Norman Thomas

Norman Mattoon Thomas (1884—1968) was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.

Norman Thomas in Southern Victory
Norman Mattoon Thomas was a leading American Socialist as well as an ordained Presbyterian minister. Despite his strong pacifistic views--he had fiercely opposed US involvement in the Great War from the first day of that war to the last--he accepted the position of Assistant Secretary of War in President Upton Sinclair's administration when Sinclair led the Socialists into Powell House for the first time.

In 1923, Thomas traveled to Canada to coerce George Custer into submitting his resignation in person. Thomas informed Custer that if he gave it willingly, Sinclair would highly praise him, but if he refused, he would be cashiered. He returned to Philadelphia with Custer's resignation in hand.

Thomas was a leader in President Sinclair's efforts to slash the US Army's operating budget, earning him many enemies among the Army's officer corps, notably Irving Morrell. (It was during an argument with Morrell that both men learned of the death of former President Theodore Roosevelt.) However, he maintained a cordial enough working relationship with Chief of the General Staff Hunter Liggett.

Thomas left office after Sinclair's second term.