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