress.

To do more than merely talk, a group of us is organizing a Thomas for President Club at Harvard. We invite the cooperation of all men in the University. Stewart French '29   Jacques Herling '28.   Fletcher Hodges '28.