It's a Free Country

A surprising number of American boys (& girls) grow up to run for President. In 1952, in addition to Adlai Stevenson and Dwight Eisenhower, there are at least eleven presidential nominees. These eleven are the candidates of the "third parties" --serious, sinister or silly. Among this year's notable third parties:

Progressive. For President, wealthy San Francisco Lawyer Vincent Hallinan, who recently spent five months in jail for contempt of court during the perjury trial of Labor Leader Harry Bridges; for Vice President, Mrs. Charlotta Bass, 62-year-old former publisher of a California Negro newspaper. Candidate Hallinan, whose followers favor immediate disarmament and "cooperation" with Russia, last week asked Harry Truman for the same intelligence briefing given Adlai Stevenson and offered Dwight Eisenhower. He got no answer. Hallinan's predecessor as Progressive candidate in 1948 was Henry A. Wallace, who has repudiated the party as a Communist front.

Socialist. For President, 55-year-old Darlington Hoopes, a Reading, Pa. lawyer; for Vice President, Samuel Friedman, second in command of a New York social workers' union. Hoopes and Friedman hope to get on the ballot in 25 states, plan a nationwide campaign to promote the Socialist gospel.

Socialist Labor. For President, Eric Hass, editor of the party organ, The Weekly People; for Vice President, Stephen Emery, a New York subway dispatcher. Hass, who dismisses British Laborites as "phony Socialists," is plumping for establishment of a "Socialist Industrial Republic" with a legislature based on industrial rather than geographic divisions.

Socialist Workers. For President, Farrell Dobbs, 45, former A.F.L. Teamsters' Union organizer; for Vice President, 35-year-old Mrs. Myra Tanner Weiss, party organizer in Los Angeles. As followers of the late Leon Trotsky, the Socialist Workers are considered fallen angels (or "lousy deviationists") by orthodox Communists. This year the Socialist Workers Party will try to get on the ballot in 20 states, will campaign for immediate U.S. withdrawal from the Korean war.

Prohibition. For President, Stuart Hamblen, cowboy singer, former racehorse owner and "converted alcoholic"; for Vice President, Dr. Enoch Arden Holtwick, retired history professor of Greenville, Ill. The Prohibitionists hope to get on the ballot in 30 states.

Church of God Bible. For President, Bishop Homer A. Tomlinson, general overseer of the Church of God; for Vice President, Bishop Willie I. Bass, North Carolina overseer of the church. Tomlinson and Bass, who favor righteousness and peace, hope to get on the ballot in 30 states, but admit that New York looks like the only sure bet. They plan to stage a five-day peace conference this month at Childersburg, Ala., the feature of which will be the beating of swords into plowshares. From a blacksmith, Bishop Tomlinson recently took lessons in sword-into-plowshare-beating and has been practising the art regularly in his Queens Village, N.Y. home.

America First. For President (without his consent), General Douglas MacArthur; for Vice President (without his consent), Virginia's Senator Harry Byrd. Party Chairman Lar Daly, a Chicago businessman, has requested MacArthur to maintain "a dignified silence," but Party Chaplain E. Douglas MacArthur of Bensenville, Ill. is sure that the general, whom he claims as a second cousin, "is watching our progress with great interest." Progress to date: petition to get on the Illinois ballot rejected because it was submitted without the outside binding required by law.

Christian Nationalist. For President (without his consent), General Douglas MacArthur; for Vice President (without his consent), California State Senator Jack B. Tenney. Blood brother to rabble-rousing Gerald L. K. Smith's antiSemitic, anti-Negro Christian Nationalist Crusade, the Christian Nationalist Party has filed for a place on the Texas and Missouri ballots.

Poor Man's. For President, Henry Krajewski, Secaucus, N. J. pig farmer and tavern owner (TIME, March 17); for Vice President, Frank Jenkins of Rahway, N. J. Krajewski--whose campaign buttons read "For President Krajewski I Like"--has gotten his ticket on only one state ballot (New Jersey).

Greenback. For President, 72-year-old Seattle Grocer Frederick Proehl; for Vice President, Edward J. Bedell, Indianapolis contractor. The Greenbackers, who favor immediate abolition of Government bonds and issuance of paper money unbacked by metal reserves, had 14 Representatives in the Congress of 1878. This year, admits Proehl, they "won't make much of a scratch." Grocer Proehl is not discouraged, however. "The great majority of my customers," said he recently, "feel that it is quite an honor to do business with a presidential candidate."

American. Still a gleam in the eye of Colonel Robert ("Bertie") McCormick. McCormick has been wrestling with his conscience ever since the Republican Party nominated Dwight Eisenhower, whom the colonel considers little better than a New Dealer. Strong factors operating to keep the colonel in the fold were the influence of his wife, who is reconciled to Ike (TIME, Aug. 11, the heritage of his Chicago Tribune, a bulwark of Republicanism since 1856, and family tradition ("My grandfather founded the Republican Party"*). Last week, however, the colonel decided that "I will be imposed upon no longer" and announced that "the time has come to organize . . . the American Party." Though he suggested that the American Party should not nominate a presidential ticket until 1956, the colonel nonetheless had a current battle plan for would-be members. The McCormick plan: Give no support to either Eisenhower ("I Too Ike") or Stevenson ("the nominee of the C.I.O."), but concentrate on voting for such "patriotic candidates" for Congress as Wisconsin's Senator Joe McCarthy, Indiana's Senator William Jenner and Washington's Senator Harry Cain.

Washington Peace. For President, Mrs. Ellen Linea W. Jensen, 50-year-old Miami grandmother and astrologist who claims to be in close communion with George Washington "on the other side"; for Vice President, a man whose identity Mrs. Jensen doesn't feel free to reveal. Candidate Jensen, who says she was a "Himalayan Master" in a previous incarnation, promises to stamp out Communism "within nine minutes" of her inauguration. Though her party is "very loosely organized" and has only "a bare possibility" of getting on the ballot in Texas and Washington, Mrs. Jensen believes she is a shoo-in, since her horoscope is favorable.

American Vegetarian. For President, Brigadier General Herbert C. Holdridge (ret..); for Vice President, Symon Gould, a N.Y. rare-book dealer. The party is firmly pacifist and opposes the slaughter of "any living thing." "We believe," says Gould, "women should be childbearing instead of fur-bearing." The Vegetarians don't want to get on any ballot. "The only good parties are those that don't get on the ballot." says Gould. "If we got into office, we'd probably be like the Republicans and the Democrats. Only thing they have is power. And you know about power. Breeds evil,"

*Colonel McCormick is on somewhat stronger ground here than in his claim that he personally introduced the machine gun into the U.S. Army. The colonel's grandfather, Publisher Joseph Medill, did play an important part in the organization of the Republican Party and is believed to have been the first man to advocate the name "Republican."

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