Norman Thomas Says Weakness of Private Ownership is Revealed by Depression-Hails Public Control to End Graft

"The current depression is a proof of the utter falsehood of the belief that capital is directed into the most efficient channels by a system of private ownership and management of industry", said Norman Thomas, Socialist candidate for President of the United States, in a CRIMSON interview yesterday.

"Contrary to popular belief, the Socialist party in the United States does not advocate government ownership of industry; rather, it hopes to keep the government out of industry as much as possible. The purpose of the Socialist party is to put an end to private corporations, and to substitute public ownership and management of capital through cooperative boards composed of salaried representatives of both laborers and consumers.

"The government's only function in industry would then be to prevent swindling and embezzlement, as is done today in cases involving private corporations. At present, the power of local governments to issue franchises to private enterprise has resulted in almost limitless corruption of governmental officials.

"Municipal political 'machines' now serve as mediators between the bourgeois and proletariat classes, and are in effect, paid commissions by the business men for so doing. If public utilities were taken from the control of the state, all necessity for such 'machines' would be obviated, and their accompanying corruption would disappear.

"In short, the Socialist party has no intention of abolishing private property, but only seeks to put the public in control of all public utilities.

"It is surprising what a small percentage of the directors of modern industrial corporations are stockholders in the enterprises which they manage," continued Mr. Thomas, "and there is no reason to believe that industry would be managed less efficiently by men on the payrolls of cooperative organizations than by men drawing salaries from private companies."