Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe

Street will be perpetuated, it was announced. Study
classes in the principles of the party are to be
begun. If we polled two million votes Tuesday, we
will be more than satisfied. A party that can poll
that many votes constitutes a force which cannot be
ignored. 149
A week later, Daniel Hungerford and E. Marshall
Bush, of the “resolutions committee” of the Socialist
Party, planned to present a petition to the Common
Council, asking the city to take over the distribution of
milk “to its citizens”. Noting that farmers received five
cents a quart while consumers paid ten, the petition
asked the city to pay farmers “a fair profit” while selling
milk “at purchase price plus cost of distribution,
either as a monopoly or in competition with present distributors.”
150
At a meeting of party members in 1934, Daniel
Hungerford as county chairman of the Socialist Party
was designated as candidate for the post of county welfare
commissioner.
Ever ambitious and optimistic yet cognizant of the
specter of left-wing violence, Hungerford, quoted in the
Elmira Advertiser as the 1935 election approached, said
as “Socialist Party County chairman”, the successful
Socialists would retain city manager Florence J. Sullivan
because he had operated “in an honest and efficient
manner.” Hungerford added that the party would be
pleased to see unemployed Elmirans get jobs “even if
they have to be in a privately-owned factory.”
In criticizing the plan of bringing a new industry
here we have merely tried to point out the insecurities
of private profit system, the dangers involved
therein to organized labor and the vicious circle of
competitive capitalism.
My policy of leadership of the Socialist Party in
Elmira for the past 25 years has been such as to
direct progressive thought and energy along constructive
channels. In keeping with this policy the
Socialist Party has been successful in keeping the
radical vote within its ranks, thus making it unnecessary
for the formation of political groups in this
vicinity that espouse violence and dictatorship. 151
In 1936, despite having been reelected county chairman,
Daniel Hungerford was reported to have abandoned
the Socialist Party in the face of a split in the
organization between an Old Guard and followers of
Norman Thomas. Hungerford reportedly “stood for
reconciliation”. He declined an invitation to join the
Republican Party, adding that to “go along with the
new Socialist Party would involve more time than I can
give. I feel that I can accomplish more in the mechanical
field than in the political field.” 152
Figure 18. This Daniel Hungerford’s photograph ca. 1945 was
used when he ran for Assembly in 1948.
Although Marvin noted three Hungerford brothers
continued “avid and active work on behalf of the
Socialist Party”, in the mid-1930s Daniel Hungerford
left the old organization. William meanwhile ran for
Assembly on the Socialist Party ticket in 1937 receiving
186 votes with Lewis E. Mosher, the American Labor
candidate, getting 49 votes. For 1938, the Assembly
votes from Chemung County reversed popularity as
William Hungerford received 107 votes and American
Labor candidate Harry B. Martin 971 votes. 153
In spite of his promise to focus on inventions, a
decade later politics was on Hungerford’s mind, and in
1948 he ran for the state assembly on the American
Labor Party ticket. His handbill noted he believed “that
the benefits of inventions as well as of all labor should
belong to the people, not the monopolists and will continue
to work toward this end in Albany.”
On November 7, 1948 just after the election,
Hungerford wrote in response to a New York Times editorial
(“Perspectives on the Election”) a six-page letter
in pencil to the editors. Principally, Hungerford pointed
34 Daniel and Floyd Hungerford: Rocket Power, Interstellar Travel and Eternal Life, by Geofrey N. Stein